C-Forum

Out of curiosity, has anyone done a conversion of a K1 hull by cutting the top off and installing gunnels & thwarts instead of the traditional method of just changing up the seating arrangement? I guess it would be a K1 to OC1 conversion. Seems interesting, but likely to be awfully shallow. Any hulls that might work better than others? With enough flotation and the right weight of paddler it might work. May even be a good application for that "nevaful" concept.

Whatchuthink?

I bet people with the right links will post them, but there are two I can think of. I believe someone on here did one a few years ago. I KNOW that someone at last year's freestyle world championships in Plattling cut up a Jackson boat and built up side-walls. I believe it was someone on the Spanish team.

I would think it wouldn't make any sense for something larger than a freestyle boat due to the difficulty of building up the bow and stern areas. What might make more sense would be to pull a plug off of a creek boat for the bottom of a hull, but then it's a whole different method...

Shep

As Shep said, it's been done for freestyle boats. In practice, it doesn't work very well because a a canoe will fill up with water, but a kayak doesn't (usually), so it's not part of the design consideration. I wrote up a lot of my thoughts on it (from a freestyle standpoint, but also applies well to river running) back before I started trying to sell boats: http://www.chasingrain.com/nooz.php?sub ... m=&ucat=2&

here is the one i made from a Dagger Honcho ... dubbed the Dagger Insult

also here is a link to a friends conversion which is about 1000000000x better than mine

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Looks like a rubbermaid bin jammed in a K1 cockpit...... how tall is the saddle in that thing?

ROFL - I almost posted that word for word several times. I have some storage tubs that are almost big enough.

What is the build up material and source? Just stock HDPE sheet stock from a plastic supplier? What thickness did you use? 1/4", 5/16"?

Any other thoughts on this? I'm dangerously close to doing something crazy with a blue rain barrel and a jefe hull.

caverdan wrote: I'm dangerously close to doing something crazy with a blue rain barrel and a jefe hull.

You leave your personl life out of this, and stick to c-boating stuff!!

(thats just wrong)

caverdan wrote:Any other thoughts on this? I'm dangerously close to doing something crazy with a blue rain barrel and a jefe hull.

You'd need to widen the hull to make the best of it, you're either going to end up with a deep boat and a low saddle (thus restricting your movement and especially your rolling), or a high saddle in a boat that's already fairly tippy.

caverdan wrote:Any other thoughts on this? I'm dangerously close to doing something crazy with a blue rain barrel and a jefe hull.

It is not crazy, it is research! I think it is a good idea. My thoughts has gone in the same direction. I don't feel comfortable in my Jefe C1 because i can't get low enouh to get the stability I need to stopp bracing all the time. Widening it and opening it could be a cool solution. I just need to finish some other canoe related projects first...

The blue barrels are PEHD as far as I know so there should not be any problems welding it to a Jefe.

Before ruining any value the boat might have, it's probably worth taking it to a lake (or pool this time of year), filling it with approximately the amount of water you'd expect to get in it as an open boat, and seeing if it's remotely paddleable.

RodeoClown wrote:Before ruining any value the boat might have, it's probably worth taking it to a lake (or pool this time of year), filling it with approximately the amount of water you'd expect to get in it as an open boat, and seeing if it's remotely paddleable.

yep the hull i used was $25 and had a nice 2'' hole from where they bolted it to the wall in a store ... i welded up the hole and cut the top off of the boat .... i used 1/4 inch PE and went to town ....

as far as the saddle height ... it sits right at 9'' ... with a bad knee this was the lowest i could get the saddle and still be comfortable ... the boat was built to the spec's for a freestyle oc (at the time) ... its fun to get in and play around but for anything serious i just take the Skeeter or the Ocoee

by the way the name to the boat i posted is the Dagger Insult

Yeah, there's no danger in ruining any value left in the boat. It was a cracked beater when I got it for less than $100 , and I welded the bejeezus out of the hull but it's dry now. I'd already decided to convert it, I'm just toying with whether it would be more fun without having to fool with a skirt. I will put the end bags in and fill it up like Jeremy suggested to see if it's worth it to try as an OC. That's good advice, thanks. Also from Krikkit's comment, I think he's right too. It will have to be a compromise on seat height and sidewall height. I'm hoping for a 6-7" seat and a total sidewall height of about 7" higher than that, which is the same as my other OC, but tippiness will be the deciding factor. I definitely want to try out some seat heights and test paddle it as a C1 before making a decision about the sidewalls.

(As an aside, what's up with buttboaters and the bituthene repairs? That crap is hard to get off. You got to scrape and scrape, then use mineral spirits or gasoline to cut the stuff just to get down to a clean hull. Whoever decided that was the cure all for cracks in PE should have to try to properly weld after that crap has been applied. The worst is when they put the patch on the outside and the stuff gets smeared all over the hull. Jeez. )

Oh, and Skeeterguy, I dig the Insult. I'm thinking this one could be the "Jeferankenstein".

Here's a mockup in CAD using the photo of the boat on the LiquidLogic website, and dimensions from the HDPE barrel I picked up last weekend.

Edit: Dimensions shown are decimal inches.