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Boat of the Week - Hydra Duet
Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 11:48 am
by Sir Adam
As there has been some recent discussion about this
boat, I'll post it up this
week.
For those
of us that have paddled a nice glass slalom C2,
the Duet is an absolute pig. BUT LOTS
of fun has been had in these boats over
the years, and with
the number
of them still going strong after all these years I suspect that will continue.
Of all
the plastic boats from
the 80's I think I know
of more
of these still around than anything else (certainly Sage's!). Great for taking inexperienced paddlers and kids down easy WW for an intro, and as you can see in
the images we already have more challenging water has been run too.
https://www.cboats.net/c_db/list.php?ty ... &name=Duet" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Re: Boat of the Week - Hydra Duet
Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 2:25 pm
by PAC
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7967669" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Fun
boat to get newbies out...
Re: Boat of the Week - Hydra Duet
Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 6:28 pm
by clt_capt
The Duet certainly didn't handle like a good slalom C2, but it certainly handled better than a berrigan end-hole C2
It was pretty stable, and was very solid for taking an inexperienced paddler down
the river. It really came down to how well you outfitted your
boat -
the stock outfitting was pretty poor.
Re: Boat of the Week - Hydra Duet
Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 8:57 pm
by ezwater
We'll have to get
the Centaur in sometime soon!
Re: Boat of the Week - Hydra Duet
Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 8:53 pm
by icyone
Hydra duet: Remembered as a classic boat for bro's to take landlubber chicks out riding on the riv.....
Re: Boat of the Week - Hydra Duet
Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:31 am
by Jim Michaud
I absolutely love
the Duet. I've taken 29 different ladies down
the Dryway in one, most
of who never paddled anything over class II or anything at all. I've also paddled it down
the Upper Gauley, Upper Yough, Grand Canyon and countless other rivers and creeks. I've got two
of them in my cellar all set to go but it's getting harder and harder to find a C-
boat paddler that wants to paddle one. You can call it a pig
boat all you want but I'll just smile.
I call it a
boat that can be bashed around and is very stable and forgiving. I sure wish that I still had a good C-2 partner that likes to paddle class IV.
Re: Boat of the Week - Hydra Duet
Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 3:01 am
by Bruce Farrenkopf
You could count me in as a C2 partner, Jim, IF I still lived in
the Northeast. I would really enjoy Class 4 in
the Duet. I should have taken your crazy offer to run C-3 in my Duet on
the Tohickon (my Duet is a 3-holer) many years ago
. I completely agree with Jim's assessment
of the Duet's merits.
A little story illustrates
the attributes
of the Duet: My wife Paula and I were paddling our Duet down
the Hudson Gorge from Indian Creek access. We got to
the Narrows and everyone is going left, I suggested to my bowman to go right. We ended up punching three BIG holes in rapid succession - just squeaking out
of the third hole.
The Duet was stable, predictable, comfortable and could PUNCH HOLES!
The boat allowed Paula and I to paddle together in Class 4 with only minor trauma
.