C-Forum

Long story short I made a single pull release system that releases the skirt and thigh straps very easily. You can skip the long story by scrolling past the second dotted line to see description and pics. Also I may not be the first to do this but I was unable to find this online while researching how to outfit my C1. So I am posting here in case someone can benefit from it or improve upon it.

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I have been thinking about this for a while. My first C1 was a LL airhead and I spent most of my time upside down in it. It came outfitted with thigh straps and a very shallow bulkhead. I was able to roll it when I was practising rolls but never when I was flipped without having planned to flip in the first place. So i put in a lap belt. I used it once and hated it. It helped my roll but my roll wasn't the best back then. So when I would miss a roll -or sometimes over roll- I would pull my skirt and go searching underneath the skirt for the quick-release of the lap belt. I could never find it fast enough. Whenever I went paddling after that I would always choose to paddle My L'edge or my Rival. After a year I took the Airhead out again. Same outfitting sans lap-belt. Roll was 50-50. Not good. I never paddled it again.

I didn't want to give up on C1 so I bought a Wave Sport Score and did a fence rail conversion. I searched Cboats and the interweb for the best system to keep myself in, yet be able to get out when I wanted to. I found great resources as always on this forum (although I had to dig deep) and found a good system that puts the quick release up front of the cockpit where I thought it woul be easier to find. I then decided to improve on it by tying a thin rope to the quick release and having it hang outside of cockpit with a red quick release ball close to the grab loop of the skirt. This worked really well in a pool. I could pull the grab loop and the string at the same time and I easily slid out of the cockpit. However when I took the Score on the river for the first time I got in a situation where I was upside down and unable to extend my paddle perpendicular to the boat because I was in a small eddy near a rock wall. I tried a few rolls but couldn't get the roll and I was out of breath. I pulled the string and the grab loop at the same time and the thigh straps released. The skirt however, hung up and kept me in the boat. It took me a few seconds to figure out that I wasn't able to get out of the boat. I pulled the rest of the skirt off with the grab loop and I was out. It wasn't a major traumatic experience and I was only in the boat for a few more seconds than I wanted to be. It was still faster than my old lap-belt system. However, I wanted to improve it.

The reason the skirt didn't pop is because the string only has so much length. Once the quick release is pulled fully with the string there is nowhere for it to go. You are holding the string and the grab loop and the string stops you from being able to pull enough on the grab loop to pull off the skirt fully.

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Instead of string use shock cord (bungee cord) because when you pull the grab loop and shock chord together one does not restrict the other. Try to match the amount of force necessary to pull the quick release to the amount of force necessary to pull the skirt by adjusting the length of the shock cord.

In these pictures the black cord is bungee chord, the green is regular cord and orange is nylon webbing from an old winch strap. I doubled up on the shock chord in case one fails. I also kept the red quick release inside in case both shock cords fail. (I made sure to buy high quality shock cord from an outdoor outfitter). I velcroed the two grab loops together to keep it neat.

velcro

Bolt to keep thigh straps as near to hips as possible.

https://youtu.be/dNIR2TtIx8I

Started writing a response to this, but decided to make a video response instead.

Dan

Wow, really nice setup. I like yours better. It's nice and clean looking and I especially like how it loops through the release. A good system for that type of grab loop.

I also like the idea of wearing a gopro to do the video. I was going to post a video but was having a hard time filming with my iphone and also demonstrating how the release works. (I didn't have a go pro at the time) I'll have to film my setup soon.

Hey Guys,

Both of these posts are awesome, I particularly liked the video. Do you think this system would work with a lap-belt just by attaching the quick-release into the bungie/paracord set up? I don't have my boat with me right now to check, but I'm thinking that if the belt is oriented with the release perpendicular to the force of the pull, it wouldn't come undone. I tried to illustrate what I'm talking about below. Any ideas on how to remedy this with as little change as possible to the existing system? I have a quick turnaround when I get home to my boat before I want to paddle.

The only thing i could see not working is when you release the lap belt you would then have a loop created that you may get caught up in while trying to exit. ie: The lap belt buckle is still attached to the the release setup making a spot between the front of the cockpit and one side that a knee could thread through. However, if you were to put a bungee on that side to make the loop pull out of the way when you pull the release that may solve that problem. Or figure out some way of having a quick-release that is independent of the lap belt but attached to the bungee release system.

I used a lapbelt in my C1. I had a line attached to the lap belt buckle than had velco on the end that was velcoed to the skirt grap loop.

One pull released the lap belt buckle as well as the skirt. It never failed me.

The pull on the lap belt buckle was perpendicular to the belt.

This post is great timing for me: I'm doing my first C1 conversion as we speak.

I thought that the quick release cam lock should be orientated 180 degrees from the orientation you both have in your setups. I thought that orientation would provide better leverage for the pull string. Am I bonkers?

That might work for you. It's not as much which way the hinge on the cam buckle swings as it is the direction of pull of the straps from the cam when released, which is up and back.

Also, on my conversion, the QR cord was redirected up and over the bulkhead and a thwart, so the direction of pull on the cam buckle is up. If yours isn't like that you may have to do something different.

Just test whatever you're going to use and make sure you can release successfully with 100% repeatability.

great idea! i noticed this post about two weeks late for us, but will retrofit for sure.
thanks

nice setup and response video im getting ready to outfit a creeker c1 so lately Ive started looking for a better system than I have in my playboat (shallow bulkhead/lapbelt ) and this threads been alot of help