Hi, am about to do a race in an OC2 where you have to wear a PFD - some well intentioned European thing I guess. Usually I wear a back pack style hydration pack but this isn't good over a PFD. Having looked at some photos of OC1s etc there seems to be a variety of approaches to where the hydration pack gets mounted. I'd prefer to maybe tape it onto the deck and use an extension tube if necessary so the pack is out of the way. Anyone have experiences of this? Does tape stay well fixed to a deck during a 2hr race?
An alternative could be using some kind of lightweight bag and attaching the bladder onto the iako instead - again thoughts on this or other approached appreciated before I start randomly buying things to try out.
cheers
Adam
Submitted by stylo on Sun, 04/25/2010 - 1:01am
There are plenty of PFD's about that have a hydration pocket mounted on them.
http://dmcleish.com/pfd/index.html
#1 Sun, 04/25/2010 - 1:21am
Depending on your backpack style hydration pack and PFD, you could try to undo the shoulder straps of the hydration pack and wrap it (or route it) on the PFD to secure them together. That way you wear the PFD without having the added restriction you get from the hydration pack straps.
You could also look into a waistpack hydration system such as the Camelbak FlashFlo 45 0z bladder, Camelbak Catalyst 28 oz bladder or the KoleGear Waist Pack with 60 oz pressurized bladder system. http://kole-gear.com/
Tape can work on the deck to secure the bladder, but you need to wipe the area with some alcohol before you apply the tape to remove any wax or slippery residue so the tape will hold.
#2 Sun, 04/25/2010 - 2:48am
I don't think you'd want it on the iako.
#3 Sun, 04/25/2010 - 6:41am
The pressurized system looks pretty good especially if you have the bag further away from you.
One of the goals was to try and get the 3-4 kgs of weight lower down so maybe a waist bag will do the job - just would be nice not to have anything attached to your body. If we were using our own boat for the race we could mod it a bit but this isn't the case
Thanks for the input.
Adam
#4 Mon, 04/26/2010 - 8:57am
Here is a good showing of whats out there available.
http://www.moosejaw.com/moosejaw/shop/search_hydration-pack____
simpler ones ... http://cascadedesigns.com/platypus
aloha,
pog
#5 Mon, 04/26/2010 - 9:51am
A bicycle water bottle basket zip tied to the Iako with the pressurized bladder secured into it keeps it off the body and does not require boat mods.
#6 Mon, 04/26/2010 - 9:48am