Das Frankenboot redux: an update

Ernie's warranty repair seems much stouter than the original, and has held up to some pretty brutalizing punishment (including Upper Trout Creek) so far, without showing any signs of lost integrity. A photo:

return of the MAC-1, a.k.a. Das Frankenboot

Well, I received my creekboat back from Ernie, The Plastic Mechanic. It looks scary. Ernie took the time to find every deep gouge and bitemark, and they have all been laid in with black plastic that I have been assured is of a strength superior to that of the existing plastic.

He also repaired a bite taken out of the very end of the stern, with a rock lodged deep in the plastic. I suspect this may have happened in early summer 2007 when my unattended boat was taking a wild ride in Fish Creek eddy while full of water. It seems my Clackster past haunts me.

I will take it down Canyon Creek tomorrow to test it's newfound durability and watertightness. That is, if I can get it re-rigged in a timely fashion (outfitting was removed prior to repair, and many screws will need resealing. I'm looking forward to seeing how this all works out.

boat repair and rigging

This past weekend, I spent some time outfitting my playboat (RAD 195), with the help of Oly's plasma cutting torch. I decreased the foot foam, moved the seat forward, and shimmed the back of the seat padding with some minicell wedges. Once I'm happy with the existing rigging, I will add knee blocks and possibly shaped hip foam instead of the Bliss-Stick "pouch" hip padding system. Taking off the Easy Fork of the Lewis after a test run, I joked with group member Joe that I'm evolving into a C1-er: forward in the boat, raised seat, and increased reliance on J-strokes. I do have an interest in C1, but I'm thinking I'll probably be exploring burlier Class V runs and checking out squirt boating before I go that route. Need to come up with a spare boat hull to outfit for C1 first, anyhow.

Today, I'm sending off the beloved MAC-1 (planing creeker) to The Plastic Mechanic (a.k.a. Ernie) for repair of a crack that formed beneath my left heel on a Canyon Creek WA run last month. I'll be needing a higher-volume creekboat for the impending true burl and for self-support, but I do like the MAC, and I figure it's worth half what I paid for it to repair it...especially given that I paid so little. I'm hoping Ernie's expertise and warranty will have me paddling the MAC for a while to come. I'll be adding foam to the bulkhead when I get it back, to try to avoid the downward heel pressure that seems to have caused it to crack. Ernie says he can also install something to stiffen/reinforce that area of the hull, which sounds promising.