C-Forum

At 68, I might not be the best person to demo it, but I think it came out pretty well considering. Lots of aggravation in the layup process ("a learning experience"), but it came in under 9 kg outfitted. All carbon fiber and epoxy. Only the deck is cored.

Paddling it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C_8NxJ ... o_WDJogiGw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The hull design:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP393qJ ... o_WDJogiGw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Looks good. Seems to have decent glide and turns pretty well for a tri-hull. Seems like your stern might be digging a hair. Can you slide forward a couple of inches in the cockpit? I'm thinking it might track a little better.

I set it up "Olympic Style", fairly stern heavy. The cockpit is oversize, so there's plenty of room to shift forward, and I put dual strap anchors in for that. I will have to make a new seat. it's my composite bucket now, but I can make a foam one for those less adventurous.

I'm green to slalom C1 but I think I would find the really low rear freeboard un-nerving, I'd be interested to see how it trims in a less "Olympic Style".

I cut down my really old slalom C1 and the rear is kind of awash like that and makes it impossible for me to relax at all and concentrate on paddling it, even sitting still the rear edges can trip me up! I'm pretty sure the rear of my Maverick (which I am too heavy for) is not so low, mind you it seems my problem there is lack of volume up front giving me confidence issues committing weight to my cross deck strokes!

Out of interest, what sort of weight range is that set up for?

Looks great!

Weight-wise, it really depends on your experience in a race boat. The latest versions require very aggressive paddling because of their low rear decks. No floating! I'm in the 170 lb range right now. An experienced 180 lb racer would be perfectly happy in the boat, with a little custom seat adjustment. If you haven't spent a lot of time (I'm talking years...) in a slalom boat, this is probably not the boat for you unless you are under 150 lbs.

Looks like a really nice job. It's interesting how things evolve and come around- very hard tri-hull/chines for directional control, to no tri-hull, flat bottom, to fins for directional control:
http://www.galasport.com/en/news/produc ... as-started" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Fins have become a definite "thing" lately. Most of their charm comes from the new upstream techniques used in the super-strong eddies of the artificial courses. Natural courses, with their less radical (or zero) eddy current, encourage more conservative carving in and out of the eddy. I'm not above doing a big pivot where appropriate, but local mixed races (Closed and open boats) seldom have places where radical moves are useful. It's all "Smooth and Steady".

Bob P wrote:Weight-wise, it really depends on your experience in a race boat. The latest versions require very aggressive paddling because of their low rear decks. No floating! I'm in the 170 lb range right now. An experienced 180 lb racer would be perfectly happy in the boat, with a little custom seat adjustment. If you haven't spent a lot of time (I'm talking years...) in a slalom boat, this is probably not the boat for you unless you are under 150 lbs.

At over 220 with experience in hours (on flat water) I can see it is not the right boat for me!

Good luck with it, I hope you do well with so much time invested!

It looks good. I saw the prototype on your car at New Boston but too late to get a chance to try it as you were on your way home by the time I came by.
So what is the reason for the concave forward hull design. Does it noticably help in tracking or is that not the intention at all?

Looks great! I think I'd activate the auto-pivot feature at my weight.

Nice! Looks like a fun ride.

Kelly-Rand wrote:...
So what is the reason for the concave forward hull design. Does it noticably help in tracking or is that not the intention at all?

The design seems to have caught on in open canoes, anyway. (L'Edge and several others)

It gives more (width) stability at the same time as the speed of paddling a narrower boat. It's been a long time since I extensively paddled a conventional hull, but this design feels like it doesn't push the water out of the way as much as it floats over it. In addition, the "turn away from the lean" tendency of this boat seems stronger, so that I don't have to "J" quite so much, at least in flatwater. The day I did that video, I paddled upstream for quite a while and realized that I hadn't crossed over in several minutes. In whitewater, though, I still cross over quite a bit.

The downside of the design is that it's not that happy in holes, although with my bum shoulder, that might be mostly in my head.

Bob P wrote:In addition, the "turn away from the lean" tendency of this boat seems stronger, so that I don't have to "J" quite so much, at least in flatwater.

I noticed that and assumed it was just because you are so much better than me!

I'm working on a new seat that moves me about 2" further forward. I'll shoot another video Saturday or Sunday for comparison.

P.S. I never did post the link to the process of doing this crazy project.

http://wwslalom.net/bob/csx/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;