There are a lot of different kinds of racing kayaks, but almost all have the characteristic of being fast. There are several things that contribute to speed. You will often here about "hull speed" in relation to boat speed. This term is a misnomer in that it implies that there is a speed a hull will go. What it really indicates is the speed at which the hull starts to become rapidly more inefficient.
What hull speed suggests is that longer boats can go faster than shorter boats. This does not mean that they are automatically faster, just that a longer boat starts losing efficiency at a higher speed than a short boat.
