C-Forum

Personally, I paddle a Dagger Phantom which is a good boat. I have paddled a Zepher and liked it. But its hardly revolutionary. Just something new with a lot of buzz around it , like any new boat.
I do hope the new material works out.

Personally, I paddle in a revolutionary manner - scarcely a trip goes by that I don't roll or spin out of control

Half a dozen new kayaks probably came out while I was logging on. When a new cboat turns up, I'm always interested. Alot of the earlier designs that were pretty good (like the Fantim) aren't even being made anymore. I think it is great that Esquif is putting the effort into new boat designs even if everyone doesn't think they are all "revolutionary". Some folks just keep recycling the old standbys, some are great boats but hardly revolutionary?

LEW

kx250guy wrote:Personally, I paddle a Dagger Phantom which is a good boat. I have paddled a Zepher and liked it. But its hardly revolutionary. Just something new with a lot of buzz around it , like any new boat.
I do hope the new material works out.

While I don't think that the design of the Zephyr is revolutionary, the material it's made of certainly is and definitely warrants the attention the boat gets, particularly if it lives up to the expectations. I
It may well replace royalex down the road.

martin a.k.a. the great gonzo!

Well, after paddling with Squeakyknee for a couple of days and seeing what he has been doing in his Zephyr, I'd say the material has very good potential! I'm sure it had more to do with the boater than the boat, but he made it look like a pretty darn good design too!!
I only spent a few minutes in his Zephyr each day, but considering where I went with it, it was enough to know I liked it. And the gunnels seem tough enough too!! They showed no signs of damage after I flipped in that hole on the Potomic and bashed the left one with my cheek.

a good boat. I had one, and hated it. Can't wait to try out the Zeph. If it's anything like the Ocoee, it'll be my next OC.

Later,
Phil

I like what I have read in this post about this boat. If you do encounter a hull problem, how would you repair it? Has anyone had to put on skid plates, due to stem damage?

From the Esquif website, I see that the boat weights 32lbs. Wow, that is light. I wonder how much lighter with wood gunwales?

Al,

From some previous posts it seems that the newer version of the zephyr (after first round of 32 #'s develped a few pinhole problems or whatever) come out to be 36-38 #'s. Still pretty light for what folks are saying is a fairly rugged boat. Feedback is that it is pretty high performance, faster, but not as edgy as occoee. Sounds like it could be a nice boat for the kind of paddling you are doing. But I do wonder if it will have similar durability problems to the Bell you have been fighting with. You guys go pretty hard. I guess one of you will have to become the local guinea pig for the Zephyr.

Have a good rest of the summer
dana

Hi,

I had an opportunity to paddle a Zephyr yesterday. I think the boat had been used for a while as a demo boat is some shallow water. There were some scuff marks on the hull but nothing deep enough to call a scratch. As it wasn't my boat, I didn't try any moves that involved purposely hitting rocks hard (that's what a polyethelene boat is for, right?) My sense is that the Twintex is intermadiate to Royalex and poly for durability. I may be wrong and it may be as strong as poly. The thing I really felt made the Twintex great is that it is light and stiff. The Zephyr has some really nice hull speed. Its stable, which I liked. It meant I could concentrate of forward strokes instead of boat balance. I don't think the hull design is revolutionary. It is still pointed at the ends and you sit in the middle. If I was in the market for an open boat, I'd definitely check it out. I think it would be great for teaching from and seems like it would handle big water really well. I don't know how it would work as a creeker as it seems a bit too long to me.

Kudos to Jaques and the guys at Esquif for giving us some more choice in the open boat world.

Martyn

[quote="Martyn"]Hi,

I think the boat had been used for a while as a demo boat is some shallow water. There were some scuff marks on the hull but nothing deep enough to call a scratch. [quote="Martyn"]
Pictures of wear on my Zephyr: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/scalex/al ... /my_photos
This boat has about 65 days on it and has taken some hard hits.
Most of it just looks "scuffed" like you said. Even the hardest of hits have been shrugged with minimal "scuffing"
I believe that the glass weave allows it to deflect and disperse the blow alot better than either material.
I tried the scarry ferry yesterday twice and miss it. The result being flushed across a barely submerged piece of rough granite with a rock spin recovery(yeah,I uh meant to do that)
Nothing on the bottom to really show for it. Sweet sweet stuff .

Video was wonderfull to watch Shawn!
Going through Double Trouble was a blast through the meat of the rapid. I did take on water, but the boat was very stable. Tablesaw was also fun in this boat. It maintains great hullspeed allowing you to adjust in big water with forward or stern strokes. I even went through the top hole on the right side. For non-Southeastern paddlers these rapids have huge waves/holes with very pushy water.
I did take some hits on rocks, and the material just shows superficial scratches. no deep guages.
What I haven't adjusted to is the need to lean forward after boofing to avoid hitting the stern on the ledge.
One other observation is with the pronounced tumblehome I took on much less water than what would have happened in the Ocoee canoe.

I paddle a Phantom now, but paddled an Ocoee for 2 yrs prior. After having paddled the Zepher for a 1/2 day on the ocoee this year heres my imperssions. The Zepher is somewhat drier in straight on paddling, Hull speed is pretty close , Ocoee carves better due to its longer/continious edge at the waterline. Zepher is stiffer and works the water well. The Ocoee I think can be paddled drier than the Zepher with a skilled paddler and if eddy hopping is your bag, like in more technical creeks for instance. Both are great boats.

billcanoes wrote:the weldwood has held for the knee pads- one airbag tie down has failed on mine/demo so far- I'm going to try weldwood to the hull and vynabond to the tiedown- (monday next week I hope) but worse case scenario I'll lash not using vinyl anchors like David has his set up-

I noticed one of my tiedowns starting to come up. When you say lash it down not using vinyl anchors are you talking about leaving the end open and tie the bag in so it will not pop out or are you talking about lashing the ends differently.

Also how is the weldwood/vynabond holding up?

Thanks!

Currently, the cord is just tied to the peg support-

I'm embarassed to admit I haven't tried the Weldwood to vynabond yet - we're in a drought- so there is only one creek I've paddled the last 4-5 weeks and the Zephyr couldnt make it down right now.


Bill

billcanoes wrote:I'm embarassed to admit I haven't tried the Weldwood to vynabond yet - we're in a drought- so there is only one creek I've paddled the last 4-5 weeks and the Zephyr couldnt make it down right now.


Bill

I understand that. I'm heading to the Ocoee over Labor Day weekend so i'm trying to keep an eye on things so I'll be ready to make my first WW run in it. I'm gona try out Weldwood and Vynabond here in a few weeks when I can get my hand on some. What would be the process of applying, is it kinda like using contact cement where you put 2-3 layers on each before attaching except weldwood would go on the hull and vynabond on the tiedown?

Scott