CarlS
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Big boat/little boat debate | Quote: | | It adds fuel to the big boat / small boat debate |
This was mentioned by Steve on the Ure event report. I certainly have lots of fun in my 'little' boat, which interestingly enough has special powers, in that it becomes a 'river' boat when I try to play and a 'park and ride playboat' when I end up swimming in bigger water.
I take the liberty of repeating a comment made by Graham B last Wednesday, 'play boats are for paddlers who don't shower on a regular basis', is it really the case that people who paddle bigger boats remain dry?
There is no ideal design of boat for all purposes, so I'm afraid it's horses for courses. If you become as addicted to the sport as some of us in the club you may find that you end up owning/wanting to own more than one boat. The possible solution is to have them all the same colour so that a non-paddling spouse doesn't know how you've spent your savings. 
Carl
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Steve T
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I think that Graham’s post from last week illustrates one of the differences between big/small boats.
I can give my reasons for going down the two boats route if that helps. As you know, I used to paddle a Savage Maniac, similar in style to a small Inazone, for everything. It didn’t really play and on fast water like the Tryweryn and Washburn it felt small (I was actually over the recommended weight for it).
I got the playboat to try to push myself in that direction and make our Wednesday night local trips more interesting, then decided to get something bigger for river trips. Some people like to play on river trips and hence use something like a Recoil, but since I’m not really a playboater anyway (no kidding!) this wasn’t a big deal for me so I looked for something bigger for reasons of comfort and space for gear – I can still surf waves in it. Although I might never paddle anything more than grade III and a bit of grade IV, and could easily use something smaller, I looked for a creek boat for these reasons.
The leading/coaching thing wasn’t something I first thought about, but a bigger volume boat is obviously a good choice for this since it’s not going to sink when you empty boats over the front, and is buoyant when swimmers are holding on to it. You can also carry a lot of gear without affecting the handling on the water much (although they are heavy to start with and if you carry a loaded creek boat any distance then you’ll know about it). Also, being more forgiving on big water you’re less likely to be in trouble yourself and are therefore in a better position to help out others.
Obviously a big boat rides over the waves better, although some will argue that if you’re stuck in a stopper a smaller boat might be better as you can use playboating techniques to get out. I have paddled the Ure in both boats and although I didn’t get my hair wet either time you certainly feel a bit more involved and challenged in the playboat - if you want more excitement from your paddling you might use a smaller boat. I paddle the playboat at places like Burrs and Chester because a creek boat would be very dull to paddle there.
The reason I bought the Solo in particular was for no other reason than that it was the best deal around at the time on used creek boats. Also it has lots of scratches and looks well used so people will think I’m a big, gnarly, grade V, nutcase hard-man (until they see me paddle). I love paddling it on big/fast water and can’t see me changing it for any reason.
I might change my playboat though because it’s clearly broken and won’t do any tricks.
Steve
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