Except it was not 56
The figure going around the Western PA Solo Canoe Rendezvous was 84 . That was not from us groupies but from DY , Charlie and Harold Deal( who were involved in the DF) at one of the presentations where we looked at some differences between solo boats there.
While the SRT was designed on its own by Harold Deal and there are differences between it and the DF there are also more similarities between them than with other solos. The extended shoulder is a striking similarity.
We had both there and were able to feel up and paddle both.
Keep yer little boats
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I'm with JackL on a more all-purpose craft. Of my fleet, I thought of the Rendezvous because it was supposedly designed to be the one boat. But, if all alse had to go, it would be the Appalachain that stayed.
Other posters recommended Prospectors, and I hear the Appy resembles them. A little fuller and heavier, but you can still carry the Appy. Great for WW, great for poling, tolerable for flatwater. Lots of gear. Can haul an extra person or AndyS cooler or 11 reclaimed auto tires if you need to. You never know when a kayaker is going to need to have you float his kayak out on your bow.
If I had a Penobscot, that might be the one that stayed.
~~Chip
MR 15’ Synergy?
I had to look that up. It looks like a flatwater SOT kayak, and I only see 12’ and 14’ versions.
Are you talking about this boat?
I simply meant
that both hulls would serve similar uses for the OP. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
Esquif Echo
Pleasant, predictable and fun royalex 14 footer. Fits me and my brown hound quite well. Also looks real sharp with the wood gunwales.
See you on the water,
Marshall
The River Connection, Inc.
www.the-river-connection.com
whitewater boat
He’s talking about an old school whitewater tandem from the days before Mad River got assimilated by Confluence. Scroll down a little in the linked thread and you’ll see a couple of pictures:
http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?17842-Mad-River-Discontinued-Other
I’ve often thought it’d be a better boat for running class 2/3 with my kids than the Dimension I use now - they’d be able to reach the water and do cross strokes more easily in a narrower boat like the Synergy.
Cool, never saw a Synergy before
Can’t see below the WL in any of the pics but it kinda looks like a longer Outrage X from the surface.
Actually
That’s my reality - only enough room in the shed for one canoe. Better half refuses to do anything other than kayak, so sea kayaks, my ww kayak, bikes, and a sunfish take up the rest of the shed.
I had a Penobscot 16 for years, and when I decided it was time to get a true solo canoe, the Penob had to go. I still miss it, but I really love my Yellowstone Solo, so it’s all good.
If it weren’t for a rocky river just down the hill from the house, though, I’d have seriously considered a Bell Magic.
Similar, but the Outrage X is, I believe
symmetrical, while the Synergy is definitely swedeform. I think the designers expected Synergy teams to put the heavier paddler in the back of the boat. The Synergy bow is slimmer below with a bit less rocker. The stern is fatter below and somewhat cocked up. For solo, I rig mine a bit cab-forward for speed and tracking, but with my long and heavy torso, I can lean back onto the fatter part, and get the chines to bite so the boat will tighten a turn into an eddy.
Because the Synergy is rather tubular, it is nasty for side-surfing. Also, it is not as good at ferrying across strong currents as my MR Guide, because the Synergy’s tubular hull is likely to get grabbed by the current and turned downstream. But otherwise, the Synergy will handle technical maneuvers as well as some shorter boats.
That’s the second time you’ve used
the phrase “feel up” with regard to canoes. Usually I only hear that used with regard to large animal veterinary practice and elevator socializing.
Everything’s relative. The Royalex
Rendezvous is certainly much faster than anything I’ve paddled on a lake, though for me as a WW paddler, it is too “stiff” for maneuvering in rapids.
I sometimes suggest the Rendezvous for people that need some speed on lakes but have to run rapids now and then. The Millbrook Patriot and AC/DC are alternatives, but would be too squirrely for some.
Thanks for Synergy pix
Don’t remember that boat, but some some the 15’ tandem/solo WW boats of the 80’s and 90’s were brilliant.
I did my best technical and had my most fun paddling WW tandem ME with a good partner, and the ME in retrospect was my favorite solo WW canoe. However, it was incompetent on FW in wind. Perhaps the Synergy has less than the ME’s 5" of symmetrical rocker.
I recall a Caper and Caption from Dagger that were in that category of delightful tandem/solo.
Okay. I simply misunderstood …
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... that you were saying the Wildfire (your stated preference), the SRT and the Dragonfly could all similarly satisfy the OP's objectives. Well, a lot of boats have now been nominated for that purpose, but of course they almost all have different designs.
I thought you might be making a specific claim about design and performance similarities between the Dragonfly and SRT, which some posters have in fact been doing in certain venues. I believe this claim is wrong, and so do Dave Curtis and Harold Deal. Harold recently wrote a history of the Dragonfly design features and performance to straighten out some of this misinformation.
The Synergy is about as bad in lake
wind as the ME, though when I’ve loaded it with camping gear on western river runs, it has shown less tendency to blow around. I still hope to get to paddle an ME sometime, or just to get another chance to look at its lines. I should have paid more attention when my friend Jack lost his grip on his ME while roping it down the steep side of Chicken Coop Gap to the Upper Conasauga. The boat shot down the slope until it pitoned into a white pine, causing a jagged split down the front stem. It was hard getting duct tape to stick in that cold weather…
involving lawyers or evacuation
My 91, MR Indy.
If large lakes were included it would be the MR Traveler.
If the east coast had to be evacuated or lawyers were involved, it would be the Traveller.
no question about it
Kruger Sea Wind
would love to read that history
Is Deal’s writeup available on the Web somewhere? A quick Google search didn’t find it.
Mark
Contact Harold
Harold sent me a copy privately because he knows I’m interested in canoe history, but I’m not sure if it’s for public distribution.
It’s mainly an explanation of the features of the Dragonfly, what in Harold’s personal paddling experience led up to those features, and what he was trying to accomplish with them in the racing context of the times.
He deliberately avoids comparing the Dragonfly to other boats. The rest of us can form our own opinions on that subject and discuss them.
He also comments briefly on the development of Crossfire, Shaman and SRT – his comments on the latter two being not much more than what’s published on the Hemlock website.
I’m not sure what constitutes
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serious technical maneuvering in class 2-3, but I did it for about 7 years in the Dagger Legend 16 fitted out with full float bags and paddled reverse from the front seat. Most of that was on the James River, both upper and lower Richmond sections, but made about 2 dozen trips to the Yough (flipped it once at Railroad, and a couple of times at River's End until I stopped trying the straight on hero route and made the left eddy behind the rock), and quite a few others on the Appomattox, Shenandoah, and Rappahannock WW sections, even the New. Now, I'm a pretty big guy, so that helped a lot, but that boat ran a lot of technical stuff very well I thought and was tough enough when it took a beating. Maybe I just didn't know any better ;^).
solo ???
Jack L