Glass Outrage

[cboater]

Does anyone own a glass Outrage open canoe? I would like to buy one from Bell canoes, but I want to try one first.

I would be willing to swap boats on a river trip with you. You can try my new glass Atom C1 while I try your glass Outrage.

I'll be at Guest Appreciation Festival at NOC this weekend.

Cboater
Chapel Hill, NC

[TommyC1]

I don't think there are too many around.
Tom Foster has the original prototype and, rumor has it, a new one from Bell.
Have you been in touch with Bell? Did they give you a price?
I'd love to have one myself though I suspect the pricetag will put me off.

[Heidi]

It's true Tom Foster has the new *Outraged* as Bell Canoe Works is now calling it and Dana Henry has one too. It is one sweet looking boat. Black/gold, carbon/kevlar layup with dark wood gunwales and thwarts. They built in some reinforcing ribs with this design.

The Fluidity is the kevlar Outrage prototype, only two ever made before Mad River went with the Outrage name. Fluidity weighs in at 42# outfitted and with a few patches, tough boat, still going strong, sweet to paddle.

[Guest]

No comment on the glass Outrage, but I am interested to hear about the glass Atom- what can you telll us- weight, how does it handle, where was it made, etc.
Thanks
Brendan Hayes

[Wendy]

I emailed Bell to get info on the glass Outrage. FYI:


The Outrage composite is available and has been for the past season. We only
build a couple per year, hence the reason it is not featured on our website
with our regular line of canoes. It is available in two laminations: a more
durable Kevlar PRO lamination that weighs in at 36lbs; and an ultralight
carbon PRO designed for competition at 29lbs. Prices are $1900 and $2200,
respectively.

[ezwater]

Any reason you would want a glass Outrage versus any one of several of Kaz's Millbrook designs? I paddled an Outrage X, and found it a decent boat, but not as interesting to me as a Kyote or Hooter.

[Tom Foster]

Bell does an excellent job of laying up the boat and will give you several layups. I have a racing layup with carbon fiber and kevlar interwoven. The boat is dry and paddles like the wood gunwale Outrage, but it's a lot lighter. I have a newly outfitted one here at my shop. If you have questions, email me at tomfoster@metrocast.net

[cboater]

I am interested in a glass Outrage for teaching. I rarely paddle open canoe for fun, since I paddle cboats which are lighter, dryer and more nimble. With my glass Atom C1 and our glass Whupatar C2, I am having the time of my paddling life!

However, with aging, I have developed some back problems and get injured more easily now. A glass open canoe would extend my teaching without as much risk of injury, compared to paddling ABS.

If I were paddling open canoe for fun, I would seriously consider a race boat design. But, with teaching, I feel I need a more stable platform for rescue. And, I need a boat that is close to the style my students would be paddling.

[TommyC1]

Kaz ( Milbrook Boats) makes the Rival in glass.
The one I saw was pretty nice and they are not near as pricey as the Bells.

[Guest]

So who has a mold for an Atom (izer)?

[sbroam]

Glass Atom? It might be Victor Barnett / Class 5 out of Chattanooga :

http://www.opencanoe.com/ (for some reason the pictures are not loading for me with Mozilla but do with IE)

There is a picture of Van Evans in a "special order Atom". I sent Victor an e-mail the other day about another boat and asked him about the Atom, too, but haven't heard back. Maybe Van can share...

Scott

[ncdavid]

You are correct, Scott. I don't know which of the Evans posted, but they have his/her glass Atoms from Class V. Both are reportedly superb instructors. If not a glass Outrage, I bet a Millbrook Defiant would make a good teaching platform. Plenty wide at 29", very light, and easy to paddle (even I can do it!).

[whitewaterevans@earthlink]

There have been some questions asked about the glass atoms. Hopefully, this post will answer most of them.

Laura and I(Vann) have been long time members of Elite Team Dagger. We have always asked Dagger to make a high performance plastic C-1. The Atom was their answer. After Dagger was purchased and consolidated, the Atom was discontinued.

Laura had never really liked her plastic ATom. It was too heavy, too big and nose-dived when she surfed. I, on the other hand, thought the ATom was THE best plastic crusing C1 made. So, I was pushing to have the Atom made in glass. Reluctantly, Laura went along, but warned that she would likely not like the glass version any better.

We approached Dagger and asked for permission to build Atoms in glass. We got permission to build 2 prototypes and I contacted several well known glass boat builders with my project . Victor Barnett with Class Five Boatworks in Chattanooga built them for us.

We indeed have a mold that was taken from a brand new plastic Atom. The glass versions are identical to the plastic Atom . They weighed 24 pounds with walls and seat. Class Five used a pressure molding system that is proprietary.

The boats are very stiff, very fast and surf like a dream. The boats are quite nimble and responsive. The light weight and flat hull allow them to pivot or flat spin. They exceeded our expectations. And Victor did a beautiful job with the layup and graphics.

From the moment she first got into her boat, Laura was all smiles. She could not believe the difference between the glass Atom and plastic boat. I too was ecstatic with my boat. It exceeded my wildest dreams for a cruising C1.

Unfortunately, both Laura and I have been injured this season and have not been able to show them around very much to other C boaters. we hope to be able to let others demo them soon.

If there is any great amount of interest, we are willing to approach Dagger to ask for permission to build more glass Atoms.

Vann and Laura Evans