Frozen Fuze

Check out the pic below of the community photo: This is what my boat looked like this morning when I went out to paddle,
Friday April 6 , 2007.
http://www.ocpaddler.com/gallery/?g2_itemId=65130

Eric McNett

Submitted by fuzerider on Fri, 04/06/2007 - 5:48am



Almost 100 degrees here today.


#1 Fri, 04/06/2007 - 4:57pm


Hey E,
Got my Fuze home yesterday. Took it out for a spin in +3 Celcius today. Feels real good cold or not :-)

Mahalo,
Danno


#2 Sun, 04/08/2007 - 9:27am


Danno,
Glad to hear you like da boat ...

It`s always cool to paddle in the northeast, especially in April.


#3 Sun, 04/08/2007 - 11:58am


Thats WHY I live in Hawaii, DON"T want to have to wear a full body suit, and life jacket, just to enjoy a paddle.

FUZE RIDERS UNITE!!!!!!!

Paddle with Strength, PONO and ALOHA


#4 Sun, 04/08/2007 - 2:27pm


Send your tax exempt dollars to Fuzeriders Hawaiian housing fund...


#5 Sun, 04/08/2007 - 2:33pm


lol... so how you guys like your fuzes ? stroke style etc..


#6 Sun, 04/08/2007 - 5:12pm


Well... Since you asked , Ill tell you why I like da Fuze. Anything I say on this subject is purely personal opinion. First of all , to me the Fuze looks like an OC1 should look, its lines were not created, or even aided by a cad machine , they were created by top OC1 paddlers offering thier suggestions to the shaper so that the shape will work better with the ocean. The Fuze works incredibly well with the ocean , lake or river. With the right bloke or Wahine in the cockpit , the Fuze will win races anywhere anytime, upwind , downwind, in the flats or a rough sea. I have hundreds of hours of cockpit time in da Fuze. The boat has shown me that Karel Tresnak knows his stuff.
The Fuze is appealing to look at , it looks like its at home in the sea, which it is.
As a glider pilot for many years , I
ve come to notice that highly evolved sailplanes are shaped for high performance in the atmosphere and at the same time become incredibly beautiful to look at. Many times (with gliders and OC1s` ) the most beautiful ones are also the best performers.


#7 Thu, 04/12/2007 - 2:54am


Waxing poetic Fuzerider. I'm glad Karel knows how to shape canoes, I just hope he has learned how to make them. My Stingray and several other Stingrays fell apart after very little use and Outrigger Connection never even ackowledged the problem. I even sent Karel a certified letter and I never even got a return note. I hope they do better with customer service and boat construction after the Stingray debacle. I've attached a picture of the "beautiful" seam repair Wenonah did on a relatively new boat that split down the seam.


#8 Mon, 04/09/2007 - 3:32pm


My old Dodge is falling apart too and that dang Lee Iacoca still ain`t returning my calls.


#9 Mon, 04/09/2007 - 4:37pm


Nice picture fuze.

its lines were not created by a cad machine

There are no CAD machines that create lines by itself. CAD is merely a tool that's available, not something magical that does design work for you. Maybe you didn't mean it literally like that -- either way just wanted to clear any misconceptions.


#10 Mon, 04/09/2007 - 5:04pm


In defense of Karel, It sounds like this boat was a boat built by Current designs/ wenonah canoes, NOT Karel. It is really too bad that Karel's name is associated with the the boats that Current Designs made. I don't know all the details about what happened, I do know that Karel has basically forgotten about the Stingray and is allowing CD to continue making the boat in China, Here is my suggestion, and this stands for any boat purchased, Talk with the dealer you bought it from, make them deal with it. If they won't help you out contact the manufacturer. in your case call Current designs and Wenonah canoes, (507) 454-5430. You all pay good money for your boats, DON'T accept less than top quality work...EVER. I always stress to my customers that if they have a problem I want to hear about it. I would much rather talk with them and hear a complaint than read about a problem here. A dealer or manufacturer can't fix a prolem if they arn't aware of it. And a small isolated problem can look like a huge issue if left to fester in a blog or bulitin board.


#11 Mon, 04/09/2007 - 5:33pm


Right on the money Ocean Ohana. I had one of the Stingrays from the "debacle" era too. But, you know, one thing I noticed at the time was that the boats that Karel was building in Hawaii were coming out pristine. None of the problems associated with the manufacture of those boats built in Canada originated in Hawaii.
Every single large manufacturer of outrigger canoes has had some problems with thier boats at one time or another.
Its true that the dealers of these boats can make a huge difference in customer relations between the manufacturing side and the paddling community.
Personaly , if I had a problem with a canoe built in Canada I wouldn
t send a certified letter to Hawaii asking for an explaination, I would have sent it to Canada.
In fact , this is exactly what I did . My new Canadian built Stingray arrived with a leaky ama so, I called the guys up there and they said they would send me a new one. They did as they promised , I got a new ama at no charge , to this day that Stingray is paddled regularly on the ocean in the New York City area and has had no more problems that I`m aware of.
If Fredda needs better conflict resolution on this matter, I will do what it takes to fix it .


#12 Tue, 04/10/2007 - 1:35am


Fuzerider,
Someday when you have a couple of hours I will share the letters and list of phone calls to Wenonah concerning these horribly made boats. I did send the "official" certified letter to Wenonah and sent a curtousy copy certified to Outrigger Connection hoping they would stand by their name but I never heard from anyone. The boats were never repaired properly and we are still experiencing problems. My real dissappointment was that no one from Outrigger Connection ever contacted me or even acknowledge there was a problem. It was a horrible customer services experience dealing with Wenonah and apparently OC washed their hands of the entire process. I paddle a Hurricane now but there are three troublesome Stingrays in the club that members struggle with continually making repairs because they can't afford to buy another boat. Any help from your end with these troublesome boats would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for offering to help Eric.


#13 Tue, 04/10/2007 - 2:39am


Fredda ,

All of this happened way before my time , please respond to my personal email address at :
wehuli@prexar.com and we will get it sorted out.

Aloha,

Eric


#14 Tue, 04/10/2007 - 3:04am


I think it would really help if the manufacturers had written warranties with every purchase of a new canoe. Outlining what they are willing to stand by and for how long - hey some of the boats leak or have connection problems or worse. Paddlers dish out good money for a perfect product - they deserve to get that. ( you would expect that with a new piece of electonics! )
. I would suggets that Manufacturers need to set up repair shops wherever they have dealers so boats can be fixed.- obviously they can't be sent back to china.
Customer service is really where it's at. You know Wenonah is not really interested in outrigger as they are in canoes and kayaks, so it is no wonder that they dissed customers on the Stingray. It 's just one more boat in their lineup.


#15 Tue, 04/10/2007 - 6:30am


Not very many of us get paid to paddle and for most of us $2800-3000 is a lot of money. When you shell out that kind of money for a product you would expect it to last longer than one short east coast season before you start having significant problems. I know I treat my OC-1 like it's a Fabergé egg. So when the seam cracks and the ama falls apart it's pretty upsetting. Especially if it's the first NEW boat you have ever purchased.

My main beef with Outrigger Connection was their lack of acknowledgement. I don't care who made the boats for them, their name is on the boat and they should resolve customer issues if their authorized manufacturer is unwilling. I manage construction and when one of my subcontractors does a crappy job I step in and make it right for the customer. I don't just step back and say "well that's my sub and I'm sorry he screwed up, he won't come back and fix it; guess you should be mad at my sub."


#16 Tue, 04/10/2007 - 7:09am


Not a whole lot of people are aware that products sold may be covered by two implied warranties, depending on where you live. 1) Warranty of Fitness for Particular Purpose; and 2) Warranty of Merchantability. In jurisdictions that enforce these common law warranties, these warranties are "implied" in a sales contract even though no express or written warranties have been provided.

The Warranty of Fitness is a warranty implied by law that if a seller knows or has reason to know of a particular purpose for which some item is being purchased by the buyer, the seller is guaranteeing that the item is fit for that particular purpose. This warranty is applicable to both consumer and merchants who buy goods and requires that the seller know or have reason to know of a specific purpose for which the good sold will be used.

The Warranty of Merchantability is a warranty implied by law that if a merchant (meaning someone who makes an occupation of selling things) sells something, that merchant is guaranteeing that the goods are reasonably fit for the general purpose for which they are sold. This warranty generally applies to one who is a merchant and regularly deals in the type of merchandise sold--like a retail paddling store. There are a couple of other elements to this warranty that apply that are not covered here.

Although the costs, effort and energy it takes to litigate claims made against these warranties are major disincentives, you could bring your own small claims action, pro se, to recover the cost to have your defective canoe repaired if the manufacturer fails to cure the defect.

Snarf


#17 Tue, 04/10/2007 - 8:03am


Living in Hawaii, I have full access to Karel and OC. With that said, I was ensured by the man himself that if I have problems with my canoe. Not related to paddling, I would take it to them for repair. I don't know what happend with the Stingray, it at one time was an excellent canoe. I even think JR, took it across the channel and placed high in it. But if you out source your mold to another company to build in your name, you could run into problems. For instance when I picked up my canoe from OC, I originally had one color. But during manufacturing process, the canoe developed a blemish in the keel. Instead of giving me the canoe. Karel said I could take any FUZE that was ready for delivery, or take my canoe and a new paddle. Not wanting to take a chance with a blemish I took a different color (not too mention the ugly look I got from MY SO). I also know that Karel makes many trips to China to oversee the building of his canoes, that might not have been the case, with current designs. As FUZERIDER says, I love my FUZE. Can't make the winning claims that he does, because I'm using it for training and fun. Just my two pennies.

Paddle with Strength, PONO and ALOHA


#18 Tue, 04/10/2007 - 1:16pm


I'm sure Karel is a great guy and I don't doubt that if you are dealing with him in Hawaii it's an entirely different scenerio. But the fact is he has not made an effort to resolve quality issues with his boats produced in North America. So until that happens he will continue to reap the results of some poor business decisions. My grousing can be placated by an apology from Outrigger Connection and some compensation for one of our club members whose boat was horribly "repaired" and still falling apart.


#19 Wed, 04/11/2007 - 2:10am


Wasn;t this post about the frozen canoe? Great picture Eric!


#20 Wed, 04/11/2007 - 5:41am


Eric and Bill Gassett are insane in the membrane for paddling in winter weather. When I lived in VA, my club, Sandbridge Outrigger, called me for a paddle during a winter month and I told them to never call this island boy unless it's over 70 degrees out! I moved to Great Lakes, IL and have paddled my Stingray (Canadian) on Lake Michigan. I thought the water was warm enough in June but fell into 41 degree water and never righted the canoe and got back on top so fast ever before.
I had the same issue with my Stingray with seam splitting and ama tightening screws pushed in and surrounding fiberglass cracking. I called Wenonah and got a new canoe (ama, iakos, everything brand new at no extra cost) delivered to my new location up here in Illinois. The guy who delivered mine had multiple Fuzes enroute to Eric. It took over a year but they were pleasant and cooperative. I guess my persistence with phone calls and emails every 3-6 months resulted in a satisfied customer.


#21 Wed, 04/11/2007 - 3:09pm


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