C-Forum

Hey y'all!

Blackfly is stoked to announce that the Condor, our 11-foot plastic canoe, will be going into production! It's at the mold makers now, and we anticipate hatching Condors by the beginning of summer.
While the original goal was just to make a fast boat, the Condor project has evolved into creating the ultimate long plastic canoe, something that will be right at home racing, on a multi-day trip, and everything in between. Jeremy put it best when he said, "I want it to be the boat that I want to paddle 90% of the time I go canoeing." It has taken four years, and there has been a lot of learning along the way, but we're truly excited with the end product, and we hope you will be as well.

Final specs will come when we get our first production boats, but for now we know it will be 11'2" and will be 30" wide. We're aiming to have demos for all of our summer tour dates, including NW Kanu Fest and Colorado Kanu Fest.

What's the approximate weight of this boat?

We'll know for sure once we get a production boat. Prototypes were about 60lbs but there is usually a change between prototype and production

Like!

can't wait to take this one for a spin at the NW kanu fest!!!
d

Don't forget to keep 1 outfitted for us fatties to try out.

For sure Tony! We're planning on having a tandem configuration as well. I think the Condor will be a great boat for larger paddlers

Dibs on demo'ing the tandem version!! (No others need apply!!)

Rick

Hi Rick et al,

Any news from NW Fest? Specifically, anyone try out the Condor?? I'm having some trouble keeping my Ocoee upright. I might need to go up a weight class, but want something more nimble than the Octane 91.

Hope Blackfly had a good tour, and that lots of people from BC, WA, OR were able to get together.

From the prairies, Pat

yarnellboat,
unfortunately, blackfly didnt have a condor with them at the NW canoe fest, but wow - what a great time with tons of boaters. i would love to try the condor as well - hopefully soon!.
d

Will one be available to check out at Gauley Fest?

Some Condor notes:

I've had the chance to take the Condor down a few different runs now, including the Green Narrows and the Upper Gauley. I'm blown away with this boat, and it'll be replacing the Option as my go to boat on all but the steepest of runs.

The best aspect, and what has represented the biggest change from prototype to production, is the dryness. The length and speed allow it to bridge holes and stay on top of the water. Often times, I feel the stern load up and keep the bow on the surface of features that would normally swamp a canoe. And the extra rocker has made it way drier on creeks than any of the previous prototypes. An example, for anyone who knows the Green, is Zwicks. Zwicks has a rowdy first hole that usually fills up canoes and prevents them from getting right, where the boof and the race line is. Even in an Option, it's hard to carry enough speed and then offside boof the hole. But with the Condor, I didn't even take a stroke and found myself far enough right to easily make race line. I've run Zwicks over 200 times and I can count on one hand the number of times I've made race line in a canoe, and I made it both times in the Condor, easily. On my Sunday run down the Upper Gauley, I dumped 5 times the entire run, including just twice getting to Lost Paddle.

The Condor is also much easier to paddle in its production form than previous prototypes. The edges are still there to carve against, but I don't feel like I'm fighting them, even when I get tired. Coming out of drops when I could feel the edges starting to engage, in my head I was thinking "oh crap, they're going to catch and I'm going to spin out" but that doesn't happen, they disengage easily and I continue blasting on downstream. Overall the boat is a million times easier to paddle than the first prototype.

The Condor is still fast, and that speed is fun to play with. Compared to a Rebel, it's not going to be as fast in a straight line, but the dryness and ease of paddling will make it easier to go farther without dumping, so in racing it's probably a wash. I'm 5'10" 180 and it felt like I could have thrown 100lbs of gear in and still floated just fine. I'm really excited to build out mine for overnighters.

In short, the Condor is the canoe that I am most excited to paddle now. It seems like every other post is a "rah rah this is the best boat ever" post and I've been guilty of that before, but I honestly preferred it over the Option on the Gauley and the Green. If I was running Raven Fork, I'd probably want the Option but anything else and I think I'll be choosing the Condor. #cawcaw