Hey, all. Sorry to interrupt all the fun we're having with the legislation, safety and PFD debates, for a silly question about paddling a specific boat :-) Anyone have any knowledge of or experience with both building and paddling the Panache by Laughing Loon? The link to the web page is http://www.laughingloon.com/panache.html According to the manufacturer, it will take a new boat builder about 300 hours at a materials cost of between $500-$700. Does that sound accurate? How does it paddle in terms of speed, efficiency, tracking, edging, rolling, handling rough water/wind, etc? It might help to know the following. I'm 5'9" and 170 pounds (if I take my PFD off). I've had the beginner, intermediate, and rescue skills classes (including rolling) but am not extremely proficient at them....still need lots of practice, especially the rolling. I'll primarily be paddling in the Chesapeake Bay, up to about 30 knot winds and/or 3 foot waves, and also in and through very, very shallow salt marshes and creeks which will be extremely protected. I'll also do some traveling with it, primarily up and down the east coast (I hope!). With the traveling goes camping, so it needs to have ample room for a week's worth of gear. I also intend to do some modifying - add a day hatch, additional deck rigging, a compass mount and a skeg (or rudder if skegs can not be added for some reason). A torpedo tube would be great, but...... Any and all help is much appreciated. Some unexpected but necessary expenses have forced me to reconsider the expenditure for a nice new fiberglass boat to replace my Carolina. So, I'm back to thinking about building one. The big turn off is the time required to build it and the difficulty in finding one locally to test paddle. SNG is a lot faster to build, and CLC is within 4-5 hours drive, but frankly, I'm not attracted to the looks of the SNGs. All commnets - pro or con - are appreciated. Rick - it sucks to be poor - Sylvia *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
At 03:42 PM 4/23/02 -0400, Rick.Sylvia_at_ferguson.com wrote: >Hey, all. > >Sorry to interrupt all the fun we're having with the legislation, safety >and PFD debates, for a silly question about paddling a specific boat :-) > >Anyone have any knowledge of or experience with both building and paddling >the Panache by Laughing Loon? The link to the web page >is http://www.laughingloon.com/panache.html > >According to the manufacturer, it will take a new boat builder about 300 >hours at a materials cost of between $500-$700. Does that sound accurate? Both of those estimates sound fairly accurate but there are lots of things that can affect the total time and amount of money you spend. A significant portion of the cost is the epoxy/resin and fiberglass. Shop around. I went with Raka (www.raka.com) for the cedar strip boat I'm building (Jay Babina's Outer Island) and it ran right around $300. Living on the east coast, western red cedar is not as easily found for real good prices so you have a few options. You can buy pre-milled strips from a number of places but that can get fairly expensive and your choice of wood colors (which varies a lot with red cedar) is dictated by what they send you. Many places will ship a combination of red and yellow cedar. You can also mill your own strips. This gives you more flexibility in the color, quality, and even different types of wood. I used a bit of white clear pine in my Outer Island. Depending on what you settle on for your choices of wood, it can bring down the cost of the wood considerably. I chose to mill my own strips and didn't find the task that difficult. One of the biggest impacts on the total costs is what tools you need to buy. If you've already got a table saw, router table, random orbital saw, sabre saw, and lots and lots of clamps you won't have any big expenditures for tools. While you *can* build a cedar strip boat without a lot of some of the more expensive tools it goes a lot easier if you've got them. If you're not going to mill your own strips you won't need the table saw and router. >How does it paddle in terms of speed, efficiency, tracking, edging, >rolling, handling rough water/wind, etc? It might help to know the >following. I'm 5'9" and 170 pounds (if I take my PFD off). I haven't paddled a Panache but I looked into one when I first considered building a boat. From what I've seen it looks like a good fit for you. >I've had the beginner, intermediate, and rescue skills classes (including >rolling) but am not extremely proficient at them....still need lots of >practice, especially the rolling. I'll primarily be paddling in the >Chesapeake Bay, up to about 30 knot winds and/or 3 foot waves, and also in >and through very, very shallow salt marshes and creeks which will be >extremely protected. I'll also do some traveling with it, primarily up >and down the east coast (I hope!). With the traveling goes camping, so it >needs to have ample room for a week's worth of gear. I think the Panache would be a pretty good match for all of these things. >I also intend to do some modifying - add a day hatch, additional deck >rigging, a compass mount and a skeg (or rudder if skegs can not be added >for some reason). A torpedo tube would be great, but...... All of these are doable. You might consider building in a foot pump as well. Have you checked out Ross Liedy's site" (ross.secant.com). He built a Panache and has a bunch of pictures describing the process. I sent him email before starting the Outer Island and he's seems eager to talk about boats and gave me some good advice. Since he's build a Panache, Guillemot, and an Outer Island he could likely give you a good comparison of the different models. I *highly* recommend the Home Grown Boats video (www.homegrownboats.com). It is a two tape set (about 4 hours) which chronicles the building of a Panache from selecting the wood to carving little figures out of hardwood for the hatch cover hold downs. It's a bit expensive ($80 plus shipping) but it's worth it. >Any and all help is much appreciated. Some unexpected but necessary >expenses have forced me to reconsider the expenditure for a nice new >fiberglass boat to replace my Carolina. So, I'm back to thinking about >building one. The other option is to look for a nice used fiberglass boat. It's pretty easy to have the final costs of building a cedar strip boat be in the same ballpark as that of a good quality used fiberglass boat. >The big turn off is the time required to build it Building it is part of the fun. Don't think of it as a chore, but as a way of bonding with your kayak before you ever put it in the water. >and the difficulty in finding one locally to test paddle. SNG is a lot >faster to build, and CLC is within 4-5 hours drive, but frankly, I'm not >attracted to the looks of the SNGs. Depends on the S&G boat I guess. The patterns and swirls on a well built okoume deck look gorgeous. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Rick, The Panache is a nice boat. I have not paddled it much, but the people I know who have built it, like it. The cost of building is pretty accurate. The cost can get higher depending on materials used, and these costs do not include purchase of any of the tools that you may need but don't have yet. You should try posting to my kayak builder's bulletin board <http://www.kayakforum.com/> there will be people there that can comment from experience with the Panache. You may even be able to find someone who has one locally. Nick At 3:42 PM -0400 4/23/02, <Rick.Sylvia_at_ferguson.com> wrote: > >Anyone have any knowledge of or experience with both building and >paddling the Panache by Laughing Loon? The link to the web page is >http://www.laughingloon.com/panache.html *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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