Anyone know much about this model? I found a description that referred to it as basically being a royalex version of the Malecite.
Is that an accurate description?
Would it be suitable for Class II and some III river tripping?
thanks
Matt
I would not say that the Malecite would
be right for class 2(3) river tripping. But some Malecite fanatics are sure to disagree. I don’t recall anything about the Eclipse. But the first thing is to be clear about what boats will fill your need, and ignore the rest.
I’ve said elsewhere that the Malecite is the best of the V-bottom Mad River designs, and an excellent pocket tandem. But by my standards, it does not have enough rocker or freeboard, nor enough ability to spin, for whitewater. I had a friend who campaigned a Mad River Explorer on class 3(4) whitewater with success, but he was a very, very good open boater.
I Dunno
I have an Eclipse and it is much like the Malicite. It’s symetrical which the Malecite isn’t and the bow is much rounder the the Malicite due to being made of royalex I’ve been told. It’s made of roylax lite so it does scratch much easier. I have had mine in mild class II and wouldn’t take it into class III due to the low freeboard.
It is a nice hull and fast but soloing it I find I need to plan my turns a bit a head of time.
I still need to put new rails and decks on this summer.
http://scooter-bangortoportland.blogspot.com/2011/07/mad-river-eciplse-fix.html
dougd
What he said. (nm)
dougd, Mad River says the Malecite
is symmetrical, and that’s how it has always appeared to me, the Old Boat Inspector.
You might go up and get the “reply” by the original post, so it doesn’t appear that you’re replying to my post.
“Royalex Light”
– Last Updated: May-29-12 11:31 PM EST –
Recently I asked a question here about the nature of the lightweight Royalex that was used in the Eclipse. The "final answer", provided by a few p-netters and verified by the info in some old Mad River catalogs, turned out to be that this type of lightweight Royalex is exactly the same in all respects to regular Royalex, except that it is thinner than the Royalex used in other Mad River boats. Thus there should be no tendency to get scratched more easily than "regular" Royalex since the outer layer is the same material in either case. However, to my eye, regular Royalex is anything BUT scratch resistant.
I might add that I've been paddling an Eclipse quite a bit so far this year. It's been a while since I've paddled a Royalex tandem, and I'd nearly forgotten how flexible they are in the bottom. Were it not for the V-shape of the hull, the crosswise curvature would disappear or even reverse itself when carrying a person at each end but no really heavy cargo on the floor in-between them. Not everyone who sees this flexing actually "sees" it, but I'm fussy and I notice such things. Looking at puddled water on the floor makes the nature of that flexing pretty obvious too. I don't consider it very fast at all, but then, my paddling partner isn't really strong. This boat has, by far, the fattest and bluntest entry at the bow of any canoe I've ever seen (except for some whitewater boats), which shouldn't contribute to speed. I like it though. I'd call it a pretty average general-purpose boat, and have enjoyed using it a lot.