C-Forum

Yesterday I got down to the Big Dog HQ and managed to get my hands on the first pre-production creeker shell. I've managed to bodge together some pretty rough outfitting over the last evening and morning (thanks for your help Matt). I was hoping to get it out on the water today but events and the fickle British climate conspired against me.........no rain again!

I'm not so good at this computer stuff so I've posted some pictures up on my blog. If someone knows how to put them on here, that would be really cool. The pics were taken on my mobile phone in pretty bad light but I hope they'll give you a bit of an idea. If the link to my blog below doesn't work it should be on my signature.

For those statisticians amongst you I ran my tape measure around it earlier on to get some really rough dimensions. These are by no means pin point accurate but should give you something to go on.

Length - 8'2"..............249 cm

Width - 26.5"..............68 cm (this is at the widest point)

Depth - 16"................40.5 cm

Think the weight with no outfitting was about 16kg

I've only sat in it my living room so far but it feels nicely proportioned and my first impressions are that it that it should do the business. You can put whatever value on that you want!!!!!!! Anyway I can't wait to get it on something steep.

I'll have it out on the water this weekend, hopefully on a nice creek or river. If it doesn't rain I'll stick it on a lake somewhere and I'll at least give you an impression of what it's like on the flat.

http://bobscanoestuff.blogspot.com/

Hope this was useful and everyone gets some cool boating in over the next couple of days.

Cheers

Bob

Wow- Another new open boat, and a creeker at that!

Great to see pics of it. Looks like you are pretty familiar with the Tareau. I'm curious to hear a comparison!

Thanks for sharing.

Looks fantastic! The hull looks a lot like all the kayak designs that are becoming so popular with the raised rails. Can't wait to see what you have to say about it!

Looks really smart and nicely moulded. Be very interested to know about the volume compared to a fly, and what the BD timetable for release of this is.

If my reseach is right:

Big Dog is 26.5" wide, the Taureau is 27" and Spanish Fly is 29"

Big Dog is 16" high, Taureau is 16" and Spanish Fly 15"

Big Dog is 8'2" long, Taureau and Spanish Fly are 8'

Similar weight to the Taureau.

I also look forward to your review, especially in comparison to the Taureau.

Teaser shot to make you look!

I have a Taureau and the wife has a Quake. Sort of looks like the offspring!

Nice to see another OC1 on the market. I hope that Big Dog will ship across the pond at some point. Unfortunately, I doubt we will ever see one here on the west coast. If anyone gets to try one, please write a review.

AJ, the Spanish Fly is closer to 9' long. I measured mine this evening and it was 8' 9.5". I realize the both the listing on the CBoats description and the Esquif web site list it as 8', but mine isn't. Anybody know if there was a change from Pyranha to Esquif?

Marc

2-0-1-0... is actually becoming the year of the OC hat trick

I look forward to giving this one "a go" too...

Wow folks... a new freestyle OC, an OC "creeker" and a "trad" looking OC... flippin' mind boggling!!!

Make that 2 new freestyle OC1's... big dog has one of those out too.

This is very exciting... I'm going to have to stalk Chris and Bob until I can have a go in their shiny new prototype boats.

Bob: How wide is that thing across the bottom from rail to rail

You know what I don't know. I figure it tapers in around an inch either side towards the rails if that makes sense. I was slightly worried that it was going to feel unstable due to this slight narrowing. It is however quite the opposite. It feels like the most forgiving boat I've been for ages. Loads of secondary stability. Feels sweet just floating flat too. The angle of side walls gives it this stability. You don't have that straight up flat side that you get with a lot of OC1s. Please excuse my lack of technical terminology........I just know what I like.

Anyway there's some pics of it out on the water today now up on my blog

http://bobscanoestuff.blogspot.com/

I would like to try it out, looks a lot like a Quake to me and except for the slowness and wetness I loved the Quake. As far as gettin new open boaters....Well I am doin all I can to promote our type of boat and boatin.

Hey Bob. does the new creeker in comparrison roll easier than the Fly and the Tereau? Hope you get the video up soon. Also after a roll how much water does it take on as in inches. Very cool looking boat and also was wondering If Big Dog will ever consider converting the Dropzone to Oc1. thanks and keep up the good work. D-Caption

Hi All,

There have been a few questions asked, about Big Dog that I will try to answer:

Yes Big Dog Boats will be available in America, although we are yet to finalise pricing, some demo’s (of the kayaks) are already on the west coast and we do have an importer. OC1 demo’s will follow shortly, probably March.

Initially the Freestyle OC1 (Called the Kaos) will only be available in as a composite version. The design is exactly the same as the one I used to win the final GB selection event of the year at Hurley.

The OC1 creaker/river runner (Called the Force) will be available in plastic as soon as we have done some more testing with the prototype to ensure we incorporate any tweaks we feel it needs, although so far initial testing has exceeded our expectations for this boat.

Whilst the designs share the same names and basic shape as the equivalent kayaks the designs are uniquely done for C1 paddling, an example the hull surface of the force is approx 60mm wider and 30mm longer than the force kayak, similarly the hull is wider and longer on the Kaos OC1 and the rails higher and slightly softer. So yes whilst we obviously took the lead from the kayaks they are new designs in their own right and thoroughly tested!

That’s all for now, any other questions please post or get in touch

Is the drop zone c1 the same hull as the kayak? I ask because of the comments about the force hull being slightly different