C-Forum

How is the Mad River ME when paddled tandem versus solo? Heck, how is the ME in general?

I'm looking at an old Royalex Mad River ME as a possibility for taking my kids (one at a time) on their first class 1ish stuff later this year when things warm up. So I figure I need something tandemish but that can still be horsed around easily with only one paddler providing any input. On paper, the ME looks like it might work that way.

Might also convince my wife to try easy 1-2ish stuff with me, but in both cases I don't want to stick my bow woman/boy/girl in a boat that's going to scare them...

It should be a good boat. Versatile, will not scare them if YOU are stable in it. I use a Millbrook Prowler for the same type of paddling and it is really nice- very responsive and stable.

MEs can do some pretty hot stuff. I have seen video of one going down the Taureau (of the Jacques Cartier, although I do recall it got pretty munched in one drop).

Good luck,

Jim

Ohio boater,

I agree that if you are stable in the boat, it will work fine. The ME was the boat of choice in the mid to late 80's for many serious whitewater paddlers, both tandem and solo. I had many friends who ran big stuff (IV & V runs) who would paddle nothing else. They consistently rolled this 15 ft. boat too . It was the boat of choice for many slalom paddlers back in the day. You can't go wrong with a ME.

With good control you shouldn't scare your bow partner in a ME. Remember that your kids should have fun paddling with you. If you make every trip fun and instructional they will want to paddle with you more. My kids loved catching "big air" when the bow came off a tall wave. They also appreciated executing a snappy eddy turn. I hope you have a great time with your kids and the wife this spring!

Michael

Let me add another favorable vote for the ME. Probably not a great tandem boat if your combined weight starts to approach 400, but otherwise great. My first whitewater boat was an ME about 14 years ago and I've got one again for the same reason, to take the kids. I've currently taken them through II+ stuff, but would feel comfortable taking them into some IIIs when they are bigger.

Here is a shot of me and my 5 year old (at the time) running Nantahala falls in our ME about a year and a half ago :

http://home.sc.rr.com/thebroams/pix/Noa ... quence.jpg

I believe the ME is a fine boat, especially paddled solo, carves into an eddy so fast it will snap your neck. paddled class IV-V creeks with no air bags whenever the decked boat was broken. even took my wife down some II III stuff with no problems. Sure would like to find an unbroken wood gunneled ME to replace my broken one.

That's a cool sequence of you and your son on the Nanty. Are you paddling from normal solo position, or is your saddle slightly back toward the stern? Hard to tell from the camera angle.

I am paddling from about 10-12" back from the normal solo position. I have the thwart secured with wing nuts and pedestal only secured by my weight and the thwart (notch and pin). The thigh straps are secured at the top end with the thwart's bolts, at the lower end to a large d-ring - the straps are attached there with a larks head knot. I can move the whole set up forward to the solo position in about 10 minutes. It's not perfect yet - the knee pads for the rear postion are a little in the way when I'm in the forward position.

The kids' pedestal is fixed and probably a little closer than I'd set up a full grown person with.

The result of using the same length thwart for both positions is that the boat is wider when I'm paddling tandem - which I kind of want (forstability). I also means the boat has a little less freeboard, making it a little wetter, which I don't want! On the upside, when Jr. desides to use the bilge pump to put water *in* the boat, we hold less of it!

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ps - and thanks! that was one of the more documented runs - a photographer friend shot his camera and mine, met a guy at the camp site who printed a shot for us, the NOC's photographer (they were online) and others...

My wife and I have owned an ME for about 10 years. It is set up with one of Frankies triple saddles. It doesn't see a lot of use but it works fine for us when we do use it. The Ocoee is probably the biggest river we have paddled tandem. My Grandson has used it with me since he was five on the Nanny and the St Francis in MO.
One time at our local slalom race I entered it in the long plastic solo class and turned in a better time than in my Ocoee which I was paddling all the time. I find it very easy to take a total novice for a ride in it on class 2 water.

I love mine. One just popped up for sale near Pittsburg Pa. http://www.paddling.net/Classifieds/for ... ell&state=

Be careful about the age of a used ABS boat. A c-1 buddy of mine switched to an ME about a dozen years old when his knees got too bad for his Atlantis. We were clambering down to the upper Conasauga from Chicken Coop Gap when his ME got away from him and slid into a tree at a goodly speed. The bow split right down, and we could see from the character of the break that the ABS had gotten brittle with age. Some plastics do that.

I have been paddling a MR Synergy since '97, a fairly similar boat to an ME. The ABS was noticeably soft when new, and would show temporary denting from a hard roping down. It has firmed up some now, but can be run hard into a rock without splitting the stem. Though designed as a tandem, the Synergy is cranky about tracking on the flats. Solo, it is wonderful, and rather fast.

Though a little more costly, another way to long ME life is to have Kaz make one for you

which is a solo boat and put a double foam saddle in it. I put the saddle where the stern boater is only three inch back where he would be if it was a solo saddle. THis work out great for small kids, but if they have any size to them it wouldn't work I'd think it would be the same with an ME.

I got trashed so bad in the hole at the Dog that the bags came mostly out of the boat.

God, I'll never forget that first trip; paddling below the bridge, Woodall, 7 foot, Raven, and then the FIVE FALLS. What a wonderful river.

Those are the experiences that bring me back time and again.

My first, and certainly premature, trip down section IV was also in an ME - I managed to broach it in the last drop of Screaming Left and busted the gunwales up. We duct taped and lashed it together and ran the rest of the trip. It was about 8 years before I went back. Whoa, that was a long time ago...

Amen to all of the above; great boat for kids 'cause it turns really easy....Nice pics, Scott!!
Ric Taylor

Although I was not one of the paddlers (I was in an Atom), I went with three open boaters down the GC; for each it was the second trip in their MEs, which they all swear by. They won't paddle anything else.

They did great.