rob roy canoe
Hi Eric,
I was just looking for more info. on this boat when I spotted your comment “arghh” If you can’t afford it I definitely can’t! Maybe I’ll see you at Canoecopia? Lawrie
It’s a well-designed boat
– Last Updated: Mar-14-10 5:25 PM EST –
I looked at this boat at Canoecopia today. This boat has a ton of features that make it MUCH more versatile than the Bell version of the Rob Roy. The seat height is continuously adjustable between about 5 inches off the bottom of the boat all the way up to the coaming edge, and can be set up at any angle you wish, making it possible to do single-blade paddling from the kneeling position, and there are foot pegs for those who want to sit (in the Bell, you sit one inch off the bottom of the boat, so you are stuck with double-blade paddling). There's a back band for use when sitting. Dropping the seat all the way down allows quick access to gear stored behind the seat, and if you kneel, gear stored up front need not be stuffed way into the bow, so your overall weight stays near the boat's center (can't do that with the Bell). The cockpit is easily large enough for any kind of bailing that any person would ever need to do, unless you have the arm length of a gorilla and feel like you've been cheated if you can't use your entire reach when bailing. The cockpit will accept a full skirt if you are so inclined (the Bell version won't anchor a skirt behind the paddler, only in front of the paddler). The weight is a bit high (near 50 pounds), but future models are expected to be substantially lighter. In short, I thought the boat was pretty cool.
Oh, I should add that the specification for a 17-inch bow height is misleading. The actual depth of the boat does not appear to exceed 12 inches at any point along the length of the boat (center depth is supposedly 12 inches, but bow and stern depth looks to be exactly the same as center depth). The ends of the boat are upturned a little bit, and "maybe" if you set the boat on the floor the bow would reach a height of 17 inches off the floor, but the bow and stern DEPTH is much less than that, and the ends of the boat would not be "sails" at all, and the whole boat is very low-profile.
Continuously adjustable?
Sounds like a great boat but what do you mean by a continuously adjustable seat? Does Nova Craft have a new system for adjusting the seat. Can you adjust from kneeling height/angle to sitting height/angle while underway? The Nova Craft photos show a conventional hung seat. Did you get any photos? Thanks.
Joe
"Fully Adjustable"
You are correct, “continually adjustable” could be interpreted to be related to time, rather than the available seat positions. You can’t adjust the seat very easily while paddling, though you could if you really wanted to. I should have said it was “fully adjustable” because the seat can be adjusted to any position within the available range, rather than to just a few fixed, incremental settings as one might expect. Some won’t like the system, but it looks pretty solid to me. The four end posts of the seat have fittings that ride within vertical metal runners, and the seat is supported from underneath with webbing straps which have adjustment buckles as well as quick-release couplings (to allow instant dropping of the seat to reach gear stored behind it). There’s probably a very small amount of “play” in the seat, but nothing the average person would be concerned about.
By the way, the boat can be portaged in the normal “canoe way” when the seat is in the highest position, which is another advantage over other available Rob Roy designs.
Thanks NM
From a Bell RR owner
On one hand looks like a great semikneel single blade boat that could be doubled if need be. On the other hand where would my lab sit? It would be harder to stuff decoys or tend fishing rods via that smaller cockpit. The bell is probably gonna be more than a tad faster and like others I would definitely be more excited if the Nova craft was built more as a 16+ foot cruiser for eating up miles and tripping. Looks like a really cool boat though. Ill take mine in royalex (I wish) for a ozark stream boat and keep my Bell for tripping…
Here are
– Last Updated: Mar-16-10 6:30 PM EST –
some pics someone posted on another site:
http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?23217-NC-Rob-Roy
Looks like a nice seat. I'm curious what the weight is.
It seems that THAT’S the kind …
…of discussion I always see on modern, glitzy message boards. Loads of one-or two sentence comments (perhaps posted by people with too much internt experience and no attention span?), NO method of outlining the topics or subtopics, and almost everybody’s got a cutsie-pie catch phrase at the end of their post that shows up EVERY TIME they say anything. I hope p-net never gets modernized.
Weight:
– Last Updated: Mar-16-10 9:17 PM EST –
Earlier, I commented on weight after listening to the factory rep. The brochure I picked up says this:
Fiberglass = 45 pounds
Kevlar = 38 pounds
Kevlar/Spectra = 35 pounds
Blue Steel = 32 pounds
Apparently when the factory rep said weights would be substantially less in the near future, he was referring to the last three hull materials listed.
Fiberglass weight at show near 50 lbs
with the full rigging according to the rep that I talked to. They’d done a little strategic reinforcing since the original CAD estimated weights that are in the brochure.
I sure hope that they’re able to get the weight down a bit as they get more experience building these.
The seat did appear comfy for both sitting and kneeling. I didn’t expect it to be comfy, since it also was notched out to serve as portage yoke.
You’ll be able to test paddle one at Rutabaga in less than a month.
It was great meeting you at Canoecopia.