Has anyone paddled the Prelude?

[Anna]

Hi there,
Just wondering people's thoughts on the Pyranha Prelude. Is it a horribly difficult boat to paddle? Any thoughts on the outfitting?
Anna

[the great gonzo]

Hi Anna,

Yes I have paddled a Prelude, in fact I liked it so much that I bought it the day after test paddling it.
It is still my favorite open boat.
Extremely maneuvrable, good speed for such a short boat, surfs well, is fairly dry, easy to roll and still fairly stable when full of water.
It has excellent secondary stability (i.e. when on edge). The only real point of criticism is that it has not much primary stability, i.e. it feels tippy when you first get in, it always wants to be on edge.
This is more accentuated the havier the paddler. I for one am 6'1" and weigh about 180-185 lbs and never had a problem with the lack of primary stablility, while a friend of mine who is about 6'6" and weighs about 220 lbs fund it too tippy. I thinks it works better for smaller and lighter people.

It is an excellent boat, it may not be the ideal first open boat, but if you have paddled solo open boats before, you should have no problem paddling it.

I for one like the bulk head outfitting better than straps, it is way easier to get in and ouf of and, if fitted proprly to your body, holds you just as well as a strap outfitting. The only drawback in my opinion is thata bulkhead outfitting is not as flexible as a strap outfitting, i.e. a 200 lb paddler will not properly fit into a boat that is customized for a 120 lb paddler.

martin

ps: I don't know where you live, but if you live near Toronto, you are wecome to try out mine.

[Paolo]

Hi Anna, I have a Prelude and I like it.
Maybe cause i'm a light paddler i don't feel too tippy in it, even if it has not a great primary stability.
Anyway there are a lot of post in the archive on this boat; look for it.
Cheers
Paolo

[bathtuboy]

Would agree with the above. I also paddle the prelude and think it is a great boat. The lack of primary stability does initially feel very odd, but you get used to it ver quickly.
I have a preference for straps, though that may be down to my dislike of foot pegs.
If you are going to be paddling long flat stretches the boat is not great.

Jon

[Martyn]

People I know have a love/hate relationship with the Prelude. I love it. I'm not sure what you were paddling before but here are some of my friends thoughts on the boat who didn't like it. One guy who paddles a Quake doesn't like the Prelude because it is a lot narrower than the Quake and doesn't have the same primary stability. People who paddle Rivals or other long boats find the Prelude slow. Phantom paddlers have tripped over the lack of primary stability.

I like the Prelude as my favorite runs are low volume and creeky. The Prelude hull is a lot more durable than Royalex. The fact that the Prelude looks like a canoe (the ends are higher than the middle) means it tends to punch holes that swallowed my Skeeter. I really like the bulkhead style outfitting as you can get in and out quickly.

The boat is a bit heavier than a comparable Royalex boat as there is more foam in the outfitting and a heavier hull. I'm not sure where you are located but it looks like the outfitters at Old Forge near the Moose have Preludes in their rental fleets.

Martyn

[sean]

I didn't like the prelude at all. I think two things added to this. First the outfitting was set up for the person who was paddling it, and was very difficult to feel connected to the boat. Second it has no primary stability. It seemed sorta hard to roll. In fact this is the only boat I've punched out of ever on a river. Probably because of the outfitting not set up for me. That said this boat has it's uses. If you are doing boney creeky stuff, you can't beat the material. This is definetly a boat you need to paddle before you buy.

[the great gonzo]

I have to agree with sean, if the bulkhead outfitting is not set up for your body type, it is a miserable boat to paddle.

As far as being difficult to roll is concerned, the key is in my opinion to make a hole into the saddle to allow easy passage for water from side to side. since the saddle goes from air bag to air bag, it tends to seal off the two sides of the boat, so when rolled up , you have way more water on one side than on the other and it is very slow to equalize, which makes things really hard.
I drilled a 3.5" hole across the saddle near the bottom and glued a piece of plastic tube in there, this made all the difference.

It is, in my opinion not only great on low volume creeks, I for one also prefer it over the Rival I previously paddled for running big water. It is fairly dry, and due to the little volume for water it remains very stable and maneuvrable even when full of water.
The only problem really on big water, when compared to a boat like the Rival are ferries, since it is slower and does not hold angles quite as well.

Ultimately it is a question of personal preference and paddling style.

martin

[chuck naill]

Martin
How did you make the holes in the foam?
Did you use pvc pipe?

Say it made a real differance??? I have a Spanish Fly that I find hard to roll consistantly. I have not dished out the foam much because I feel comfortable the way it is.

Any advise appreciated

Chuck

[the great gonzo]

Chuck,

Very simple, since the saddleand bulkhead assembly were, although glued together, not yet glued into the hull, I removed the thwarts and took the whole saddle-bulkhead assembly out.
I got a 3 1/2" holesaw from work and started drilling.
As the holesaw is usually not deep enough , you have to do it in steps, drilling and then carving the center out and so on.
If you can't take the saddle out of your boat , try to borrow an angle drill to have easier access to the saddle for drilling.
I drilled one hole about 1 inch from the bottom and front to back about in the center of the saddle of the saddle. The PVC pipe is probably not really necesary, but I figured the saddle-bulkhead assembly adds to the stiffness of the hull, so I wanted to keep the stiffness of the saddle as high as possible. And that piece of scrap tubing was just sitting in a corner at work .

It makes a big difference. Before the saddle was damming the water after a roll, i had virtually no water on one side and on the other one it was coming right up to the saddleand the boat was heeling over to one side like crazy , which did not help staying upright . It took forever to equalize the level between the sides.
Since I put the hole in, the water is equalizing instantly and my roll is way more consistant.

Other than that I have not carved any foam at all because the outfitting fit me really well the way it was set up when I got it.

hope this helps

martin

[bathtuboy]

I also put holes in the foam, but I used 2" pvc pipe to cut out the hole. If you cut the pipe with a reasonably coarse saw blade the pipe will saw through the plastic quite efficiently, and you can do this while the seat is glued in place.

Jon Lovell

[chuck naill]

Bathtub boy and Martin,
Thanks for the replies on drilling holes. I have a hole saw . I would just want to make sure I was going straight across. I could probably use somthing initally as a guide since my saddle is already glued in.

[Olivier]

Dear Anna

I always was a 100% kayakker (creeking + rodeo) but a few years ago I got interested in an OC1. I dreamt about it for a year or so and last year I just bought one. My only C-experience was 30 minutes in a Nitro in a pool, so the first days in my Prelude were hades. Especially because I really didn’t expect such a lack of primary stability and of course my general lack of C-paddling experience. Anyway after only a few more days training and a lot of swims + a good tuning of the saddle, I’m super comfy in it and very stable.

I have chosen the Prelude because it’s cheaper in Europe than eg a totally outfitted Dagger or Esquif and because it’s in PE. The first reason was of course that I knew from other boaters and reviews that it is a good boat.

Dear Chuck, …

You really don’t need an angle drill. I made a hole with a little piece of carbon/aramid shaft (Lendal HPS) of a broken polo paddle. A freshly cutted shaft is so sharp that you only have to turn the piece with your hand to make a hole. The piece must of course be a little longer than the bulkhead, so you can still hold it in your hand. Afterwards, you just cut it to the right length and replace it. I even didn’t have to glue it because the hole was so perfect.

The main reason why I made the hole was for putting a strap through, so I can tighten myself with ‘quick release belts’. This system is mostly used by Spanish Fly users for rodeo. The combination of bulkhead and straps works perfectly for me. Since I have the straps I can roll easily.

Dear Paolo

How do you do Paolo? Have you done some interesting rivers with your Prelude since we met each other last summer? As you can read, I really enjoy my prelude. I still have problems with ‘overboard paddling’, but it’s getting better and better. My roll is almost bombproof with the straps; unfortunately it is still a ‘power – no technique’-roll. Are you going to Corsica again this year? I will probably go at Easter (9-18 April); I would really enjoy running some rivers with you again.


Have luck
Olivier (from Belgium)

[chuck naill]

oliver, thanks
So SF rodeo have thigh straps. I figured that there had to be something at work beside the bulkhead. I have both in my converted GTX

[NZMatt]

I had a similar problem with the saddle in my Esquif Detonator damming the water and making roll recovery quite difficult. My saddle was already glued in and I took a slightly lower-tech solution - I simply carved an arch (~2+ high at the top and 6-8" long (can't remember the exact dimensions) out at the very base of the saddle using a wall board saw. I've since read that doing it where the saddle joins the hull may be a problem as it reduces the area of glue contact between the saddle and the hull, but I haven't had any problems as of it (a year later). Definitely helped the handling of the boat with a load of water aboard.

[the great gonzo]

Hi Olivier,

Do you have a picture of your thigh strap setup in your Prelude? Where and how did you attach it to the upper anchorage points to the hull?

Thanks

martin