i’ve dabbled with C1 ing for years as an all around canoeist. i no longer have a solo playboat, but decided to dabble again by buying an old Dagger Cascade for cheap. it’s not bad, but very heavy and it can’t really surf much.
one of my main issues (with decked craft) is fit because of my leg length. the Cascade is shallow. flat like a pancake so is hard to get into/out of and worst of all, has no secondary stability because it has almost no sides to it. i bought an I:3 kayak and thought about turning it into a C1 but it is just so dam easy to kayak, why screw it up?
is there a decent c boat conversion that is relatively friendly to paddle, light and small enough to toss into your vehicle? would a modern creek boat make a good conversion?
Ask these guys…
http://cboats.net/cforum/index.php
Several discussions on what boats are best to convert. Some also post here. I have a friend who likes the sub-6 for play and the m:3 for creekin’.
Cascade
I think the Cascade is as friendly as you will find.
Kayak conversions tend to be narrow and edgy (or narrow and rolly if they are creekers).
I would have said the Cascade is roomy, stable, predictable to a fault and slow.
Some folks (me) aren’t crazy about the Dagger C1 saddle so you might try different outfitting for comfort.
The cboats site mentioned above is an excelent resource.
is cboat still active?
last i checked it seemed to be almost exactly the same as it was a few years ago. i wasn’t sure if people still go on it or add modern boats to it.
yup, active
I don’t know much about C-1s, but I agree with Tommy that the big ol’ Cascade is about as stable as they come. Outfitting can make all the difference, so maybe try some changes there.
I’m 210lbs and I’m considering looking for a conversion boat for river running and playing. From what I’ve read, good boats for me might be a Wavesport Score or Z, or a Super EZ, or an Ace 5.1, I’m sure there are many.
What this boats have in common is a roomy cockpit and a wide base (25-26"). A bit of searching will tell you which manufacturers have comfy cockpits. Searching cboats.net should give you lots of info about conversions.
P.
You should at least try a Dagger Atom
while there are still some around, used. A hot-handling boat, and a good front-surfer on waves. Also the Robson Finkenmeister, though it works better for larger paddlers. I can’t tell you must about conversions… I have only paddled boats designed as C-1s from the ground up, except for one Dagger Animas conversion which really didn’t work.
C1 ???
Half the paddle…
…twice the man, or at least that’s what they’ll tell you. A C-1 conversion is a kayak that’s had the cockpit modified to be paddled in a kneeling position using a single-bladed paddle. C-1 paddlers can be recognized by their unusually long spray skirt tunnels, air of moral superiority, and complaints of knee and ankle pain at the takeout.
Half the stick, twice the fun.
C1, in this case a decked whitewater canoe.
There are plenty of boats designed as C1 but most of those currently available are composite slalom designs. Because of the lack of tuperware playboat designs many people convert kayaks as Angstrom said.
More than you ever wanted to know at Cboats.net
And yes, at the end of a run I crawl until my feet wake up.
yeah, i sort wish i put down a few more
bucks for a used Atom. i might be enjoying it more. it’s not the the Cascade doesn’t have primary stability. it does, and i’m comfortable in it. but it can hardly be leaned at all. i imagine a modern creek kayak with depth and volume (i could care less about swaping ends when canoeing) would do everything better than the Cascade, and be surfable as well. i would like something that paddled like a Phantom but in a Cboat.
i’ll read up more on Cboat.net.
thanks y’all.