Big Boy review (long)....
Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 8:26 pm
The weekend of Gauley Fest I took the Drakkar Big Boy (Carbon / Kevlar / Glass) down the Lower Gauley with Bill R., his bud Gary and my bud Ron. Ron took the K55 (Composite) so we were both in new, at least to us, boats. My comments are based on a lower flow LG trip with me being a 5’”9, #180 (without gear) II-IV boater and having spent most of my recent paddling time on III-IV at lower flows in a WB, an Acrobat and a Shredder.
With that said the BB was a heck of a lot faster than I expected at the flow (~2800) and was easily placed were I wanted it to go! Bill R. had done some rough one hour outfitting, which was a good base. I added a tapered 1” to the seat (~8.5”) and I used a beach ball as my thigh / suicide block. The cockpit was roomy and spacious – I even fell out and swam below Junk Yard in the flat water after playing in the compactor (cartwheels) – I’ll blame that on the beach ball
. But the exit was clean and easy. I didn’t surf 5 boat – just was not comfortable enough in the boat that early in the program.
After I dialed into the boat it was a hoot. It took a while for me to find the sweet spots for squirts but once there they were consistent.
At Lower Mash I stalled on the second big wave (my bad) and started to look for plan “B”. The boat responded on command, flat spinning on the crest and started dropping back in for a surf, which was plan B. Unfortunately I then got smeared by on coming traffic and spend the rest of the duration in the rapid rolling, re-rolling then rolling again
. Seemed like each roll placed me some new and deranged squirrelly water until the rapid petered out! But I did prove that rolling is not an issue for the boat.
As for surfing - the boat was absolutely stellar on the waves. At Diagonal Ledges I had some of my best surfs ever there (and I have spent some time there). The BB dropped in and surfed the upper wave on the fly with ease while almost one else was surfing it coming in from the side. From there I was able to check out when the lower wave cleared and then dropped down and hop in it seamlessly for more surfing. It was just toooooo much fun!
The BB front surfed, back surfed, carving about the wave dodging rubber and spun on demand.
At Cliff Side the eddy was backed up so we decided to run it straight and when just above the cliff eddy, traffic picked up coming back into the flow, forcing me to drop speed (bow stall pivot) to keep from getting broadsided. The boat was quick to edge and stable thru both the vertical and horizontal transitions.
Ron’s experience with the K55 was similar and his only complaint was that the K55 would not flip over (made with a major smile on his face) – it was extremely stable. He surfed it hard and was staling both bow and stern on demand while cart wheeling. At the Ledges he was able to back surf with style while others were fighting to hold on.
Per Marko the Big Boy “…is 5% larger in each direction (than the Wheel Boy) and that leads up to roughly 20% larger volume. The BB is perfect copy of WB so performance is same but larger. So the deck will be tight to pull on since rim is 5% larger too (almost an inch longer and wider).” Note: The skirt I used on my WB fit the BB just fine.
Overall I had a blast in the boat – thanks for the loan Bill and the design Drakkar! I look forward to seeing the Fatboy!
With that said the BB was a heck of a lot faster than I expected at the flow (~2800) and was easily placed were I wanted it to go! Bill R. had done some rough one hour outfitting, which was a good base. I added a tapered 1” to the seat (~8.5”) and I used a beach ball as my thigh / suicide block. The cockpit was roomy and spacious – I even fell out and swam below Junk Yard in the flat water after playing in the compactor (cartwheels) – I’ll blame that on the beach ball
. But the exit was clean and easy. I didn’t surf 5 boat – just was not comfortable enough in the boat that early in the program. After I dialed into the boat it was a hoot. It took a while for me to find the sweet spots for squirts but once there they were consistent.
At Lower Mash I stalled on the second big wave (my bad) and started to look for plan “B”. The boat responded on command, flat spinning on the crest and started dropping back in for a surf, which was plan B. Unfortunately I then got smeared by on coming traffic and spend the rest of the duration in the rapid rolling, re-rolling then rolling again
. Seemed like each roll placed me some new and deranged squirrelly water until the rapid petered out! But I did prove that rolling is not an issue for the boat. As for surfing - the boat was absolutely stellar on the waves. At Diagonal Ledges I had some of my best surfs ever there (and I have spent some time there). The BB dropped in and surfed the upper wave on the fly with ease while almost one else was surfing it coming in from the side. From there I was able to check out when the lower wave cleared and then dropped down and hop in it seamlessly for more surfing. It was just toooooo much fun!
The BB front surfed, back surfed, carving about the wave dodging rubber and spun on demand. At Cliff Side the eddy was backed up so we decided to run it straight and when just above the cliff eddy, traffic picked up coming back into the flow, forcing me to drop speed (bow stall pivot) to keep from getting broadsided. The boat was quick to edge and stable thru both the vertical and horizontal transitions.
Ron’s experience with the K55 was similar and his only complaint was that the K55 would not flip over (made with a major smile on his face) – it was extremely stable. He surfed it hard and was staling both bow and stern on demand while cart wheeling. At the Ledges he was able to back surf with style while others were fighting to hold on.
Per Marko the Big Boy “…is 5% larger in each direction (than the Wheel Boy) and that leads up to roughly 20% larger volume. The BB is perfect copy of WB so performance is same but larger. So the deck will be tight to pull on since rim is 5% larger too (almost an inch longer and wider).” Note: The skirt I used on my WB fit the BB just fine.
Overall I had a blast in the boat – thanks for the loan Bill and the design Drakkar! I look forward to seeing the Fatboy!