C-Forum

Can any of you current wheelboy owners give me some input on what I will need to outfit my Wheelboy?

I will most likely be picking my boat up Friday night before I paddle on Saturday in TN, and would like to have an idea what tools I will need to bring with me to get the outfitting completed before Saturday morning.

Right now it sound pretty simple: little extra from, foam cutting tools, glue (for the foam), my current boat (for the straps), drill (to put holes in the pedestal for the straps), and maybe some more stainless steel bolts/nut/washer (to mount the strap).


Any other insight to what I may need?



Thanks,

David

HI

Depends what you want to do but here is an example:

All you need is drill and wrenches for your bolts. (This good for dagger style velcro straps or any variation using separate straps for each leg and separate release)

STRAPS ::

1. Drill an asembly hole to saddle top on the narrowest place with 30 mm drill saw. (if you have problem figuring out the place, look fro similar in dagger saddle )

2. Drill 5 mm 'strap-lower-attchement'- holes to saddle centerpilar on each side. They must feel good and yet hold you tight and be accessible from the hole you made in step one.

3. Drill 5 mm 'upperattchment'- holes to flat areas on each side of the rim.

4. Bolt on the straps using 25 mm washers an each side of the hull. Look for low profile kayak bolts and nylon secured bolts. Rubber washers might be good for outside bolts.

OUTFITTING TIPS

all of the WB saddle is made out of glass so it is easyt to glue anything on it. You can even laminate additional parts on to it. I personally use slalom style kneecups and if you can get ones that fit you use them. You can use tecnical draving on the drakkar website to precut some pieces to speed the things up.

1. If your legs feel too narrow unbolt the saddle outside knee wedges.

2. If your knees are too loose use MC to make a kneecups

3. If seat feel too low test an foam pad on it. dont glue for starters because you might just learn to paddle little deeper in the boat. It is a 'spud' kind of freestyler


Please feel free to call or email me if you have problems, and make it safe please !!

Marko Hakolahti
Drakkar kayaks
www.drakkarkayaks.com

HI

And once you done please send us some images and feedback.
Also feedback of how do you like the boat is reaallllyyyy wellcome.


cheers,

marko

Marko,

Will the boat that are on the way to Bill have the grap loops and logos you mentioned on the Drakkar Forum? Do you have any pics of the Wheelboy with these new addtions? (I seem to be big on pictures lately.)


Thanks,

David

Yes, there are going to be very durable and very nice grabloops attached. There is a logo on these grabloops as well.

David,

I built a bulkhead and do not use thigh straps. I works great.

Looking forward to your WB review!

very impressive how fast some of you can outfit a boat! i always seem to spend DAYS down on my knees with my head stuffed inside the boat. ahh....the sweet smell of contact cement

Will my Finkenmeister skirt fit the Wheelboy. Matt?? A Wheelboy is in my future. I'm getting a boat from Bill. I gave my Cascade/Atom skirt away with the Cascade when I sold it. I think I'm going to be sorry .
SYOTR,
Bruce

Boise Bob,

Can you send me a photo of the bulkhead system.

billcanoes@yahoo.com


thanks,
Bill

www.liquidmojo.biz
undergoing constant construction

Bill's boats haven't made it across the Atlantic yet. There was a unique manufacturing error. It seems that Marko saw some video of Bill's paddling "style" and put the cockpit openings on the bottom of the boats.............

Ouch!

It's all about style

and Scuba equipment.

David is right, the boats are delayed a little.

Not sure how Marko got the footage of me- unless David sent it. LOL

Bill

That is a super shot of Bill on the front page of the liquidmojo site. Maybe some day he'll use the shot that came about 3 seconds earlier...

Ironically, it has to do with Mohawk's special design for me putting a hole on the bottom of the Viper.

Funny, I never scanned the bottom of the hull onto my computer, but I guess it would be a good idea for interested buyers to check out the viper 11 hull.

Maybe it can be added to the rec boat page.

Bill

Bruce - I don't know if the fink skirt will fit the wheelboy. I've always used my old atom skirt with the finkenmeister (leaky, but hasn't blown yet), and I have a skirt from Drakkar for my wheelboy. The wheelboy cockpit is not too far from the finkenmeister cockpit in size, if not in shape, so it may work. Regarding outfitting the wheelboy, all I used were four bolts/nuts, two fastex buckles, a couple of metal D-rings and some webbing - I didn't have to add any extra foam at all. I essentially use the factory outfitting and am perfectly happy with it. (For the record, I also used the factory outfitting in my Atom, completely unmodified except for some saddle shaping, for years, so maybe I'm just lazy.) The saddle is a bit low, so some folks may want to raise it a hair, but I just hop out of the boat and rest my knees a little more often.

Matt