My wife and I both have Prijon Calabrias, and are looking into spray skirts. The cockpit size on the Calabria is 36X18. I see many spray skirts that show a size up to 35X19, or 35X18.5. Would these fit? I don’t know how much a spray skirt can be stretched if the measurement is close. Anyone have any suggestions on what may fit? Thanks
Spray Skirts
Either one should fit. And you do want them tight if you want to stay dry, especially in a roll.
What about this? Any opinions?
http://store.seattlesportsco.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=20&idproduct=153#details
Or This…
Seen on Sierra trading Post for $29
http://www.harmonygear.com/stuff/sprayskirts/sprayskirtsr1.html
You can get…
…some spray skirts–GOOD skirts–that will
fit from Prijon. www.wildnet.com or from
www.mountainsurf.com
either place will do right by you.
My WW boats (both Prijon) have mountainsurf
skirts and my Prijon Barracuda touring boat has
a Prijon skirt.
They are excellent and top quality.
Forget nylon
The first time you go out and learn to do amything involving being other than upright, you’ll find that the nylon sprayskirt just doesn’t cut it because it’ll pull up and water will pour into the cockpit. Go with above suggestions for a neo decked skirt, and it is less likely you’ll soon find yourself replacing it.
Usage
We’re doing creeks, streams, small lakes, etc, probably no attempt or interest in rolling. I see what you mean by the neopreme skirts being better in a roll situation, but for everyday, keep the rain, splashes,boat wakes out, would the ones in my previous posts work OK?
What ever you get
you will probably want to “rough up” the rim of the coaming with some very coarse sand paper to help keep the skirt on. It helped on my Calabria.
Go neo
It’s the only thing that stretches tight across the deck, allowing the water to run off cleanly. The nylon skirts sag and pool water, allowing it to drip into the cockpit.
Yup
Even upright you end up finding issues with the nylon skirts, it just takes a little longer. We started with them, as do most because they often are thrown in with the boat. They have some place in paddling, but I have yet to figure it out if you really spend a lot of time in them. We had a problem with them the first time we were caught in a downpour.
One caution - it sounds like this is a couple looking for skirts? Do not get talked into a super tight rand especially for you wife on the basis that it’ll keep you fully dry. While you are automatically going to have an easier time getting a skirt off a plastic boat coaming than a fiberglass, it isn’t uncommon for the super tight rands to be near impossible for women to get on and off without more strength than we have in our hand, wrists and lower arms. Or at least at the top of it - a place you don’t want to be in an emergency flip, where calmness is likely to be challenged just by being upside down.
You want to be fairly dry, but if it’s a question of safety in case of a flip a little bit of water is better. And it’s not like this is a sport where you really stay dry anyway.