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Re: Hendrik, you open a huge kettle of works if...
Submitted by Hendrik on 11/Aug/2015 in reply to Hendrik, you open a huge kettle of works if... posted by Oci-One Kanubi on 11/Aug/2015
130.11.35.73
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The ratings are subjective, tho' many now accept AW's attempt at codification. The (perceived) difficulty (for the paddler)in running a technical rapid in a 16-17 ft OC w/ perhaps 2-3" of rocker differs from running the same in a 12' modern OC playboat with even more rocker. This is, in effect, why the large canoes have been virtually abandoned by the hard-core WW community. Corbett states his parameters very clearly in the opening commentary of his book.
Rapids do vary in difficulty (difficulty in running them) depending on the watercraft, but I realize that it would be impractical to offer a series of ratings that depend on the watercraft.
I do not agree that Corbett's ratings are all inflated by 1 class--his class II's, for example, are still II's and many of his III's are still III's. By claiming that everything is overrated by 1 class, we would then have to accept that his class I's are not rapids at all. The II's and III's are the rapids, and the difficulty ranges, for which the large canoes were well suited and I feel that his ratings still hold* for these (especially since I still use such canoes). But for yet harder rapids--what many would today call III+ and above--he tended to give them ratings of IV and V, and I would agree with you that many of these likely would need to come down a grade in the context of the current crop of paddlers' skills in the typical boats now in common use.
*There are examples, such as Cedar Creek above Stevens Fort, where the main rapids (artificial rapids made of junked cars)--which were rated class II or low III (if memory serves)have simply vanished--they now are just Class I small wave trains. I don't think Roger adjusted his ratings downwards on this section, even though, when we ran the section together in a blizzard many years ago, he was himself puzzled as to what had happened to the rapids!
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