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RZ 96 First Impression
My wife and I took the RZ out yesterday morning and paddled about 10-11 miles on Tims Ford Lake in Estill Springs and Winchester yesterday morning. Maybe four and a half hours in the boat. Assembly of this boat was pretty easy at the put in, just as it was in our backyard. This time I remembered to place the stringers before the three open frames.
The ribs and open frames have holes drilled through them that provide good attachment points for bungie cords to secure stuff. Good feature. I'll try to remember to take and post a photo next time I get the boat out.
I found a collapsible horse water-bucket for $4.00 at Tractor Supply to serve as a bailer - nice to find something that I could repurpose so cheaply. We used the Zolzer bags in bow and stern. They take up a lot of space, and when fully inflated, are kept tightly in place by the ribs.
Because of its proportions, my wife was able to help me carry the kayak the short distance from the shore, where I assembled it, to the water. The RZ96 was much easier to carry than the 1967 Folbot Squarestern of similar weight we owned briefly.
My wife was pleased with the roominess in the bow position compared to that of the Puffin II. She also liked the boat's stability and high washboards/coaming. For most of the journey, she sat on one of those square float cushions set atop the stock seat, in order to get a little extra height, as suggested, to enable more efficient paddling. She was also using her carbon fiber shaft 220cm Aquabound, and interestingly tends to adopt a higher angled stroke - maybe a function of the extra height?
By the end of our brief tour, my wife was complaining of discomfort due to the day's heat, as well as soreness in her back, and an inability to find comfort with either the stock or float-cushion seating arrangement. My wife tends not to use her torso much when paddling, and that undoubtedly contributes to her overall discomfort.
Still, she expresses a willingness to continue kayaking with me. Part of that is frugality - we've spent the money to purchase this boat and we're going to get our money's worth out of it. Good Indiana sense.
We both must report overall displeasure with the back rests, but I suffered less than my wife, even when she removed the cushion from atop the stock seat. To the good, however, I was able to pivot and sit on the backrest, like a canoe seat, using a very high angled stroke. This provided some relief for my back from time to time. Also found myself leaning back to paddle. If you look at the link on the Poucher-Boote.de website to photos of Swedish armed forces testing the product, you'll note in one photo that two of the oldest looking team-members are leaning back as they paddle. Like me, they, no doubt, sought relief from the backrest.
I'm not sure a backband would be a good solution for us. During reentries, they tend to become twisted, complicating the procedure. Also, I like being able to paddle the boat from the back rest, even though that wouldn't be suitable for windy or choppy conditions. Furthermore, I don't know whether or not the backrests (funny misnomer) are needed to stiffen the frame like thwarts in a canoe?
The rudder will continue to require an effort getting used to, as it is the first rudder I've used in any sort of paddle craft. After having spent so much time in the E68, I find that I dislike paddling with my legs mostly straight out in front of me, and have come to rely on edging to get rocker to make a turn. Still, the ability to turn at will with a movement of my foot is kind of nice. We didn't have much wind yesterday, and I think in very windy or choppy conditions, the rudder will be very helpful.
I did notice that the rudder, when in use, adds a discernible drag, whereas the boat seems a little quicker with rudder flipped up. Turning without the rudder was something I could accomplish by leaning, with next to nothing to brace against, and using directional strokes. Packed for a long camping trip, I think there'd be stuff to act as "outfitting" on either side.
Tims Ford Lake is one of those recreational bodies of water teeming with jetskiis, speeding pontoon boats, and those boats used to tow absurdly oversized inflated "innertubes", so we were able to determine that the RZ has no trouble with beam chop, nor any trouble heading into chop/steep wakes. "Lake Lice," I've heard those wake producers called.
The RZ96 attracted some attention. Near the put in, a lady with a nicely maintained dock and pedal boat with awning, asked us about the kayak as we paddled by, so we stopped to visit with her and show off the new boat. Later in the day, as we paddled back down Rock Creek, we passed some of the kids who'd been towed by us earlier on small, disc-like rafts at high speed by a loud boat. The teenagers were monkeying around in the water off the dock at which the now silent tow boat was tied up. I heard one of the kids comment to another, "Wow, that's a kayak...they're paddling it." Exhaust fumes could have made possible that degree of lucidity.
I'd intended to practice some wet exits and reentries yesterday, but we were hosting a visiting family last night and had to get home so they could get situated. Weather service predicts miserably hot weather for the next little while, so the lake water hereabouts should be, as I mentioned in a photo caption on the main site, bathtub warm for some time to come.
I'm convinced the Marvel Comics superheroes develop their oddly proportioned physiques through paddling these very boats. Even with my wife helping out by paddling from the bow, the 96 seemed much slower than my E68. The 96 does have a fairly long glide, and will move steadily along, but I have no other tandem with which to compare it except the Puffin II, which I think is slower, but feels lighter. The 96 feels "heavier" to pry through the water.
We'll await a colder day to try out the sprayskirt. I'm expecting its use will result in a much dryer ride. Could probably measure, cut, and sew some partial decks for both paddlers to keep the worst of the splash out.
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