C-Forum

What's up c-Boat. I am the manager at Gaia Sports, gaiasports.com. I just found c-boats about a month ago from a customer and must say I am glad I did!!

I thought I could ask all you old pros for some help? I'm looking to put together a sizing chart for canoe flotation on our website, but with the endless names, brands, and homemades, I won't be able to tell which air bag will fit each one.

So, if you got air bags, reply to this message, or shoot me a pm and let me know what boat you got and which size bag works best for you?

Thanks cboats! and if anybody wants a copy of the list once its done just let me know.

I bought some of your canoe air bags just this past October for an Ocoee. I liked your website, the price, and the fun note in the package! I have been very happy with the bags, though so far just pool use and 3 whitewater outings. I'm using 54 inch bags which I bought after getting some good input from this forum (search air bag recommendations for an Ocoee if you're interested).

The Ocoee is my first whitewater open canoe. If I were buying bags again, I would probably go with 60 inch for the bow and change the air bag tie in system to accomodate. With my limitted experience, I concur with the advice received that minimizing the volume available for water is good and that listed air bag lengths don't necessarily indicate the length of canoe space they will fill when inflated.

From the responses my earlier request generated, it would appear that putting together air bag size recommendations may be challenging but would be appreciated by those getting started. I'd like a copy of whatever you eventually put together.

Thanks for doing this although i with I had that chart two months ago.
I bought an esquif Nitro that had a set of your bags in it that were to small. thw guy I bought it from said they were the ones that came from esquif. The Nitro needs 60 inch bags to fill. My local store was out of your 60 inch and I had to with NRS.
I still have the old bags. (I beleive theyd be good for a Detonator) but dont know the size. do you measure at the center line?

THis chart would be a great addition to Cboats as well.

Thanks for taking the time to do this:
Detonator: 52" front, 48" stern Mohawk bags
Ocoee: Pedestal seat, 54" bow and stern, Gaia
Ocoee: Team Edge outfitting, 48" bow and stern, old Voyageur bags
Caption: triple saddle, 60" bow and stern

Please consider making some very tough replacement bags for the bathtub boats, Skeeter, Quake, Super Fly, Spanish Fly, Prelude

My rule is; fill it all with bag, and what you can not bag stuff with foam!!! HA HA

Thanks for building up that chart, great idea!

I just bought last year two XL bags for my mad river ME and they fit wondefully. Much better than the old voyager XL bags that were in there. The XL vayager must be at best 58inches, your says 60 but in fact once blowed they do 63 pretty much!

I actually posted a note some time ago regarding the floatation bags and your compagny was the only one to have stuffable floatation bags, but small size only. I am looking for some big XL bag for my same boat, but one that could fit my guitar in. That would be too cool.

You can see the old post here:

http://www.cboats.net/cforum/viewtopic.php?t=7959635

please let me know if there's any chances you come up with something like that soon...

Marc.

Can anyone tell me what size bags would fill up an Ocoee? Or pretty much the biggest that will fit. I'm wanting the floatation to come all the way to my pedistal in the back and to my knees in the front. The lacing isn't an issue; i'll change it to accomodate a larger bag if it becomes an issue.

thanks Everyone,

I understand that preference is an issue when recommending a bag. But at least I can give a great starting point. Hope to have this completed in a month or so.

not to mention, this info brings good suggestions for possible new size bags that Gaia Offers!

Just a thought, but one that I think would win you a lot of favor from the C1 (decked canoe) crowd. When paddling a C1, your feet are under you instead of extended forward as in a kayak. That means the bow flotation is much longer in the same hull than if configured for a kayak - generally we use stern bags up front. You (as do most retailers) offer sets of 4 bags at a great discount, but because we use 4 sterns instead of 2 bow/2 stern we don't get the price break.

I'd be willing to bet that the first company that started marketing sets of bags priced that way for C1 would definitely be favored by the single blade crowd.

Floatation sizing problem:

Just FYI, the float bag size will depend on the outfitting, specifically how the bag cage is built. As has been noted above, some people use different sized bags in the same boat.

In my opinion a properly fitted bag is one that's slightly larger than the bag cage, and when inflated it is confined by the cage to completely fill the boat. 60" bags for almost everything.

If you create a size chart, be prepared for some flack from paddlers and a few exchanges for larger bags. I rigged an Esquif Raven last Saturday, the customer swore it would need 48" bags and nothing larger than that. So I pulled out some 60" and inflated them in the boat, they filled what the 48" would not, and she decided very quickly that she wanted the better size. Had she bought 48" based on some size chart, she would have been peeved when someone showed her what the larger bag would have done.

Sprayskirts can be sized, there are too many variables for open boat outfitting to create a problem free "this is what you need" list.

Solo sizing is easier than tandem. Are you rigging tandem with a center bag or with the paddlers very close and large end bags?

I have a set of your 60" in my Prophet....very good bags and not leaky after 3 years...Keep up the quality....Really, any oc at or over 11' you can cram 60" bags in...

That does make for a pretty simple sizing chart...