Zephyr

[MotorCityOC-1]

Yes, what is the mystery adhesive that works with TwinTex?

Bulkheads are heavy, and if I have one, my friends can't try the boat (unless they have the misfortune to be shaped like me.)

[billcanoes]

We have found a glue that sticks to the Twintex it is : 3M
DP805

This is the product Esquif says they are using.

[fez]

in my case simple (german) contact cement worked great for gluing the minicell outfitting

Greetings Frank

[billcanoes]

Scott-

I heard you had given up paddling.- I'm in the same boat.

David,

If I could leave work at 2 one day do you think we could get on the lower green-the way I look at it is even if its dark it would be ok.

Bill

[ncdavid]

Shawn, your outfitting looks great. You and I have similar body types. Well, 10 years ago before Budweiser took over my abdomen, that is. Though I'm a few inches shorter than you, my legs are long enough that I can't get all the way into the saddle. I'm still debating between cutting the back of the saddle or opening up the bulkhead a bit. I'll be taking a shaping tool and some dragonskin to the water with me the first few times.

Bill, maybe Friday afternoon. Don't know about the LG. It is under 97 ft at the dam and they are releasing at 60% for 24 hrs. Not much precipitation in the forecast until Thursday and Friday. Maybe Foster Falls as a back-up?

Everybody, squeekyknee makes some beautiful t-grips from various hardwoods. And the coolest open boater foamie ever.

[mshelton]

I wonder if Esquif could make a Taureau out of this new material, being composite I assume "seaming" it would be easier.

[Sandie_]

it looks a very sexy boat. I so want one.
but should I sell my lovely new ocoee?

Arrgggg!

I'll be good and wait. I do love my ocoee, even with the soft royalex. if the zephers are good they will live long enough to be available second hand in good condition.

to do it right I would have to get all black paddling gear too.
and black air bags.

sandie

[ClassFive Boatworks]

Hello.. Just a word on the Twin-Tex material. We looked into it . Its made by Saint-Gobain Vetrotex .. Its simply pre-preg fiberglass or carbon fiber cloth ( no kevlar according to them ) with Polypropylene resin attached as a powder. .. As with many prepreg's, its heated in the mold in an oven to make the resin liquify. I chatted with the tech guys a lot and the polypro resin is almost as tough as epoxy , but a lot cheaper and it has no oder . The molds have to be able to withstand the oven temps with out deforming ( difficult) . Dagger made a few boats using twin-tex but decided it was to labor intensive. As far as i could see, its a diffrent twist on an old theme.. Composite boat's with high quality resin systems.. According to Vetrotex, Twin-tex's desirability is its cost. Boats can be made cheaper as compared to epoxy based boats. As for toughness, According to their head engineer, its about the same as a well made muli-layer epoxy/kevlar/glass boat of equal thickness and quality of materials used.

[Rumplestiltskin]

Thanks for the details on TwinTex in non-technical terms. As Walbridge said years ago, liberal arts majors need all the help we can get to understand how to build whitewater boats!

So TwinTex gives you a boat with strength properties equivalent to a good epoxy composite, but requires an oven-proof mold to shape the material?

Since labor is the biggest expense in building a commercial composite boat, doesn't cutting material costs yield only a marginal price reduction to the consumer? Even at today's prices, it is very hard to use as much as $250-$300 worth of epoxy resin to build a C-1!

For those that build their own boat using "donated" labor, having to obtain/build an electrically wired (or an oven-proof) mold to save less than a hundred dollars in material costs per boat is not likely to be an attractive alternative. Finding (or constructing) an oven to bake boats is even more problematic. (Perhaps Sir Adam's kitchen might be available!)

For material cost reductions, I still like the basic synthetic/glass composite boat hand laid up using readily available epoxy resins. Yeah, it is old school...but such boats are easy to construct, need few special skills, tools or equipment, and can take plenty of beatings before it needs some very cheap and easy repairs.

[squeakyknee]

Yes,the bulkhead and saddle are 1 pc. and they were glue in by Esquif.Not sure what they used to glue it,some sort of 3M product.
The bulkhead is pinned under the twart,but I added more foam at the sides to secure it better.
All of the foam that I've put in has been with contact cement.It seems to adhere as well as it does to the inside of my Royalex boats.
The pump is held in under shock cord between the stern bag loops.(farther to my onside for solid bracing while it's doin it's thing.
The battery box is strapped into the back of the saddle.
I'll break out the tape measure this evening for anyone who cares.
Adam,I'll try to get some better pics if you want for the board.
Shawn

[Sir Adam]

A few images would be great...the Outfitting section needs work these days, as we know!

[bearboater]

sorry to pry ,but what is/was the price of the zephyr? im with out an open boat, and the zephyr is getting more and more attractive.
cheers
i hope to paddle for a while on wednesday. it will be exciting, but it started to snow again. :-?
-isaac

[squeakyknee]

I believe they are retailing for around $1350

[Randy Dodson]

$1350.....outfitted?

[billcanoes]

$1350 is the outfitted price, MSRP by Esquif. includes the bulkhead installed and lacing, or a pedestal and thigh straps. I saw NOC had a few pedestal systems being sent to them.

Bill