C-Forum

One of my friends is demoing a nearly new Prelude and asked me to post for info.

First question: It has the bulkhead setup, and the fit is very poor for my friend; He is about 5-10 but there is a lot of room in the bulkhead over the top of his knees. How does a person deal with this? Should he be filling the bulkhead in with foam? Or does a person need to tear it out and go with straps? Or is there some other solution?

Second: Is this a good whitewater boat for an intermediate paddler and is it worth working on to try for a good fit?

Third: Is $750 US a good price?

If there is space above the knees in the bulkhead, you should either move further forward in the boat or move the bulkhead back. I did a fair amount of cutting foam out of mine but certainly did not need to add any, the knee blocks where also the wrong way round on mine when it came from the shop.
Regarding whether it is a good boat for an intermediate paddler, that all depends on the paddler. Many people don't seem to get along with it, but I have seen relative novices who have loved the boat. If he can cope with the lack of primary stability he should be fine.

Jon

Prelude is very special boat, its like an egg shell, very nervous, very unstable, very slow. Its good only for creeking, when streem push you down in spite of sluggish

I would disagree partly with beereddy's statement. Yes, the Prelude is slow in terms of top speed, but it accelerates really well. You also have to adjust the paddling style, aggressive paddling from the bow keeps it moving, forget about stern pries and such. And yes, it has low primary stability, but secondary stability is great, and does not deteriorate even when filling up with water.
I run everything in it, creeks to big water like the Ottawa, Gatineau or the Kipawa.
When I got this boat I came straight out of a Rival, and I never looked back!
As far as my stats go, I am 6'2" and weigh 190 - 195 lbs.
And it's definitely NOT an eggshell, that thing is built like a tank!
I have had mine for 4 years now, it a former demo boat so it's probably almost 5 years old and still going strong, probably has as many more years left in it. If I had paddled a royalex boat the same way I did this thing, it would have fallen into pieces a long time ago.

cheers!

martin a.k.a. the great gonzo!

Uff, sorry for my English, I mean Preludes hull is like egg, round in all dimension. Something like kayaks displacement hull.