Description:
Designed for the '96 Olympics. Jon Lugbill had a deal with Dagger, Davey Hearn with Perception
User Comment:
From the Cforum (Davem): Zealot: People have a love hate relationship w/ this boat. It is a bow forward boat designed by Jon Lugbill for '96 Olympics that must be paddled from the bow. The stern is very narrow and as such sinks on command. The first hanfull of Zealots were molded with too much flip in the stern which killed straight line speed, the mold was altered to correct this defect. If you do not bow paddle this boat, the bow will pop up during eddy turns etc.Special thanks to Gary DeBacher for the above image and commentary! Enclosed are three shots of the original, first-out-of-the-mold, high-rocker Zealot. Here is some history. At the '96 US trials, I saw a red c-1 sitting on the other side of the Ocoee with a for sale sign. I squinted through binoculars until I was able to discern that Adam Clawson was the seller. I wrote him through NOC and he replied, saying this was the first Zealot out of the mold, and had more rocker than subsequent Zealots, because design partner Jon Lugbill straightened the tail of his #2 Zealot to gain more speed. They found that straightening made the boat about 3% faster, so the mold was changed, and all subsequent Zealots were straightened. Adam wrote that he thought the boat would carry my 200+ pound weight, and he said it spun and surfed easier than the later Zealots. "So," he wrote, "If you don't mind being 3% slower than Jon Lugbill, this may be the boat for you!" So I bought the boat and realized my dream of owning and paddling a racing boat. My own impression of my Zealot is that the tail does not submerge or catch easily, the boat is fairly forgiving, accelerates well, and loves to front-surf fast waves. But then, the only other race boat I have paddled was a Maverick. Others who have tried this boat, and compared it to race boats they paddled, have loved it. The pictures show that the boat does carry weight well. It is cab-forward, but less so than my old Phoenix Seewun. It has firm initial stability and good final stability. The hull layup is S-glass outside, carbon inside, and the boat is very rigid.
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