C-Forum

On January 21st 2005 in Penrith Australia the first meeting on Open Canoe regulations since 1996 took place. In attendance where Jeremey Blanchard and Gary Findlay from Australia, Stefan Paetsch, Tobias Huther and Markus Hibel from Germany, James Weir and Jamie Burbeck from Great Britan, Paul Danks and Marc Scriver from Canada, and Craig Smerda and Eli Helbert from the USA. We had several discussions about how an "open canoe" in regards to freestyle should be defined. We decided to meet three days later at the course, take measurements and set standardized regulations from the canoes that we where competeing in at this worlds. The boats that where measured where the Robson CUFly, the Esquif Salsa, and two modified Pyranha Spanishflys. At this second meeting we gained additional representitives Natalie Caulder from New Zealand and Jordi Domengo from Spain. One of the biggest discussions involved the possibility of using sealed bulkheads instead of airbags. We also considered the added cost of sealed bulkheads. We debated comfort and useage of foam in outfitting versus foam used simply to fill the boat for displacement purposes. The group could see where starting with sealed bulkheads could lead to boats being completely filled out. The groups main concern was that the boats shouldn't be viewed as big C1's or "kneel on tops". Most of the decisions where unanimous; the sealed bulkhead being the exception. As a group it was determined that we all enjoyed the challenges and techniques used when a canoe is dry and full of water. There was a great deal of discussion of how much water an Open Canoe should hold. Each competitors boat was measured with the airbags inflated and the paddler in his boat. The lowest amount of volume was around 37 liters and the highest being 68 liters. The group decided that the "box" (center of the boat where the paddle is) dimensions should be the key and what you do with the ends is open for experimentation. The proposed dimensions and rule clarifications being sent to the International Freestyle Committee are:

--One single boat is to be used for the entire competition
--All competitors must wear a bouancy aid (PFD) and helmet
--Competitors must be kneeling and using a single bladed paddle
--Boat must be able to hold 40 litres of water with the paddler kneeling in the boat
--The open depth of the boat must be at least 40cm for a length of 80cm
--The overall open surface area must be at least 3800cm
--Bouancy for the boat ends is to be inflateable (bulkheads not permitted)


It was also proposed that the IFC rules be changed to read:

--The competitor may re-enter the hole/wave as many times as they like during the 45 second time period. In features where it is helpful OC1 competitors may assist each other back up the eddy without penalty.

It was also proposed that if 75% of the OC1 class feels unsafe or unable to perform at a feature they may moveto a more suitable feature, preferably on the same river or as close as possible to the rest of the event. This possibility is to be avoided and used only as a last resort.


If you have any feedback or would care to have your input heard you can reply to this or email me at juskanuit@webtv.net and I will pass it along to the others for you.

Craig Smerda

Sounds good to me Craig. I was wondering if you know the specs on the CUFly. I realize that we all add different amounts of foam for comfort and displacement but I am interested in how the CUFly measured up under the tests.

Chris

Chris,

The results where surprising. Each boat regardless of manufacturer had variations in displacement. The two lowest where the shortened Spanishflys. They where around 37-40 litres. The ends of this boat have far more rocker and the outfitted area was fairly full... seemingly moving the water to the center of the boat rather than the ends. It's my opinion that this is one reason that the Spanishfly and boats like it (Tarreau) don't loose all their manueverability when full to the gunnels with water.(Note- each paddler was in his boat with the airbags fully inflated when the test was conducted). The next set of boats was the CUFly. Most came in around 50-60 litres. The CU has the lowest amount of rocker in the group but also the lowest volume ends. When a CU is full it will sometimes plow until you get half the water out. Lastly and surprisingly was the Salsa at 60-68 litres. We where all surprised that the shortest boat of the three with ample rocker and padded out cockpits would hold this much. The (kayak) airbags they where using might not have been completely filling the ends. The cockpits in most boats where set up very similarly and paddler dimensions varied. The way the float bags filled the ends tightly seemed to make some vast differences. When you consider the weight of water per litre there is a considerable difference between 40 and 60... any care to calculate this for me?

Craig

1L of water = 1kg of mass, or 2.2lbs for those of you down south.

thus, 20L of extra water is 44lbs or 20kg more weight

cheers,
-allan