Decked L'Edge Conversion

Smurfwarrior · Post by **Smurfwarrior** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 2:07 pm

James, I know what you mean... My L'Edge gets here on Tues! Feels like Christmas!

D-Caption · Post by **D-Caption** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 1:31 am

Hey Louie, How much weight did you manage to shave off? Just curious.

D-Caption

Craig Smerda · Post by **Craig Smerda** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 8:19 pm

funkidreadz wrote:This is awesome, just like in the old days of custom chopping Ocoees!
And I only have 3days to go 'til L'Edge time, whoop whoop!
Paddle safe
James

I've really been enjoying watching how folks are personalizing them as well... and I'm going to be doing something special with one over the winter... can't talk about it though... kind've a top secret black box operation...

Craig Smerda · Post by **Craig Smerda** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 8:19 pm

Smurfwarrior wrote:James, I know what you mean... My L'Edge gets here on Tues! Feels like Christmas!

don't you mean TODAY ?

Smurfwarrior · Post by **Smurfwarrior** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 11:18 pm

Yeah, it came a day earlier than planned! Gotta love Old Dominion Shipping and The Appomattox River Company (www.paddleva.com) Got ledge Serial # 50, pretty cool. Here's my humble opinion after paddling it this afternoon.

Took it off a slide with a big rooster tail at the bottom with a very swirly section than then drops into a surf wave. It made me giggle. Normally I'm bracing like a drunk sailor at sea, but the Ledges stability didn't require anything but a smile. Dumping it was a pain in the butt, I'll be doing the mod Craig posted asap. Surfing reminded me of a cross between an ocoee and a CC Bulldog. Love how it likes to do a wheelie on the face of a wave. The wave I was on wasn't good at all for anything but front surfing, so I'll have to wait to do anything else. Rolling it was cool, only came up with about 4" of water each time. My airbags I ordered haven't arrived yet so I had to make due with some small NRS ones that leak like crazy. With the bow and stern filled up with airbags more, I'm sure it will take on even less water when I roll. I've been using my Zoom the most lately, and with that as a mental ruler I'm super pleased. It takes a bit more effort to move, and doesn't quite zip around in and out of the current quite so quick but I think that's a good thing as I'll be using it to step up my game. Big Thanks to Craig for all he's done to bring us this boat... I love it.

Lappie · Post by **Lappie** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 11:35 pm

Ok I konow that very body that tryed it love it... But since it is so stable and so predictable, don't you find it "dull", not lively or sporty??
just asking!

Smurfwarrior · Post by **Smurfwarrior** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 11:48 pm

No, not at all. Its not THAT stable, just a good healthy dose of easy to predict stability.

kanur · Post by **kanur** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 12:40 pm

Lappie wrote:Ok I konow that very body that tryed it love it... But since it is so stable and so predictable, don't you find it "dull", not lively or sporty??
just asking!

A lot of us that are commenting on the stability are coming from paddling Preludes, Zooms, and Skeeters. Very unstable boats.

The L'Edge is very lively and sporty just not so much unstable.

Scal · Post by **Scal** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 7:00 pm

I sure would like to know how dry is Louie's conversion. I still don't know yet if I should cut my deck or not. I love the look of the cut deck but I like the dryness of the deck too.

taoslightning · Post by **taoslightning** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 2:00 am

A plywood template for the end plates made out of scrap, a palm router for $100, $40 for milled white ash gunwales from Colonial Hardwoods, some patience, and I now have an full-on OPEN L'Edge ----- PRICELESS.

I'll share photos this weekend.

Routers go through rotomolded plastic like a hot knife through butter.

Smurfwarrior · Post by **Smurfwarrior** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 2:06 am

Can you give specs on the wood? Length, thickness and all that. Thanks!

taoslightning · Post by **taoslightning** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 2:48 am

You'll need four strips of White ash milled at 3/4" x 3/4" x 10'; one strip of ash milled at 1.5" x 1" x 10' for the thwarts. After you get the gunwales lined up you'll know how much to trim from the 10', it's your preference. I'm thinking of adding two additional thwarts for strength / stiffness.; one in the front for sure. I'll see how it does this weekend.

taoslightning · Post by **taoslightning** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 12:10 am

Here's the link to the final product. I apologize for the lateness in closing out my post but I don't own a digital camera.

http://picasaweb.google.com/kirkpeterdi ... Conversion#

Once I opened it up, I discovered the saddle was installed off center quite a bit in the aft section. I don't know if that has anything to do with my right leg getting sore after a few hours - it might though. Any ideas on ripping out the saddle for re-install with the least amount of damage?

golder · Post by **golder** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 1:36 am

when i bought my new fly a year ago, i found my saddle installed a bit off in the rear as well. i think it was around 3/4 or 1" off of center, making it not quite parallel to the boat. i dont notice a difference paddling it though...

ian123 · Post by **ian123** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 1:52 am

Least damaging would be to leave it alone. If you didn't notice it was crooked until you tore the boat apart, it can't be that bad. I might just leave it as is a little longer.

If you have too, it should come out with the careful application of a putty knife.