I won't do any quotes here because this will go all over the place as I try to write this as it comes to me.
I think DY put straight keels on the Loon and the Heron because Freestyle was not yet a big deal. This was in the early 90's. Also he was still designing for Sawyer and they liked those straight keel boats. A lot of their boats were Jensen designs I think. Bill. of course, was interested in tripping boats not Freestyle so preferred straight tracking to maneuverability.
Incidentally it is Bill Junior not Senior. Bill Senior started AO and died a while back.
Mike Galt and Pat Moore were good friends at one time and even lived together once. They had design philosophy arguments and differed on the direction Freestyle should take. Both had huge egos and thought they should be the founding fathers of Freestyle (my take on it and not authoritative). Eventually they went their separate ways. It was quite bitter as I recall.
I recall Harry Roberts, Mike and I watching Pat Moore racing one of his boats in a slalom race. As he rounded a buoy he came within a fraction of an inch of capsizing and pulled off s truly remarkable recovery. The crowd was very appreciative of that display of skill. I said that is the kind of thing that will help freestyle grow. Mike snorted that there was nothing elegant (his favorite word) about it and freestyle was about elegance not racing.
I think Pat had more paddling skills but lacked Mike's forceful personality.
I found it hard to like Mike and Pat. Both seemed to think they were infallible. I remember a long running argument Pat and I had about whether paddles moved in the water. He simply refused to see the evidence because he had printed a long treatise on how paddles did not move and apparently did not want to admit error. He and Mike just stopped talking to each other. In those days I was just getting started in canoe design so spent a lot of time listening. You would not believe some of the stories I heard.
Charlie Wilson is probably the best source of stories from the early days of Freestyle.
The meeting in BWCA was written up in Canoeing Magazine. I have been told it is less than accurate. The Meeting in South Carolina was written up in Canoesport Journal. I was at that one and the Bar-B-Que was better than the discussions.
I met DY at Canoecopia in Illinois. He and I sat up on a hill and watched the boats. I had a great time. DY is an intuitive designer who learns from trial and error. I am a science based designer who likes to have a concrete reason for everything. Nevertheless, we got along fine and still do. Once you understand that he does not approach things in an objective manner his reasoning begins to make sense.
Actually Vulture might be a good name.
Blair, the Osprey was designed to suit my paddling style and objectives. I paddle in a wide variety of conditions including the Great Lakes, streams, small lakes, white water and flat. Because I paddle for the ambiance I did not want a boat that was necessarily fast but it had to do a lot of stuff reasonably well (by my standards) if not perfectly. I did not want to have to own more than one solo boat. I am 6'3" and weigh 200 pounds but travel light so that determined the size. I also paddle on one side 90% of the time so I had to be able to lean it a bit for easy paddling. It had to have enough freeboard not to need a spray cover and, because I have reasonable skills I did not need great tracking since I could easily keep the boat on course. In other words it is my boat and it amazes me that anyone else likes it. Most people don't. One skilled paddler told me it was the worst #%^T&%*% canoe ever designed. He may be right.
The rocker business we have discussed before. I tried to get Canoe magazine and Canoesport Journal to standardize the measurement method but got nowhere. Its a shame because most measure it at some point from the ends of the boat which means that, depending on overhangs, two boats with identical underwater shapes can have different rocker. It would be nice if there was a uniform method measured from some point on the underwater hull. Ideally builders would publish the profile coefficient (area of the underwater profile divided by a rectangle having the boat's waterline length and depth.) but that is even more work.
I suggested the rocker measured one foot from the waterline endings when the boat was properly loaded but that was also too much work for the builders so the idea went nowhere. As a result my boats (measured one foot from the waterline ending) have less rocker than they would if I measured from the stem ends. Out of spite I should start publishing the profile coefficient to see how people respond.
I am stubborn that way.
