Boat, outfitting, advice?

[Sir Adam]

Boat, outfitting, advice?
by David Johnson

I've been paddling a Mohawk Viper 11 OC-1 for about a year and a half. Last weekend I tried a converted New Wave Sleek C-1 on a local II/III. The C-1 was the most fun I've ever had on a river! Now, of course, I want one, but which one?

I'm 5'9", 145lbs, 31" inseam, 33" waist. The Viper 11 has fairly sharp chines for an OC and was my first boat, so I'm not afraid of a steep learning curve. I managed to get to solid class III with it, and have a decent roll. I want to be able to push my new boat and skills to solid class IV, but I also want to have fun on the river. I will probably get a smaller boat later for pnp.

Things I liked about the Sleek:
Fast (felt faster than my Viper 11)
Easy to roll (good thing, see below)
Longest surfs ever (good for future exploration of moves)

Things I didn't like:
Stern washed / grabbed (46gal boat => 4 combat rolls)
The lack of chines may have given me a false sense of security/confidence.

These are the boats I'm looking at:
Wavesport X
Dagger Infrared
Wavesport ForPlay
Dagger Redline
Dagger RPM
Perception AMP
Liquid Logic Session+
Wavesport XXX
Wavesport Z

They're approximately in the order that I'm considering them. I read PAC's excellent post a few pages back (on the X, Atom, Redline and Z), which led me to focus on the WS X. Any comments on these boats or suggestions of different boats? Does anyone around my size have an inexpensive, well outfitted C-1 X in the southeast or willing to ship? Is anyone going to be at the Nantahala next weekend (11-13) that would let me try out one of these or a similar boat?

Also a question about outfitting: Does west systems epoxy bind to kayak plastic? If so I was thinking a sheet of glass epoxy'd to the bottom would be good for preventing oilcanning, and would provide a surface for glueing the saddle, knee cups, ankle blocks, etc.

Thanks for taking the time to read this... Any input would be greatly appreciated.

--David

Posted on Oct 4, 2002, 2:52 PM

Re: Boat, outfitting, advice?
by dick

the x and red line are good river runner surf boats. the red line will be faster then the x. i'm 5'7, 140lbs and would take the redline over the infrared. you'll beable to run harder/bigger water in it. i have an outlaw and a h2 245. i like them both. i'm not surre if west system will bond to plastic well.especially with the amount of flex that happens when hit hit rocks. if you store your boats out of the sun it will help prolong oilcanning from happening. as for glueing foam, i use weldwood contact cement(red can not green). it works very well. just rough up the plastic really well with 60 grit or some dragon skin.
d-

Posted on Oct 6, 2002, 11:29 AM

$.02
by Scott B.

The West System resin may not bond well to polyethylene, but you could still make a rigid platform to build from, especially if you come up the sides a ways. I think I've heard somebody on this forum way back (Andy Bridge?) recommend such an approach. Similarly you could use a sheet of plastic, securing it with screws through the hull.

As for boat choice, I'd say try them out, but being a c-boater,too, I know how hard that can be. My general rule of thumb is to use the next size up - you'll benefit from extra length for speed and the inherent leverage of the c-1 will allow you to overcome the volume for vertical moves.

good luck -

Scott

Posted on Oct 6, 2002, 5:37 PM