Bruce Farrenkopf wrote:It DOES mean that he will likely be getting sub-optimal performance
You're right, but you also have to keep in mind that paddling outdated designs because they're "real" C-1's will have detrimental effects on your performance as well- maybe in more so that paddling conversion. Whenever there's a "new" C-1 that hits the market, it's not long at all until something more interesting and newer comes along that you have to rip the outfitting out of. I'd say that the vast majority of the people getting into C-1 today are doing so in converted boats-because they've got an extra kayak in the garage, and last year's playboat is less alien to them than an Atom or Cascade.
It's kind of catch-22. The paddlers who want cutting edge performance will continue to paddle conversions. The paddlers who want to paddle "real" C-1's are forced to paddle outdated designs. Many times those are the type of boats they're more interested in paddling anyway. I'm not really interested in paddling a boat like an atom, or a Fink, or really even a Wheelboy, so I paddle a converted kayak, and it seems to me that a lot of the C-1 market is folks who are more interested in cruising type boats. So a market that's too small to be of interest to manufacturers is divided into even smaller pieces. Like it or not, the fact of the matter is that it just doesn't make economic sense for manufacturers to invest money in a C-1. If you can't appeal to the cutting edge, it's hard to sell boats.
I see the same thing happening with OC-1. Most open boaters lament the fact that there are few new OC-1's out there. The biggest reason is that there are fewer and fewer open boaters out there. Why? It's hard to attract new people to OC-1 with boats that are twice as long as the kayaks that people are paddling. Short boats are just more fun, plain and simple. People who have been paddling 12 ft long boats for years might not think so, but then again, they're not the ones who need to have the sport marketed to them. It needs to be hip and sexy if you want to attract new people, and a big canoe ain't gonna do it. You need boats in the 7 foot range for that. I know a lot of the open boaters are scoffing at that, and that's just the problem. And I'm not talking about 7 foot long rodeo boats that you can't paddle down river, I mean 7 foot long boats that you can play in and river run. The SpanishFly is a good example, but it's outdated...
The inherent problem is that the community has created a situation where there's no market for the new and cutting edge and sexy and attractive. So fewer and fewer people are attracted to and get into c-1 and oc-1, and the market shrinks, becomes complacent with outdated designs, and doesn't give the manufacturers any incentive to produce new cutting edge attractive designs, and the whole thing snowballs.
Kudos to Drakkar for trying to kick-start it, but I think it's too little, too late. I'll certainly agree that the death of the plastic C-1 is upon us. Those of us who choose to convert kayaks will continue soldiering on as well.
Quite the rant, huh?
Jeremy
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. But the C1er will soldier on 
. I will be soldiering on.
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