September/October 2013 - Bluegrass Wildwater Association

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more volume to help avoid pins, etc., but that's one hugedifference in the amount of boat one would have to pusharound.We settled on an older Jefe (73 gallons) because we got agood deal on it. I've paddled it on the Nanty and a swollenTuck and it behaved beautifully on those rivers. Hopefullyit will get on the Pigeon and maybe my first time on theLittle to see if it is just as impressive on a "real" run...ifshe lets me.Endless Rivers has demos also. I ended up paddling withsomeone who was renting a ducky form them and theydidn't charge me for demo or shuttle to the Wayah Roadput in and picked me up at the commersial takeout. Idon't know what their regular fee's are, though.KevinVolume and weight range are not exactly corollary. Notbeyond a certain point, anyway. The short answer is thatyou should be looking at weight range instead of volume,and take the stated weight range as a general guideline.No point in getting your bathroom scales certified oranything.The weight applied to a given design will determine howdeep the boat sits in the water. The more weight, thedeeper it sits. In order to access the features designedinto the shape of the hull, the waterline needs to be in theright spot. Additional volume above the waterline doesnot change the location of the waterline or the intendedweight range. Modern boats have been trending towardsmore volume in the bow and the stern. The added volumeonly comes into play when you dive into (and hopefullyover) holes and stuff. Keeps you ridin high. Sittin pretty,so to speak.BartAugust 26, 2013Bart's comments were spot on IMO. Optimal boaterweight range for a boat is only partly affected by overallvolume and comparing volume between river runnersand creekers is pointless. I think the Mamba rangestayed the same because most if not all of the volumewas added above the seam line, so that would not significantlychange the intended wt range. (The seam lineis an old school term as glass boats hulls / decks werejoined at the seam). Wt range is simply the mfg bestguess (or hopefully actually tested) at the weight theboat will handle while performing as designed. If you aresignificantly out side of this range, then how the waterengages the hull below the seam line will vary significantlyenough that the mfg feels it will not handle asintended. Some boats however may handle well for youif you are at or just beyond the intended range and thebest way to find out is paddle to test the boat. Volume increekers is an issue because of the way they are used.Volume in a creeker will affect how the boat resurfacesafter a big drop (bow volume/shape), unintentional holeretentiveness (overall volume/length), and how it behavesin big squirrely water (tail volume) in my experience. Hull/ deck shape are also factors of course. BTW if you areconsidering a Jackson design and are not sure aboutsizing then some of their team members are very goodabout answering questions on their website (bottom ofspec page for each boat) and perusing through the questions/ answers will give you tons of info about sizing forthat particular design. Wish every mfg did this! Hanley'scomments about the water jugs is accurate, but when yousmooth that added volume out along the curves of a boatdeck it's not nearly as glaring a difference. If you see aMamba 7.5 and 7.6 side by side you will see what I mean.I have not paddled the new design, but I imagine it wouldmake the new boat a little more creeker like in big water/ drops than the older design. In easier water it probablywon't make much difference. You should also paddle a7.6 as you may like it better than the 7.5 - particularly withthe new outfitting - it's awesome!Brit is currently shopping for a new creeker as she'soutgrown her Punk Rocker. First I looked at websites getoptimal weight ranges, boat weight. Boat weight is a bigfactor for Brit as she's not that strong and complainsabout carrying a heavy boat. Acceleration in tight spotsis also affected by boat weight. After that I decided shewould test the Nomad 8.1 (already had one), my VillainS, Karma S/M, and maybe the Stomper 80. So far it's atight race between the Nomad and Karma M. She has nottried the Stomper yet but with so many folks going backto Nomads from Stompers ... I'm wondering if we shouldeven bother? May ask if someone has an 80 lying aroundshe could test for a weekend. I'm also testing boats formyself. I like my Villain S but really liked paddling thatKarma M on Upper Ocoee.WesWest Fork Tuck - trip reportAugust 12, 2013Great day on the West Fork Tuck yesterday. Me, Chief, Rebeccawere met by Mark Singleton, Denver, Suzie, Karen,18
Arlan and Chief's friend, Johnny Utah for an awesomeday of boating on a brand new run for all of us but Markand Arlan. We broke into two groups at times because theeddies were small before the big drops. Right off the batwe were running what seemed like a 50 drop, the size ofOceana, but without the Thing at the bottom. Trick is tobe left, lean forward to minimize compression risks. Chiefand I would have probably walked it if we had looked atthe drop itself. Glad we didn't though as it was cool. Wedid learn afterwards that Sutton Bacon (NOC) recentlycompressed a vertebrae there. Glad I didn't know thatbeforehand too.Once we got into the inner gorge, we had several verynice class IV rapids with holes to bust or dodge and along run out. Super cool stuff. We did have one portage,but after getting to the bottom of the drop, realized thatthere was a route through the tree that had fallen across,so actually, there really were no portages on the sectionof river we ran. We did not go to the very top where thewaterfall was. Mark told us that we would not be missingmuch water, would miss the waterfall view and a lot ofportage around wood, so we went to an alternate put inand it was sweet.I ran into Johnny Reagan on Friday at the Nolichucky andhe came to the Tuck, but we just missed each other onthe river. We did hang out at the takeout for some beer,etc. Glad to see that kid out of Friendsville and down herein the South for a bit.I would go do this again and it ranks up there with theCheoah as a run I would like to do multiple times a yearwhen it is released. Right at or under 2 hours from Nippur.This run is now in the staples of runs each year.Many thanks to AW for negotiating this release with DukePower. Just another example of our AW dues at work forus.BrentHow was the water level? There's been lots of internetchat lately about the release levels, some say the bumpup to 2.8' is perfect but others say its still bony outside ofthat mini-gorge. Looks like a stunning place from the picsand vids I've seen, glad you got to check it out.BrandonWe had 2.5ish, and I would say 2.6 would have been betterfor some of the shoals. 2.8 would be very juicy in theinner gorge and might raise the difficulty level up in there.I was fine with the level we had, but just a little bit morewould be better. Having not seen it at 2.8, I really can'tcomment though. At this level, it is a solid class IV run.Higher might ramp it up a notch or two.19BrentTend to agree with Brent, more water would be okay, notsure how much.http://www.bluegrasswildwater.org/bwaforum/file.php?5,file=452,filename=suzyj.JPGChiefHeaven's Gate Underwater Spelunking TeamSeptember 23, 2013Yesterday, the raft I was in, and then about an hour laterthe raft John L was in flipped in the nastiness at the bottomof Heaven's Gate. The higher flows made the holevery aggressive and the current past it stronger. We bothwent under an undercut rock downstream on the left. Itwas a cave, big enough for a person to pass through (obviously)and exited about 15 feet downstream of the rock.I was under the raft for a bit and when I came up I wasvery disoriented. I turned and saw I was being swepttoward a rock and prepared to brace myself and push offand around it, instead I was sucked under. Just before weentered the rapid Tim had mentioned that about 10 yearsago he'd seen two swimmers go through the rock andcome out the other side. That was one of two thoughtsin my head for my journey, the hope that it was the samerock and I was going to come out the other side, andof course, what if I didn't. I could feel the sides of thecrevasse as I passed through. I don't know how far I wentor how long I was in there but I eventually saw a circleof murky yellow light. I was hoping it was the sun andnot the one described by people who had died and beenresuscitated! It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.I popped up and Jeff towed me to shore where I had a reallyfantastically good cry.Huge thanks and all my love to the crew I was with thatday. Jeff was at the right place and time to sweep me upand tow me in, I don't think I could have swam anywhereat that moment. Tim, Ann, and Millard made sure I keptwarm and sane for the rest of the trip.I'm not sure what I'm going to take away from this yet, it'sa lot to process. It's a reminder that we participate in whatcan be a dangerous sport even when you do things right
Page 1 and 2: Award Winning Newsletter of The Blu
Page 3 and 4: line that my mentors taught me when
Page 5 and 6: we head into the final major rapid
Page 7 and 8: It started with one of my favorite
Page 9 and 10: Lower that day. There's not much wa
Page 11 and 12: Something to Aspire to!Robert Milga
Page 13 and 14: Off the CuffComments from the Forum
Page 15 and 16: more of it (and you) sits further o
Page 17: WesOn Dagger's website, the specs f
Page 21 and 22: Jeff, I can't express how much I ap
Page 23 and 24: escue and recovery of Scott Bradfi
Page 25 and 26: ahead of schedule than she was last

September/October 2013 - Bluegrass Wildwater Association

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