| Subject: Re: How much does your boat weigh? |
Author:
cameron
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Date Posted: 20:35:49 03/06/02 Wed
In reply to:
james
's message, "Re: How much does your boat weigh?" on 10:57:50 03/05/02 Tue
I have paddled:
powerplay 11kg - fibreglass and ended up with a lot of patches and much heavier
Rogue 8.8kg - kevlar much nicer boat and weight to paddle, but as Rogues break, it did
Rogue 6.8kg - carbon, oh god it was light, great to fling around, distorted badly and needed 14 (!!!!!!!!) patches after 2 comps
Flame 2000 9.8kg- carbon/kevlar, demo boat that took a pounding and never needed a patch, very stiff and fast
Flame 2000 Fatboy 9.6kg- kevlar, demo boat, again a pounding with one patch, stiff and fast
Flame 2002 prototype 8.2kg - kevlar, good weight yet still stiff, flexes more than last two under impact but definitely nicer to throw round not including the modification.
And after all that, I would alway want a boat under 10kg being competitive and preferrably under 9kg. When you are talking getting down to 8kg or under you are looking at a boat that is competitive and not built to last unless you want to shell out for carbon as James has described.
All boats will break eventually, that is a fact, but the breakage depends on so many things such as construction, amount of use, quality of build and the paddlers weight and technique. Since putting on weight it has been noticeable that my deck is taking more of a hammering with going under people.
Fibreglass boats are heavier generally as they need more fibre/resin to make up for their lower strength and intolerance to flex. With being able to flex, kevlar boats can be made lighter, though too much flexing causes a boat to slow and the layers can delaminate/break up. Hence we feel that 8.5-9kg is an excellent compromise between lightness and strength. Carbon goes back to very stiff, but tends to shear under impact so kevlar is normally incorporated for impact resistance.
Well I have probably said too much so I will leave it at that. Please feel free to contact me if you want to chat.
Cameron
021 703095
www.virtuosity.net.nz
PS: I don't think one single person has ever told us a weight they would like their boat, I don't think that many people care or do they trust us to make their boat a good weight?
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