C-Forum

question to all you zephrites-how's your boats holding up; has esquif/modern tech come up with a way to fix those stern cracks; why those stern cracks? just want to hear your thoughts cause i'm about to glue in the knee pads and start scratching up the one i've been sitting on while wearing down my ocoee. i've heard serial # matters. E707 also, any ocoee->zephyr comments welcome

Mine is holding up, but I'm not paddling it hard as some (no creeking, but quite a few low water runs). Mine is getting "fuzzy" and you can get the fiberglass itchies from it. I have heard that there is a way to repair them (cracks and such) and Eli has been doing some of those. I wish mine had the thigh straps installed with the "new" glue...

Bought mine July 07. Have developed cracks in on-side rear both inside and outside of hull. I do try hard to keep weight fwd on drops but with so little rocker in the rear whacks happen. Need to schedule repairs to see how it goes.

Z vs. O - Z is faster and much dryer. For my size (220lbs), its initial stability is significantly less than the O. Mine has the bulkhead which caused me major issues with rolling. After getting it in the pool and having not Elvis analyze the problem, additional transfer tubes were installed fixing the boats issues, unfortunately, my issues remain.

O has far more initial stability, much more manuverable and wetter. Depending on the wave/hole shape, one may surf better than the other.

This is my third season with Zephyr. Initially all the outfitting (thigh straps) pulled out (after about 2 hours use) but I was able to redo it myself with glue and tools that Esquif sent me. Midway through the second season it developed 4 good cracks right through the hull on the chine at the stern. I was able to get the boat back to Esquif and it was well repaired. I have one more crack now and I have patched it with the temporary material Esquif sent me (rec-repair) until I can get it repaired properly. The permanent repairs seem very solid.

I understand my boat was built before they started adding an additional layer of twin-tex to the chine.

I have the latest version.

I have 6 cracks in the hull. This necessitates 5 repair jobs. 1 crack is just aft of the saddle. The other 5 are radiused around the stern. Esquif was 'negotiable' about the repair costs, it was not a 'great' experiance, but I have had worse.


This boat is not as tough as royalex, paddle it like a layup boat that has occasional forgiveness.

I thought that Eli had the repaires all scoped out.. have you given him a call? Are the repairs holding up?

I have one of the first couple dozen to come out or the mold and have beat the crap out of it. I do have cracks on both sides bow and stern but it seems to be staying in one piece.
Love it!!!

i just know there's hundreds of happy zephyr campers out there but gee wiz, these cracks seem to be a bigger problem than i thought. what says esquif?

The way I look at it is that if this boat were Royalex it would have been put in its grave over a year ago the way I paddle it. So I guess even with the cracks I feel like I've gotten my money's worth out of it. Hopefully I can get another couple of seasons in it until I can afford to buy another one.

I need your guys help!!! I have a buddies Ovation and like it but it is very slow and wet. I have been able to demo a Zephyr twice and really like the boat but the whole twin-tex thing has got me a little scared of buying that boat. So what boat would you guys recommend?? Im wanting something thats not that slow out of the eddies, stays dryer than the Ovation, and that has good secoundary stability. I like to surf, spin and side surf so i would want a good perform boat for play and river running for the Ocoee.
Thanks for the Help!! Sorry for the whole Avatar thing ive been paddling a kayak for a few years.
Adam

Get an Ocoee!