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| - | ==== Westport mayhem ==== | ||
| - | |||
| - | **flypaddle** \\ | ||
| - | 06/18/08 #4527 | ||
| - | |||
| - | Hey Gang, | ||
| - | |||
| - | Yesterday, I had a few meeting's scheduled with some contractors in\\ | ||
| - | Westport (which is on the coast for those of you that don't know), so\\ | ||
| - | I opted to barrel down the freeway with the V10L strapped to the car\\ | ||
| - | for some surfskiing afterwards. Once the meetings were out of the\\ | ||
| - | way, I jumped on the ski, and headed into the surf. In years prior, I\\ | ||
| - | would have launched the boat in the more protected shoreline of Grays\\ | ||
| - | Harbor, and paddled around the jetty into the ocean, but due to the\\ | ||
| - | fact that the Coast Guard has kicked me off that stretch of water\\ | ||
| - | twice (long story I won't bore you with now), I now make beach\\ | ||
| - | launches through the surf. Initially, the surf looked fairly small,\\ | ||
| - | but then the water always looks calmer from shore than in the water.\\ | ||
| - | I had made it through the first 4 sets of breakers that were approx.\\ | ||
| - | 3-4 feet tall. The last set was probably about a 5 foot tall breaker.\\ | ||
| - | I tried to time this wave so that it wouldn't break on my chest, but\\ | ||
| - | that didn't work. Before I knew it, I was looking up a wall of water\\ | ||
| - | that had just started to break above me. Once I recovered, and\\ | ||
| - | remounted from being knocked off my boat, I still had to make it past\\ | ||
| - | this set. This time I decided to be more aggresive and continue\\ | ||
| - | padling no matter how big that wall looks. That worked fine, and this\\ | ||
| - | time I had made it through unscathed... or so I thought. After\\ | ||
| - | getting through all the breakers, I noticed my boat wasn't responding\\ | ||
| - | like it should. It felt like I had no rudder response what so ever.\\ | ||
| - | Since the boat was still fairly manageable heading into the waves, I\\ | ||
| - | decided to go out about a mile off shore (since that's were the waves\\ | ||
| - | are bit consistant) and jump out to take a look at why I had no\\ | ||
| - | rudder response. It turns out that the rudder had just fallen out,\\ | ||
| - | and sank to the bottom. I have always reliezed that not having any\\ | ||
| - | pin in the assembly was a flaw in the system, but have never spent\\ | ||
| - | the time to correct it. Once I turned the boat around, I learned that\\ | ||
| - | this boat does not respond well in following seas. I finally made it\\ | ||
| - | back to the start of the breakers, and was wondering how I was going\\ | ||
| - | to get through. I waited for what seemed like the largest wave coming\\ | ||
| - | in, and jumped on the back of it hoping to ride it in as far as\\ | ||
| - | possible. While paddling on one side as hard as I could, and leaning\\ | ||
| - | the boat, that got me through two sets of breakers. the next three\\ | ||
| - | sets I jumped out of the boat and swam into shore holding the stern\\ | ||
| - | so that the boat would not go broadside to the waves. All this time\\ | ||
| - | hoping that no one was secretly video taping me and have me show up\\ | ||
| - | on some Utube site. Fortunatly the ocean was fairly sedate for\\ | ||
| - | Westport standards (Big water for Bellingham standards), and\\ | ||
| - | everything worked out fine. | ||
| - | |||
| - | The next rudder that goes on this boat will have at the very least a\\ | ||
| - | cotter, or shear pin within the assembly to avoid this issue again. I\\ | ||
| - | would also recommend this to anyone that has an epic surfski with the\\ | ||
| - | same compression fittings. This rudder hadn't been touched since last\\ | ||
| - | October, and has had a lot over hours / races with it before deciding\\ | ||
| - | to dislodge itself here. | ||
| - | |||
| - | See you on the water, | ||
| - | |||
| - | Joost | ||
| - | |||
| - | \\ | ||
| - | **Re: Westport mayhem\\ | ||
| - | Michael Gregory** \\ | ||
| - | 06/18/08 #4528 | ||
| - | |||
| - | Yo Joost,\\ | ||
| - | -Epic has recently gone back to using the pin through shaft system with the rudders.\\ | ||
| - | -Epic skis are world class, that's clear when one looks over race results all over the world. However, after learning the hard way, I now know that these boats need maintenance regularly. By that I mean - check all the fittings in the steering system -- foot plate, pedals, rudder lines, rudder assemby, etc. often.\\ | ||
| - | -Epic warranties all the parts generously and all parts can be disassembled/reassembled. Just like a real boat!\\ | ||
| - | -Oh BTW have I told you guys that the V10Sport Ultra is the best all-around surfski ever?\\ | ||
| - | Best, Mike. | ||
| - | |||
| - | \\ | ||
| - | **Another Rudder Story\\ | ||
| - | Bob Putnam** \\ | ||
| - | 06/19/08 #4532 | ||
| - | |||
| - | Here in Deep Cove we have a 6 AM training group. Mon & Thurs.\\ | ||
| - | Last Monday we were doing "dock sprints". Sprint two, rest two and\\ | ||
| - | so on. We were reaching the last interval when Jodi ran full speed\\ | ||
| - | into a rock that was about 3 inches below the water. This left about\\ | ||
| - | 3 -4 inches of rudder smacking into the rock. The stern of her V10\\ | ||
| - | Ultra lifted a foot out of the water. | ||
| - | |||
| - | We went to shore and the rudder was severely bent and had pulled from\\ | ||
| - | the fitting. There was a crack in the hull but the rudder had not\\ | ||
| - | penetrated. I was impressed by the ability of the hull to resist\\ | ||
| - | this impact. I had once clipped a rock on my old Millenium and the\\ | ||
| - | rudder buried itself into the hull causing the ski to take on water.\\ | ||
| - | Here the Epic hull seemed impenetrable. | ||
| - | |||
| - | Jodi is a new paddler and she is 6 ft tall so I offered to paddle her\\ | ||
| - | ski back to Deep Cove. We took the rudder out. Initially is seem\\ | ||
| - | like this would be easy but once the ski got above 8km/hr it would go\\ | ||
| - | into a skid which was impossible to correct. After a bit I started\\ | ||
| - | paddling it backwards and this was pretty good. Only 4 km to go.\\ | ||
| - | Paddling in reverse exercises a whole new group of muscles. After\\ | ||
| - | about 2 km we tried some tandem paddling but that didn't work to\\ | ||
| - | well. | ||
| - | |||
| - | Finally I got fed up with paddling backwards and tried going forwards\\ | ||
| - | again. I finally got some success by edging the ski. By\\ | ||
| - | anticipating the skid and leaning the boat into it or away from the\\ | ||
| - | direction I wanted the ski to turn I could more or less keep it going\\ | ||
| - | in the desired direction. | ||
| - | |||
| - | Ya, that's it.\\ | ||
| - | Bob | ||
| - | |||
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