C-Forum

Pyranha H3 255

I bought this boat from Bernie a few months ago and have paddled it quite a bit since then. Every time I get to the takeout I just say " man, I love this boat!" Bruce can attest to that. In fact, I think he's getting quite tired of hearing it because he told me to quit telling him and post this review.
I'm no boat critic, but i'll give it a shot.

Last weekend I got to run Giant Gap on the North Fork American. This is a classic California whitewater run. 14 miles, with LOTS of meaty class 4 and 5 drops in a deep, remote canyon. This run put me to the test, it also gave me more reason to "spread the word" about the H3.

This boat is about river running and creeking .
If you are tired of getting SPANKED on the more difficult stuff because your boat is designed to be on end, or is just plain tippy, consider this boat. If you want a playboat, get a playboat too!

The H3 255 may just be THE BEST KAYAK CONVERSION EVER. PERIOD. (although, I've only paddled 2 other conversions)

The H3 is a very predictable and stable boat. Primary and secondary stability, even when it's under water, is excellent. When you're in the thick of it you can actually focus on, and make, your moves because you're not fighting to just stay upright.
And when you do momentarily run out of talent and pick some stupid line that sends you through some nasty slot / pourover with water crashing on you from every angle , it re-surfaces very quickly and smoothly so you can get the heck out of there
I think it's an 80 gallon boat but it doesn't feel like a pig to me.

It seems to have plenty of speed, it accelerates nicely above those big boofs.

It is very easy to control your ferry angles, this is a nice feature that I have been missing in my X.

Did I mention boofs?

Big Water, Squirrely Water, no problem. It seems the harder the water the better it performs.

What else......Fit. I am 6' 175lbs. Trim a little superfluous plastic from the cockpit rim and there's plenty room for your thighs. My waist is about 32" I use some hip pads that are about 2" on each side. The cockpit is huge, length wise. I don't think my feet even go under the rear deck. I'll check that later. The bottom is wide and flat so you can get your knees down low & wide while you're doing flat spins.

Tons of room for overnight gear! Don't put a bulkhead in it.

I can't think of any bad things to say about it. Oh, it is a little hard to roll, but not HARD to roll. And i probably won't be swapping ends in it. But thats what the Flipstick is for.

Hope this helps somebody.

Have fun!

cool larry, that sounds like a sweet boat. If I win the lottery -- bam, the H3 would become my "Tuesday Boat" (1 different boat for each day of the week). I could decide which rivers around the world I want to jet to based on which boat I would be using that day . . .
hmm . . .

Off to buy a lottery ticket,
and thanks for review
Alden

I can attest to the fact that Larry & his H3 are GOOD together.
SYOTR,
Bruce

Any comparisons available regarding the new Fink and the converted H3?

Not really. Bruce likes his Finkenblaster too much to let ME paddle it . We did switch at the takeout one day but there was no real moving water, so all I can say is it felt a little tippy to me. This was before he started cutting the saddle down wich he says helped a lot.
Maybe Bruce has some better insight.

I've got an H3 245 that I just purchased from bernie as well. I've haven't had it out much, but here's my initial thoughts.

First off, I'll admit right away to already swimming out of it. I have a bomber gear skirt which is super duper tight, and it popped off on me. I'm going to look into a custom skirt, or a skirt with a larger cockpit. I have very small float bags in the bow, once water started coming in, I couldn't roll the boat at all. I have a solid open boat roll (which I haven't used in a year), and a very good C1 roll but I couldn't get the boat up. It was also the very end of the day, I'm not in paddling shape yet, etc etc... not sure what conclusion to draw. I can easily roll my Ego C1 when it's full of water.

The boat has lots of space for me and I'm very comfortable in it. At 5'11" and 165, I think I'm pretty much the sweet spot as far as size goes.

The boat is trimmed a little stern heavy right now, and I'm really noticing my stern chine catching on eddy lines. I'll be continuing to tweak the outfitting the more I paddle it.

I feel very confident in this boat. It feels a lot like my old quake (which is a very good think IMO!), but since it's closed, I can punch big holes, ride down big wavetrains and generally blast around without worrying about filling with water.

The boat is fast, but I have trouble getting it up to speed. I think this is a function of my very flexible galasport paddle. hopefully changing to a stiffer paddle with a bigger powerface will help.

After paddling a tiny little playboat last year, I'm loving the stable feel, and the confidence I now have to run tougher stuff. It paddles a lot differently than a playboat (faster, can't pivot turn, can't sub thru holes, holds it's line better), I'm still getting tripped up on some of the differences, but I'm already loving most of the changes!

As I paddle the H3 245 more and more, I think I'm going to love it more and more!

Judd,
Are you using a kayak skirt? I got away with it in my X but I'm sitting so far forward in the h3 there's no way a reg. skirt would work. I think Bernie knows where you can get a custom skirt.

I'm using a bomber gear k bomb kayak skirt. surprisingly, it's not stretched to the max behind the seat. There is a quite a bit of room for play there, however, I need to move my weight forward in the boat, so this could only be temporary.

the skirt is crazy tight everywhere else, side to side and to the front of the cockpit. I can't get it on alone when it's dry, and it's a big effort to get it on while wet. The first time I put it on this boat, it took the combined strength of kalin and I to get it on. Kalin isn't a small guy, and even with him and i heaving on it, it barely fit.

I'm going to check with mountain surf and get a custom skirt done up. I want to finalize my seat position before I go ahead and order a new skirt though.

Judd,
I'm not convinced the 'bomber cut' on a skirt is worth it. Mountain Surf made a great skirt for my Finkenmeister, with a 'regular' cut. It seems fairly bomber to me. I'm checking it out now and I'll let you know if it peels off when it shouldn't. So far so good.
SYOTR,
Bruce

You can't go wrong with Mountain Surf. I bought a Bomber Gear when I converted my Big EZ. The reason: a local shop had it in stock & it fit. It was tough to get on & it leaked. Eventually I got smart & had Mountain Surf make a custom skirt. I got the EZ-on. It goes on easier than the Bomber Gear & is MUCH drier .

I just received a Mountain Surf Limberdeck for the Viper & Acrobat. It looks great. I'll try it this afternoon & let y'all know what I think.

So how do you go about converting the boat? This is all a mystery to me. Do you use a Dagger pedestal and thigh straps, or do something else. I still havent figured out how to outfit my Cascade to hold me in when I turn upside down. Maybe that would be step 1. What is this arcane science called conversion anyway?

John,

I've never converted a boat personally. I bought the H3 from a guy named bernie who does some very nice conversions, and have bought all my other c1's used as converted boats as well.

As far as conversions go, I know what I want and don't want in my outfitting, I just don't trust myself to do it right!

There's a handy search feature on these forums, I'm sure you could dig up a ton of info about converting boats that way!

Judd

There are a few different styles of conversions featured in the "Outfitting" link in CBoats on the left-hand side of this page...Team etc... as well as Craig's Infitting page and Randy's fence rail conversion are all good options. Some great images from Kirill too!