Views on Unlimited OC6

AlexM

I am doing some research on the various unlimited OC6 models out there. There is some material scattered here and there (mostly glowing single race accounts connected to manufacturers’ own sites), but I thought it might be useful to me and others if we could aggregate some thoughts here from people’s experience of training, racing and living with them day in and day out.

As we post, could the poster also indicate where/what kind of water they paddle most of the time?

Mahalo

Submitted by AlexM on Mon, 01/05/2015 - 7:50pm

Aukina3

Having paddled most of the unlimiteds built in Hawaii I can speak for many people that these boats allow us to do things we never could imagine doing before. Catching bumps easier, going over bumps, rigging is a breeze, carrying them doesn't kill your back, transporting them on your truck, these are just some of the great things that make these unlimiteds so great. Also from where these boats started to how much they have changed is incredible. That being said I think if your looking for feed back you need to put some questions out there that you'd like answered that way you can get feedback on the different boats that are out there. I believe there are 6 current unlimiteds on the market being sold in Hawaii. You have sunny Bradley's design, pure canoes, Kamanu composites, tiger canoe, and ozone has two canoes one designed by mike giblin and the other by John Puakea. Also the layup of how these boats are made are extremely different as well. Some are foam/wood stripped, some are a molded wet layup, and some are made with prepreg in an autoclave.

#1 Thu, 01/08/2015 - 4:45pm

AlexM

Thanks, Aukina3.

I was hoping to get general view of whatever people think is good about their canoes, but a few key points that would be important to us would be:

Ease of rigging - the systems I have seen either entail inserting a carbon tube on a hole, or rigging yakos to the body and ama using rubber lashes. The first is secure, but if the angle of insertion is not 100% right, it is hell to rig. We have also experienced some expansion of our yakos and they are even tighter. Other clubs that use the lashing system have mentioned that there can be a bit of unnerving play in the rigging as waves slap the canoe around - nothing unsafe, but there ends up being some movement. I think some manufacturers experimented with collet rigging, but I am wondering about the long term reliability of that mechanism.
Speed in medium conditions and cross chop. We do not get the big Hawaiian swells here. Most of it are medium bumps, and a lot of times we get cross wind and chop. Things can get very nasty in races when waves refract off rocks (a lot of ours are around small islands) and create a washing machine effect. Of course, carry in flat-ish conditions would be good to know too.
Overall robustness - do people use their canoes to train day in and day out, or do they get too banged up if they do that?
Weight - good consideration, but not necessarily a deal killer. Honestly, most crews can shed the 30-40 pounds that separate different hulls from their collective love handles (a lesson learned from my cycling days when weight weenies would pay hundreds of dollars for a few grams less of weight while squeezing a fair bit of lard into their spandex).
What do people like/dislike about their canoes?

Cheers

Alex

#2 Mon, 01/12/2015 - 4:49pm

kauaisurf85

I just wrote like 4 paragraphs and my browser closed and deleted 100%...Prob for the better.

Summary

-Rubber is good enough but I am never 100% confident in Rubber Rigging.
-Click Rig is awesome nowadays.

-Love our Jean Wong V6 (surfs amazing in long open swells)
-Love the build quality of Tigers V6 (can scoot over bumps when surf is slightly chopped, and can still get some high top speeds)
-Love the complete quality of the Kamanu V6's (Surfs anything going your way on a slight angle)

#3 Mon, 01/12/2015 - 9:18pm

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#5 Tue, 01/20/2015 - 2:04pm

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