outrage with wood gunnels

[ELGOTTO]

Can someone shed a little light on the changing shape of the outrage with wood gunnels. I have seen some boats with quite a bit of flair in the bow and others like the one I have are very sharp pointed in the bow. The latest catalog they have shows the flair in the bow but a recent brand new boat I saw at a dealer was like my 1997 model. What's up with that?

[Mikey B]

Yes, on the original wooden railed boats, they steam bent the very ends to give the flare. But I guess it was more economical to use off the shelf smaller deck plates from multiple models, so the steam bending stopped
Maybe someone still has one of the originals to get dimensions from? Or you can just guestimate

[yarnellboat]

On the originals, about one blade-length in from the tip, the hull was about one blade-length wide.

Pat.

[Lengthy]

I'm on my second outrage. I got the first one when they first came out, the first one I ever saw. It had wood rails and was pointy. I got my current one a few years ago, maybe four or five. It has wood rails also but has much more flare. The vinyl rail boats look more like my old one. If I would've known that when I got it I would own a vinyl rail boat. I liked the pointy boat much better, no comparison. The newer boat is completly different because of the fat ends. It does nothing better and some things worse.

[yarnellboat]

I find the flared ones are a drier ride and surf better; basically, the less-pointy ends don't dig in as hard.

Interesting, I didn't know that there ever were pointy ones in wood.

Pat.

[ELGOTTO]

I have had two Outrages. A 2001 model with vinyl gunnels and my 1997 model with wood. They are both pointed pretty sharp in the bow and look to be shaped identical. The ones I have seen with the flaired bow look like they have a bit more rocker and I would think they would be a drier ride. The ones I have seen with the flaired bows were the newer models probably 2000 or later. I have seen one at a dealer and another for sale on this site that were new but didn't have the flair. I just wondered why the manufacturer would switch back and forth and is there a real advantage of one over the other.

[TommyC1]

The story I heard was that the flair was the original design and that Mr Foster raised holy heck with Mad River for making the pointy boat. I have a pointy vinyl gunneled boat (cracked ) and had a flared wood gunneled boat. The pointy boat is faster the flared boat drier.
IMO either is still the best OC1 ever. Shows ya what I know

[ELGOTTO]

I believe you are right about the original design. I have Tom Foster's video and he paddles the original prototype in one of the early segments of the video and you can definitely see the extra flair in the bow. It still just seems strange to me that they seem to continue to switch back and forth on weather to put it in the new wood gunnel boats. Someone mentioned they used to steam and pre bend the wood. I wonder how that's done and how much of an exact science that is?

[mahyongg]

Hey Guys,

just to confuse the whole discussion a little, my spark I bought used just recently had its thwarts mounted in the wrong way.. so the bow thwart that pushes the gunnels out by 2 inches or so was mounted in the stern, and vice versa- making a funny looking boat. I dindt paddle it in that condition though, just switched the two and wondered if the previous owner may have sold it due to a lack of dryness.. next time I talk to him I'll try to find out. Just a hint as to how some boats supposed to be flared might end up being pointy.. or vice versa. I guess btw. that the boat was dealer outfitted and the dealer just had no clue where to put the thwarts. Its quite hard to push the hull out to fit in the front thwart of a spark..

;D

cheers,

Jan
--
(waiting for the snow to melt and end up in its true destination.. its white, its water, but it just aint right yet!)