What is initial and secondary stability?
Initial (or primary) stability is how hard the craft resists being tipped from the upright position. If you are looking at a graph of stability (see the XL review’s stability graphs or any recent issue of Sea Kayaker magazine) the steepness of the angle off of zero is an indication of the primary stability. Secondary stability is a lot harder to define. Most experienced kayakers will tell you they know it when they feel it (sort of a seat-of-the-pants thing). One designer used to claim there is no such thing as secondary stability and any kayak that is more stable initially will be more stable at all angles of lean. I’m not sure he still claims this because I once showed him some stability graphs (Chinook and Puffin in the Winter 1986 issue of Sea Kayaker magazine) where the less initially stable kayak, the Puffin, had not only higher relative stability at higher angles of lean than the Chinook but also a higher maximum stability and a greater total area under the curve). Personally, I
