Since there have been numerous posts recently about squashing Glides
and other boats(how and how not to, etc.) I decided to post pics of my
endeavors with the Glide LV (Low Volume) or maybe the Glide - (minus).
I will post them as I make the modifications to give everyone the play by
play action. I wanted to take the Glide and add more rock maybe a bit
more than the Slice and reduce the volume in both the bow and the stern. The
boat is a X-link so it might take a couple of times to make the squashing
take. If I succeed you will know. Likewise if I *&%#$ up the boat, you will
also know. This way those who are wondering if they should squash
their boat will find out how difficult or easy it is. Also those of you who have
had experience will be able to chime in and give constructive critism -
in otherwords if you see that I am about to do something incredibly stupid,
speak up....
If you check out the picture below of "The Rack
of Concavity" (provided
the I get the link right)you will see that I was inspired
a bit by the Dana
Castro method. It's constructed of 2"x6"x8' (3
of them, 2"x4"x4' (1
length), some 1/2"x18"x36" Lundia shelves (2 shelves)
from the shop I work at,
and some other scrap lumber ranging in width. Construction
of jig: 2
of the 2x6's laid parallel. The 3rd chopped into 1.5'
lenghts that were used as
spacers between the other 2 (will look like a ladder).
Then chop the 2x4
into 2' lengths and put on the top of the very ends of
the jig. These will help
with either maintaing or increasing the rocker
- see the picture. The rest
of the wood is kept loose. Take some of the loose scrap
lumber and place it
under the "The Rack" directly below the area that
you will be squishing.
With the "The Rack of Concavity" built, I took the
glide and strapped it to
the "The Rack" slightly off center so that the tip of
the nose (the side I was
to squash) was just short (not hanging over) of
the end of it ("The Rack"
that is). With the boat mounted on "The Rack", I began
the heating process.
I used a heat gun like the kind to strip paint,
flooring, etc. I gradually
heated the underside of the deck as well as the topside
of the deck over a
period of about 30 minutes. I got the plastic very
hot, pretty much too
hot to touch - but not melted. However I was careful
to only heat the center
area out towards the sides - in otherwords the
area that I wanted to
squish, no more. Next I took a 30 lb. sand back wrapped
in a cotten sleeping
bag storage sack and placed it on the deck. I used
the cotton sack
because nylon melts at a low temp (low 400's I think)
and I didn't want to risk
melting the stuff sack that I had filled with sand
onto the deck of the boat.
Next I placed the last Lundia shelf on top of the sand
bag. Then I took
NRS straps run around both ends of the Lundia shelves
that were on top of
the sand bag and below the rack. Lastly, I cinched them
down until the
deck looked just slightly more than I wanted to
squish (I figured the X-link
memory would bounce back at least a bit if not more).
Lastly, I took a
piece of scrap lumber and placed it inside of the
2x4 and
lifted the end of the boat to just above the desired
rocker.
I let that sit and cool of for several hours and
then took the boat off
"The Rack". I underestimated the memory of x-link. It
popped out by late
evening. So I repeated the process but this time
I left the boat on "The
Rack" overnight. And voila it stayed. Next the the stern....
I will let you know
how it goes.....
Installment two of The Squashing Files. I had this great
idea last week to
chronicle my adventures or misdaventures of squashing
my Glide. I have
over the last couple of months seen several people
question "should I",
"how do you do it", "is it difficult", etc. So when I
finally decided to dive into it,
I made up my mind to let everyone else here live
a bit vicariously through
me. Hopefully this will give some insight for them as
to whether or not to
take on the mysterious black art known as "squashing"
or "squishing".
In my previous post (#10184) I let everyone know what
I was doing with
making a jig (ala Dana Castro Method) and the squashing
of the bow.
I also started on the stern.
Here is a shot of the bow...smooth, low volume,
and increased rocker of
about 3inches. It has dropped about and inch and a little
of the volume has
returned. But now I can fit into it without pain.
My feet are super tight, but
not uncomfortable. Remember the boat is Crosslink, which
has a higher
memory and a tendency to pop back out to it's original
shape unless you really
heat it up.
Also the stern turned out great using the same method. Just check out this shot.
It is smooth, and consistent. The picture shows
about 2 to 3 inches of
increased rocker. This dropped over the next day to about
2 inches and has
stayed. It's pretty much exactly where I wanted
it to end up at.
As for the whole boat , just take a look for yourself...
The Verdict
I had the opprotunity to paddle it yesterday and
I can say this - IT ROCKS!
It's really balanced. The ends are slicy but because
of the extra rocker
they weren't twitchy. I had an absolute blast.
While paddling on some
fairly steep waves I was getting green wave flatspins
no problem (this is
comming from someone who before could count the
number of 180 flatspins
on one hand) and flatwheels were much easier(I still
have alot of work
to do). I didn't notice and detriment to it carving
ability on a wave either.
Also I was getting 3 point eddyline cartwheels with really
shoody balance
and technique. One of the cool things that happened
by accident was near
the end of the day when going to the take out I went
for a wave wheel at
the last rapid (a playspot right at the take out)
and just about did a
counter-clock wheel - slicing the stern through and cartwheeling
in the opposite
direction of a wave wheel. The stern rotated cleanly
through the wave,
but I wasn't prepared and while the boat was rotating
in the counter-wheel
direction I wasn't rotating my torso to plant the
bow back in. Hence I
landed on my side. Oh well, I'll be ready for it next
time. It handled very
predictably and I had a super time
It was well worth the time and energy spent. If
you live near
Birmingham, Alabama and want to borrow "The Rack of Concavity"
let me know. It
was absolutely a blast and not nearly as hard as
I thought
it would be. If you have any questions please let me
know.
PS - thanks to everyone who replied with all the
helpful hints and
encouragement. It helped alot. I hope I can pass on the
same karma to the next
person.
Sorry, I forgot to go into a few more details about my squashing trials and tribulations.
Of course the physical act of squashing the boat
isn't the end of the
issue when your boat has center walls. I had carve them
down to still help
maintain some structrual integrity of boat. You
don't want to take too much
off because then the center pillar really won't be able
to give any support
to the boat. Likewise you want to take enough off
the pillar to keep from
pushing your nice squash job out. All I can say is to
be patient and slowly,
bit by bit remove material from the center pillars
until you get the shape
that fits. I also reccommend waiting a couple of days
before putting in the
pillars (uless you just have to put them in right
away to paddle). This
allows you to find out if the squash job will actually
stay. You don't want go
through the trouble of trimming down the pillars
only to have your deck rise off of them
like baker's dough.
Also if you like foam bulkheads, try and be concious
of the fact that
they have a tendancy to push squash jobs out. I carved
mine down and then
glued them to the center pillar to limit their
movement. I hope to some
time soon make a quasi shock block like Pyranha has in
their Innazones. This
would eliminate most of hassle and tendency of
pure minicell to compress drastically.
But that is in the future.
Lastly, Mike and others requested more information
about "The Rack of
Concavity". I described it with a bit of detail in post
# 10184. But here is a
picture of it without a boat on it so you can see
just how simple it is.
Thanks everyone, you help and encouragment has been invaluable.
See you on the river!
James