Shaneslogic

Well while Toby and Robin were getting ready for their practice runs in the new boat. I was walking down to the put in of the Green. All the way down to the water I was thinking to myself, “I hope this boat doesn’t suck”, “I hope I don’t smack myself on a rock today”, “I wonder if 23 1/2″ is really wide enough to be stable”, “I hope the bow is as up as I think its going to be”, “I hope its fast”, “I wonder if I am going to be able to make the turn”. I mean cause when it really gets down to it I haven’t designed a boat even close to this length. The longest thing I have done or helped with was the Remix or Whip-It and Whiplash in whitewater. So really as I was walking down I was just hoping that my educated guesses were going to be close. It really isn’t until you float it out on the water and feel the balance yourself, well at least for me, that you really know what you have. So it was with great relief that I slid in from shore and felt the stability and then the glide while cruising down through the warm up water that I was relieved of most of my questions and worries.

Then I got to Frankenstein and proceeded to run the race line and go straight into the rock instead of missing it to the river left side. No damage to boat or body but it was a friendly reminder that the boat I was paddling was not the Remix 79 or Jefe Grande. Just a little bit longer.

My second run through Franks was much better as you can see I actually have a little angle going the right way.

Adrian and Billy styled Go Left like champs while I whimpered down the sneek the first day.

Here is Adrian firing up the Flying Squirrel line on the approach to Gorilla. She proceeded to go direct and ace the whole thing. I on the other hand wasn’t so sure and my doubts made me pull hard on a boof stroke so I ended up in the eddie.

Billy airing out the Flying Squirrel line.

Me being happy I made the eddie.

But then once I did get turned around and lined up it was a beautiful thing to come flying off the pad with that much speed and I skipped right through the speed trap. I hope I can do that on Saturday.

Billy running the Groove Tube.

Adrian out on the dry line at Groove Tube.

Ahhh safe in the cave. Damn that thing looks long in that picture.

Thanks to Polk for taking the photos.

By the time I got off the river the folks up in Kentucky were probably in the midst of the race. I waited for several hours for the team to get out in the world where cell phone coverage exists. They gave a call and let me know that both Toby and Robin had managed to maintain their titles as Lords of the Fork. So that was awesome and I hadn’t even swum once during my run on the Green. All in all it couldn’t have gotten any better. Nice day.

Later
Shane

This is the Remix 100


Hey everybody I thought you might like to see the process I went through to create the Remix 100. I used a slightly different process than normal so I could do it very quickly and at as little expense as possible. I have made a few boats on my own using this method and it works great if you ever want to try to make your own.

I based the Remix 100 off of the Remix 69

I used the Remix as a starting point because it has a good base speed and controlable shape and then tweaked it to make it faster. The main things I changed were obviously length taking it from 9 feet to 11’9″ and then from 26″ wide to 23 1/2″. I also dropped the stern rocker and narrowed the chimes a bit to keep adding speed. I kept the hull flatness from the center of the boat to the stern for a couple reasons. The biggest reason was planing out from the bottom of the slides or any rapid for that matter. Once you come off the slides you fly out across the pool for a great glide in this boat. The bow is raised a bit and beefed up a touch for punching through stuff and the bow deck is very crowned so it will surface quickly. The stern deck is fairly flat so that you still get the watermelon affect out of holes or melting situations.

Here is the time line for the boat.

Friday October 12th

We finally decided that we were going to make the Remix 100 for the race. Fortunately I had done some work on the idea in a computer so I wasn’t starting from scratch. I finished up the basic design shape and rushed the files to the print shop before they closed for the weekend. The files I had printed out were cross sections of the design. I took the cross sections and traced them out on foam so that I could cut the sections out of 4″ thick foam and then began cutting them out and gluing them together. If you did it yourself at home you could draft out the cross sections by hand and use regular insulation foam that you can get at a hardware store.

Once we decided to do the boat I knew that I really wanted to get them done in time for Toby and Robin and the whole LVM crew to be able take them to the Russell Fork but that only gave me two weeks to get it all done.

Saturday October 13th

Lots of cutting out sections and gluing. And of course a quick run on the Green.

Sunday October 14th

I put all the sections together on the frame and let them set for the evening, and ran the river. Its the weekend after all.

Monday October 15th

Alan and I started the process of sanding in the basic shape of the deck. When I am doing this I use everything from a chainsaw to a tiny piece of 1/2″ dowel to make the shapes I want. Once the basic shape was finished I started laying out all the recesses, cockpit areas, wall braces, drain plug, grab bar, and any deck detail lines.

Tuesday October 16th

Got most of the deck detail finished and sprayed the deck with a sanding primer which allows me to sand the boat dowm to a fine finish. It takes a few coats to get the boat all even and super smooth.

Wednesday October 17th

Still working on the deck and Alan began making the cockpit rim. At this point the boat looks like its almost done but it takes forever to get the final details all polished and smoothed.

Thursday October 18th

Flip the boat over and start working on the hull. First cutting away all the excess material and then sanding down to the cross sections. Then its the spray and sanding process again.

Friday October 19th

Sanding lots and lots of sanding. At this point if you were doing a boat for yourself you could just glass over all the foam once you have it all sanded out. Then dig out the foam so you can get in and presto magico you have a boat.

Saturday October 20th

Started waxing the model in preparation for making mold with which we will make the limited run of Remix 100s. I also attached the cockpit rim.
Got a run in on the Green while the Wax dried.

Sunday October 21st

Started working on the mold and started getting nervous about running the Green in an 11′ 9″ boat.

Monday October 22nd

Making the mold.

Tuesday October 23rd

Making the mold.

Wednesday October 24th

Drive to plant in Greensboro NC and get the mold ready to go in the oven first thing Thursday morning.

Thursday October 25th

Make boats all day.

Friday October 26th

Make and assemble boats all day. I left the plant around 7pm and headed for Asheville where the LVM crew was waiting for me so they could load up and head for the Russell Fork Race. I also got REALLY nervous about my first long boat run since back in the day. Met the boys in Asheville at 10:00pm and headed home to dreams of flying off Gorilla in a nearly 12 foot long boat.

Saturday October 27th

Toby and Robin won the Lord of the Fork race and I didn’t break my neck on the Green.
Here is the link to the Russell Fork Race Blog. Theres lots of good photos.
http://www.russellforkrace.blogspot.com

Later
Shane