The new sled

Hi. Ben and Rachel were able to use the new sled while training since we have been home. Rachel likes it allot and Ben says it is okay. That is a good thing. It really is a different sled. I was talking to the makers of the sled via e-mail. I was voicing my opinion in that sled being popular in the north. Danler is a widely popular sled maker. These sleds are on everyone's truck. They are nice sleds. The sled bags are formed from the front of the sled to the back. It makes the sled very aerodynamic. Or should I say it looks very aerodynamic. I bet that this in part is a reason that Danler does so well selling sleds. The sled bag comes around in front of the driver and you can crouch down and hide from the wind behind the sled bag. Other sled bags are held on with velcro and are pretty much a bag added to the sled where as the Danler has the bag and sled integrated together nicely. The sled looks fast standing still. You also pay premium for this sled. The k-2 has a semi integrated sled bag. It hangs down from the handle bars and slops to the front. the rear of the bag does not hold a shape at the back in a way in which you could get out of the wind behind it. It is a pretty good bag, not looking near as aerodynamic as the Danler Sled.
I do think that there would be a aerodynamic factor in longer races. Or races that have many miles of strong head winds. It has to make a difference on how hard the musher is to pull on the sled. SO is it a factor in time. Yes. How much is the thing that I cannot say for sure.
Handling has a huge factor on times in a dog race as well. The k-2 has a ski made by sled dog systems. The skis lean/tips very good when the sled handle bars are racked/bent into a corner. This is good to a certain point. when they tip on edge the ski will hold the sled from sliding out in a corner.sliding in corners bleeds alot of speed off of the dog team. SO don't slide right. The down side is when the runners/skis on the sled tip too much your feet are actually on top of the edge of the ski so there is a limit to the angle of attack you can use while turning. Also when you tip a ski you have less surface area of slider on the snow. Theory is this can reduce glide and speed from your runners. It puts more weight onto less surface area of sliding surface thus reducing glide. YOu need a happy medium.
The weight of the sled is also a factor. Two ways to look at this as well. Being young and very light like Ben and Rachel can pose it's difficulties with driving a sled with a fast team in and out of corners. IF the sled is too light it will skip over the snow on the corner. The edge will not hold on the corner because there is no weight on top of the edge. Too much weight and you are giving your competition a huge advantage.
There is also a very waxable surface on the ski. This is a different surface than on other sleds and I think It may be a better medium to wax. I hope it will hold the wax better as well. TIme will tell with this.
The k-2 is a happy medium with some fine tuning available to us in way of ski differences in spring tension. Another factor to fast sleds. This sled is not heavey . IT steers well with skis that tip well and are very controlable.
I like what I see in the sled but the times will tell as well. We will be going back to Anchorage for the Junior World Championships. This the same race trail that they races earlier. IT will be interesting what the times say. Although there are too many factors to say one way or another about the speed of the sled I bet it won't be slower.
Rachel and Ben trained four teams of six dogs. The dogs looked super and are really happy!! They are very happy and fit. This is the main thing. We really enjoy it when the dogs are this happy. You cannot hold back a team that is this happy. I guess the trick is to keep them like this right up until race days.