nitro

[robin8]

hay nick. is there any more we should know about the nitro. not being mean. i think they are the best boat out. but first there was the seat and now the cockpit. is there any other little things about them that we should know.

[cpbutler]

The seams will break and the bow will break.

Now if you owned a Vamp the seat would come off, the cockpit rim will crack out and the bow will break.

If you owned a Rogue the seams would break, the hull would crack, the cockpit rim would crack and the seat would break.

If you owned a Sphinx pretty much everything would break barring the seat.

If you owned a Flame/ Inferno the seams will break, bow might break and the top deck will crack.

Boats break full stop, some earlier than others and in slightly different places. :wavey:

[robin8]

thanks cam. i wasnt picking on the nitro. but thank you for all that. enjoy the summer.

[vish]

And if anyone wants Cam to repair their boats, see advertisement above and reply!!!!
:D

[becks.c]

good work Cam!

I think for some of us who remember the "good old days" of canoe polo boats being handed down and lasting an age - the memory of their significant weight (who remembers fibreglass 16kg Stingrays as being flash?) and fibreglass construction seems to have dimmed.

From my own experience:
If you can get 2 full competition years out of your new exotic boat, you're doing pretty good! For those who want their carbon boats in tip top shape, budget in for 1 season = 1 boat!

Alternatively, if you want staying power in a composite boat - keep away from carbon fibre + anything else that will lighten your boat and learn how to take a tackle while protecting your boat. (i.e. stay at home in bed)

[tinkerbell]

Where do dragons mostly break?


Tinkerbell

[Aaron]

I used to have one of those stingrays and it lasted ages. Infact I think it is still foating around (excuse the pun) out there. Of couse I had to fix the odd crack, rebuild the nose, replace the cockpit and the seat and the foot rests. Come to think of it I don't think there is too much of it left that is original.


Moral of this story, boats can last a hell of a long time if you're prepared to spend every weekend fixing them (or paying cam to). Just don't expect them to perform as well as a new boat.


As an aside I would be interested in which boat has the longest list of owners. I could nominate Dan Usser's Mischief which he used in the 96 world champs. From him it was passed onto me, I sold it to Kerian Mischewski who tried to repair it (it was so full of leakes it would sink without any one even in it) and then sold it to someone else. It turned up again in the hands of Karl Reece. He sold it and it recently resurfaced (literaly) in the hands of Brett Eades. If anyone can fill in the gaps here or nominate a boat that would beat it I would be most interested.

[cpbutler]

I must admit to being quite happy with how the Dragon holds up in polo and particularly as a lot of Dragon users are young, energetic lads, that is with the exception of Tim Tracey who has destroyed a boat and we all know what he plays like. But they do break and some more than others depending on what construction, who uses it and who made it.

Squirt might prove me wrong, but I don't believe there is a crack at all on his in over a years worth of use, Jason Dalziels was made quite light and has cracked in the hull. Squirts old boat has had the seams replaced and I know Eoin had his bow break over in Germany in 2002.

But generally the Dragons tend to break in the seams esp on the Virtuosity made boats.

And like Vish said I am available to fix boats :thumbup: or paddles and even go kart seats now. I have resurrected Fuzzy's Double Dutch where he snapped a blade and only the front layer of carbon was holding on.

Cam Butler
Polo Mania
021 703095

[mum]

Speaking as the person who pays or paid for the repairs to Robins boat the dragon did him extremely well. He paddled it for 2 years after buying it second hand from Cam and it had already survived a fall off a car. It got a damn good hidding had three noses and is still sort of going.

Robin my darling son, if you want a boat to last even I know you don't want one that weighes bugger all.

Love from your mummy
:wavey:

[Fish]

I bought my first boat ( climax ) 15 years ago. its been passed through 5 diffrent pairs of hands including my daughter who wasnt even born when i bought it and now its back in Otaki still being used.

And my mischief is about 10 years old and its been hammered but is still in good condition and being used in otaki. hard to find a better lasting boat than a mischief.

But its heavy now.

[KatherineM]

Wow fish i didnt even know polo was around for that long! Umm I like this game! Robins boat sounds like one of the lightest but what about the heaviest boat in national leagueA?

[Juno]

I would say Robin's boat even comes close to the lightest boat. Dave O paddled a 6kg Rogue at worlds '02 I pity the person who ended up buying it the hull was white with stress fractures and I'm suprised the person scruitneering his boat didn't see the sponge of water sloshing around in the tail. Some one took a quiver of Carbon Rogues to the '94 or '96 worlds and they would have been extremely light.

[simple]

I'll nominate Paul's orange hunk-o-bog as the heaviest boat in NL. You can do all the training you ever need just by hoisting it up and down from the roof of the car.

[Cameron]

The two old Virtuosity demo boats were the heaviest I have ever seen, Amber Vink can vouch for the Dragon demo and James in Nelson can vouch for the Flame demo. And as far as I know they haven't broken tho. And I certainly didn't specify those laminates by the way!

I did hear rumours that Kieran Mischewski got a Xebec made that turned out at about 18kg!!!!

I paddled a 6.75kg carbon rogue for a while, sure was nice to paddle tho it had a porous section of the hull and it had to be repaired after every use.

The Dragon that Robyn had been paddling was about 9kg and was a prototype Dragon and thus was made out of a very rough mould. It held up incredibly well considering how Robyn plays!! Lets not even talk about what he does to paddles :)

[vish]

Surely the boat that would most qualify as memorabilia : the plastic fantastic owned by Gavin "Slasha" Brunton. It was just an ordinary boat, until "Steptoe and Sons" thought to autograph it after their successful National League Campaign. Let's hope for his sake that the vivid doesn't wash off...

[Josh]

We covered the whole airport with that vivid too. you can blame Peter and Dean They made us do it.