Chiff and Fipple Forums

daveboling wrote:If you look at the design they've developed (especially in the second picture), the original circular cross-section of the drop tank has been widened to a flattened oval using spreaders in a similar way that western canoes utilize them.

Why, yes! So it is. And that explains that.

A side product to the spreader bar is it provides some rocker and some added maneuverability.

s1m0n wrote:
My grandfather, who emigrated from Scotland to practice psychiatry in Newfoundland in the 50s, used to tell a story of a colleague struggling to take a medical history from an elderly patient in a remote outport.
"Have you ever had any episodes of serious illness, Mrs Tobin?"
"Eppy what?"
"I mean have you ever been bedridden, Mrs Tobin?"
"Bedridden? Yeessss. But more often in a dory.."

There's always another version of tales like these. The one I know involved an elderly woman being interviewed by a newspaper reporter.
"And I've never been sick a day in my life," she told the reporter.
"You mean to say you've never been bedridden?" he asked.
"Of course I have, young man, and table-ended too, but don't put that in your article!"

In an effort to include something boat-related I'll say that we all have to paddle our own canoe.