Self-supported river tripping

Martyn · Post by **Martyn** » Mon May 02, 2005 2:05 pm

OK,

Here's my problem. I'm looking for some advice on people's boat choices for multi-day self-supported river trips on big IV+/V rivers. I just got back from my first trip like that with a bunch of yakkers - they had a blast on the big stuff, I carried my Prelude around lots of things and ran safety.

So, I'm wondering, does anybody do 3-5 day trips in a FinkenMeister? Marko - do you think the Fatboy will be suitable for these kind of trips? Anybody use K1 creeker conversions ? and what I'm really curious about, anybody paddle this kind of trip in an OC1?

Thanks,

Martyn

the great gonzo · Post by **the great gonzo** » Mon May 02, 2005 2:14 pm

Martyn,

I will be doing a 3 day trip down the Agawa canyon in my Finkenmeister in 10 days, I'll let you know howthis boat it works for this.

martin

Martyn · Post by **Martyn** » Mon May 02, 2005 7:40 pm

Martin,

Looking forward to hearing about your trip.

Martyn

Paddle Power · Post by **Paddle Power** » Mon May 02, 2005 9:08 pm

I use a converted prijon chopper or boxer for 3 or 4 day self supported trips. Works fine for space and speed. Prijon uses strong plastic without foam pillars so good for gear storage.

Pyranha kayaks also uses strong plastic.

I'm interested to see about the fatboy....

kaz · Post by **kaz** » Mon May 02, 2005 9:20 pm

3-5 day trips?
You need a Hahn.
JKaz

Jan_dettmer · Post by **Jan_dettmer** » Mon May 02, 2005 9:53 pm

"Pyranha kayaks also uses strong plastic."

trell that all those M3 owners that alreasy cracked them.
A good friend cracked his M3 after a couple weeks. Crack is
10+ inch long. I saw another guy in Cali that had the nose completely cracked up. With such a cracked boat you don't even paddle to shore...

Cheers, Jan

Martyn · Post by **Martyn** » Mon May 02, 2005 10:08 pm

I can believe that about Pyranha. I compared my Prelude hull to the Prijon embudos that the guys I was with were paddling. The Prelude is a lot more solid than a Royalex boat but the Prijon plastic is bomber.

Sure would suck to have a boat break miles from any roads.

the great gonzo · Post by **the great gonzo** » Tue May 03, 2005 4:08 pm

As far as materials are concened, I have a Prijon boat as well as a Pyranha Prelude, and the Prijon plactic is definitely stiffer and lighter as well. It also seems to wear less, however there is also the fact that I run much harder and rockier run in my Prelude than I do in my Delirious.
Prijon uses, together with Eskimo a unique manufacturing process (blowmoulding instead of rotomoulding), which apparently allows the use of significantly higher grades of plastic (high density PE instead of low or medium density).
I have however not noticed that my Prelude would wear more than other rotomolded boats made by other manufacturers.

martin

Jan_dettmer · Post by **Jan_dettmer** » Tue May 03, 2005 4:38 pm

Hey, sorry, I did not mean to change the subject here...

Anyways. I did not talk about wear. I talked about cracking.
I have not heard about cracked Preludes but if you talk about
kayak hulls, the Pyranhas are known to crack. A lot of micros
cracked under the seat, easier than other boats. The M3 seems to be
easy to crack, too. The damaged boats I heard of were replaced by warranty, so Pyranha does have a good guarantee. However, if the replaced boat cracks easy, too....

Dagger, Wavesport and Necky have pretty good plastic as far as I can tell.
I think Necky just uses A LOT (try lift the crux...)

Cheers, Jan

Martyn · Post by **Martyn** » Tue May 03, 2005 5:38 pm

There's an urban legend about cracked Preludes, I've never seen one and I've never heard of anyone who has cracked one. I suspect the reason mine is worn is that I pound the $#%$ out of it. I've punched in both ends of the boat by trying ill-conceived moves that would have cracked a Royalex boat - one end popped out, the ding in the other one is above the waterline.

Have you ever heard of a cracked M3 outfitted as a C1? It could be a problem with the placement of the K1 outfitting.

Jan_dettmer · Post by **Jan_dettmer** » Wed May 04, 2005 5:53 pm

Martyn,

the cracks were not due to outfitting.
My friends boat cracked in the carved out part on the front left chine.
I can't believe they carved out the plastic there anyways...

The other one cracked the bow open. I mean really open.
Looked like a ferry that is about to dock....

Cheers, Jan

Jim Michaud · Post by **Jim Michaud** » Wed May 04, 2005 7:59 pm

and what I'm really curious about, anybody paddle this kind of trip in an OC1?

Two summers ago Bob Zazzera and I did a 60 mile, 3-day self support trip on the South Fork of the Payette in OC-1s which included the class IV-V canyon and the class IV staircase sections. We ran everything except the big monster waterfall. We traveled as light as we could and carried no stove or pans. We just ate MREs heated up with the enclosed heater packs. Bob paddled a Probe 14 and I paddled an Outrage.

Jim

Bruce Farrenkopf · Post by **Bruce Farrenkopf** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 12:02 am

Hello Martyn,
A used Cascade would work well. It has lots of room, bow and stern and does very well in Class 4-5. The Finkenmeister should also be a good choice - however you would need to trim the minicell way back in the bow to allow easy access.
SYOTR,
Bruce

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 2:46 pm

My favorite story about a self-supported trip in an OC is at http://www.americanwhitewater.org/journ ... _4_036.jpg

I recall another good article on the “Trans-Baffin Challenge” that involved a C-1, but I cannot find it on the AWA site.

Enjoy!

C-Forum

Self-supported river tripping

Self-supported river tripping

kaz

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