Opinions: OC 1 Performance Survey - Hurricane/Fusion/Zephyr Posted

eckhart

4 graphics:

the averages
Hurricane versus Fusion versus Zephyr
Fusion versus Zephyr
Hurricane versus Zephyr

Click on the web address of my blog to see.
Pueo soon to come

Submitted by eckhart on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 1:24pm

dacho

eck,

based on your data, here's a good graphical representation:

what's interesting is that if you looked at the chart, you would think that the fusion and zephyr are much more better boats in almost all respects except in flat water. (it could very well be)..

but based on people who have hurricanes, i think the gap between the boats are closer than it shows.

#1 Wed, 09/10/2008 - 2:10pm

eckhart

dacho - that's very pretty, thank you.

It would also be good to graph the Hurricane against either the Fusion or the Zephyr alone.

Let's see:

quality of build - close; minus for the Hurricane that you can suddenly have your front iaku slip out while in the open ocean.
comfort - the seat issue.
steering - Hurricane has little rocker, smaller rudder, therefor less responsive.
upwind - advantage Hurricane due to less volume.
the other four - trend Fusion/Zephyr better when bigger, Hurricane better when smaller and shining when flat.
Up to 4 feet - even.

Light-weight paddlers can move the Hurricane generally better than heavy-weights; when the wind gets > 15 knots it gets more difficult for the > 200 lbs paddler to keep up.

Overall: Right on the mark !

PS: I paddle those two boats Hurricane/Fusion.

I didn't publish the paddler's height/weight data - they support that the Hurricane is for lighter paddlers. It is clear that the paddler's weight is an absolute top factor in boat performance.

#2 Wed, 09/10/2008 - 3:20pm

eckhart

4 graphics:

* the averages
* Hurricane versus Fusion versus Zephyr
* Fusion versus Zephyr
* Hurricane versus Zephyr

Click on the web address of my blog to see.
Pueo soon to come

#3 Wed, 09/10/2008 - 9:35pm

kamamakakaua

Dacho - thanks for putting that graphic up - just saw that now. I think comfort is pretty important especially when you're out for a long time - I hate getting those cramps on da cheeks or dead legs.

#4 Fri, 09/12/2008 - 9:45am

RatchetJaws

Fun stuff....kinda doesn't surprise me.

Weight issue for boats, light guys in the Hurrican, heavier guys in the Fusion.

Tyson Kubo from Maui won the Maui Molokai race last year on a Hurrican coming in at a very respectable 225 lbs. So, that heavy-guy-cannot-ride-a-hurricane myth can be laid to rest. Tyson just kicked it. Yeah, the sea's were very mellow and no one knows how the boat would have handled in bigger surf canrrying his weight, but he beat some very good one manners that day...Mael, Frazier, J. Foti, couple other good one manners.

Maui to Molokai 2008, Youtube video shows Tyson hammering on that little boat. I think the Foti's should incorporate Tyson paddling the hurricane in their promo's for team Hurricane.

#5 Fri, 09/12/2008 - 11:10am

Tpoppler01

The data is amazing I think the comparisons of boat to boat is a great thing especially coming from the paddlers themselves. Some of the data might be from really really good paddlers but a lot of this data is coming from the every other day guy/girl, now thats freaken cool. One thing you need to account for is a good paddler will make just about any boat move.

I relate the good paddler any boat theory to surfing. "One day Kelly S. and a couple other pros were drinking and jokingly saying 'Im so good I could surf anything' a body board, then another I could surf a Door, someone else I could surf a ironing board... going down the line to someone saying they could surf a snow shovel. Well someone finally said OK prove it... they went out the next day and surfed every random object they could find."

Any good paddler could paddle any boat great, just they have one boat so they paddle that one.

#6 Fri, 09/12/2008 - 12:01pm

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