C-Forum

I bought my first OC-1, but am not sure as to what size float bags to get for it. Its a mad river outrage, 12'.

The local paddling shops have 54" and 60" bags. I'm looking for unbiased, non-salesman opinions before I head in and get the salesman version.

Cheers

Two qualifiers here:

1. Is that inflated or uninflated sizes you're quoting? You need the inflated size to really determine which air bag to buy.

2. Are you planning to use a bailer--which means you need to leave some room in front of you to scoop water--or will you be using a hand or electric pump? If a pump, you won't need the room in front of you and can fill it with an air bag.

As far as I know those sizes are for inflated bags, I can only find the one set of dimensions and there is no differentiation between inflated and deflated.

Hadn't given much thought to pumps or bailing. Probably a bailer for now

camthecanuck wrote:I bought my first OC-1, but am not sure as to what size float bags to get for it. Its a mad river outrage, 12'.

The local paddling shops have 54" and 60" bags. I'm looking for unbiased, non-salesman opinions before I head in and get the salesman version.

Our club has an Outrage, and we use 60" bags, which fill all the space easily and will hold stuff jammed under the bags, such as spare paddles or a paddling jacket. We don't have 54" bags but my concern would be that the 54" do not fully fill at the bow, or would be a bit loose.

I have 60" bags in my Outrage. Inflated, a 60" bags is about 57" long. A bag any smaller would leave a lot of open space. Get the big ones.

DougB wrote:I have 60" bags in my Outrage. Inflated, a 60" bags is about 57" long. A bag any smaller would leave a lot of open space. Get the big ones.

Cool, thanks for the pointers. 60" it is

Most OC-1 ww paddlers go for really large bags. Certainly if you want to learn to roll the thing, large bags are a large advantage.

It's also a matter of philosophy and activity pattern. In one of my canoes, a 15' Mad River Synergy, I've run only 30" end bags. But then, there's a triple saddle in the boat. And I don't do much hard stuff anymore. Because I've only flipped the boat 1 1/2 times in its 16 year life, what do I need huge bags for?

Bags do tend to shorten when inflated, but consider that your boat is only 12' long, and twice 60" equals 10'. Possibly the 54 inch bags would be enough? I have a 13' Millbrook, and 48 inch bags seem plenty. Of course, you can lace or strap 60" bags back from the middle of the boat.

In my Outrage I use a Harmony 60 inch bag in the bow and a 54 inch Harmony bag in the stern. It works real nice with the way I have placed my saddle. The Harmony bags are a little smaller than 60 and 54 when they are inflated. More like 56 and 50.