no doubt
which is why some of us are so keen to see what the Z is all about. it may be the ultimate rock slalom beat on boat. i do that in my Romany and i have to be more conservative than i’d like running dogleg slots, and i chew the bottom up to ratshit. lots of gel work for me later this summer, which cuts into paddling time.
i wish such a boat was made of thermaform material. i’ve taken out a Delta kayak and the stuff really bounces and slides well over the meat grinder rocks we’ve got on this Island paradise.
yeah
until it fails…and when it fails it breaks like an egg.
not for heavy duty use.
steve
or cold weather
Bring a section of thermoform below freezing and drop something like a 3 lb hammer on it from a couple of feet - no good.
is that so?
i wasn’t sure. there seems to be little consensus on how t-form holds up over time. i’ve been told that it may crack, but that it’s easy to repair with methacralyte or whatever it’s called. so a 5 year old t-form boat, paddled hard, imapacting rocks etc, will eventually bust all to hell? there is precious little info out there, even from the pros, so Steve, what has been your experience if you care to expand.
thanks.
Fit?
I am in the market for Zephyr, but no trying out in the area of south texas, so have to have it from yours and other experiences.
You said, the Zephyr 155 is wider than the tempest 160.This size does not show up in the 2008 catalogue, does it exist or doe you mean the 165? The tempest 165 is 1" narrower and 1" lower than the Zephyr? does that makes so much difference.
May I ask you your sizes and weight? I am 5.7/150lbs
Anybody else some relevant size references? They are welcome!
Thanks fo replying!
well now…
without dissing any many boats in specific, I have seen T-formed boats from a couple different manufacturers fail miserably. NOT necessarily just from hard abuse but from just good normal use and once just plain failure w/o much cause. a loaded boat sitting on a gravel beach and a 6" long crack.
'nuff said.
steve
Doesn’t that happen to composites too?
It seems that there have been some recent threads on how great the customer service has been for one particular composite kayak builder who’s been repairing boats that, in some cases, seem to have failed for no obvious reason.
The real question would seem to be, do the thermoform boats fail more than the composite boats do when used for the intended design purpose?