C-Forum

Hi
New to the forum and looking for a bit of advice.
I'm in the process of acquiring a Mad River Rampage. Reading the details of it here, the review says that the vinyl decked ones aren't to the designed shape. Can anyone enlighten me if it's possible to whip off the decks and put in thwarts to give the correct flair, and if so where I can get the correct dimensions for this.

Cheers Mike

Welcome to the board, Mike.

I used to have a Rampage and I thought it was a great WW canoe in it's day, especially on "big water". I don't have the dimensions you are looking for, but I do have this "bird's-eye" view of it(Hades Hole '94). I think that you could probably enter this photo into a program where you can get some measurements from it. For reference: the center width was about 28". I really don't think the existing vinyl gunnels will work for you. Increasing the width in the ends will leave them a little short. You will probably have to find some wood(ash) gunnels. I'm guessing that 14 footers would do the trick. Good luck.

Terry Prater

This won't help you unless you see a wood-gunwaled Rampage, but I flared the bow of my Outrage, and I just measured off a friends' - about one blade-length down from the bow, it was about one blade-length wide (noticably wider than my vinyl-gunwaled version), so I added a thwart and flared it to about.

I wouldn't worry about the specs, if you want it wider, just try stuffing in a longer thwart and see what looks/feels right.

PY.

Cheers Guys thanks for the info.
Looks like I might well be buying a Dagger Encore instead.
Not sure which is the better boat, but prefer the shape of the Encore.

thanks again

Mike