New Kaschper Extreme with T-Wing
Chris
Extreme with the T-wing. Has anyone rowed, purchased, or have any
comments on the new Extreme?
Thanks.
TNW
I've rowed it. It's an okay boat (Xeno Mueller certainly seems to like
his), but for the price you can do much better. I felt that, while the
company's made improvements in recent years, their boats still don't
hold up very well over time. The riggers also felt kind of...well,
cheap. I can't explain it, but the Kaschper wing seems much more
fragile and susceptible to wear than, say, a Hudson wing. (This
probably has something to do with a pretty poor welding job on the
boat I looked at as a demo.)
They're reasonably good boats, though. The hull shape is pretty good,
and the platform is fairly stable without sacrificing too much in the
realm of top-end speed. But there was just too much about the boat I
didn't like: components, poor welding, spongier-than-I-expected hull,
etc. If you want to save money, give Drew Harrison a long, hard look.
I rowed one of their older (Starline) pairs a while back and also
looked at one of their singles, and I've got to say that the hull was
pretty nice. The only question I had was durability over a period of
years, but that's going to be the case with builders who are breaking
into the market (I'm thinking specifically of Quantum.)
Jared Carter
> cheap. I can't explain it, but the Kaschper wing seems much more
> fragile and susceptible to wear than, say, a Hudson wing. (This
> probably has something to do with a pretty poor welding job on the
> boat I looked at as a demo.)
A guy at my club bought one of these about 6 months ago and it is a piece of
crap! He was doing steady state a few months ago and the rigger broke in
the middle of a stroke. I understand that there is torque during the
stroke, but we are a lightweight club, so I doubt that he really has King
Kong -like strength. The rigger failed at the weld and could not even be
rowed back to the dock, it was barely staying attached. The other event
that ensured the terrible quality of the boat was that the fin fell off
while he was just sitting. He didn't run into anything and wasn't even
moving. It just dropped off.
I follow a simple rule of thumb when it comes to buying boats, if it says
Kaschper anywhere on it, then I don't buy it!
John Davis
You are painting with a rather broad brush. We have a lot of
Kaschpers in our area (our club buys Huds) and folks are happy with
them. A friend about my age (a greybeard) just bought an Extreme 1x.
Sold off his Empacher. He rows it daily and loves it. Says it feels
every bit as good as his old boat ever did. Workmanship and fit and
finish are excellent.
Strange about the rigger. As for the fin, they just don't "fall off"
for no reason. He had to have hit something or else it was coming lose
for a while and he never checked it.
JD
"Jared Carter" <JaredCa...@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<uFFnb.22650$294....@nwrdny03.gnilink.net>...
ehewitt
very reput i
able
boatmaker; just a bad weld on the rigger, happens.
as it went, i was sharing the boat with another guy; we avoided each other
carefully so not to vie for the boat at the same time, so never talked. i
saw him at pizza star on night and said "hey, what is with the rig on that
single?" he said "whew, i thought it was just me." i said i'd have a
look, but he rowed it next; the weld cracked at the other end of the lake.
it had been fatiguing for about a week, and got worse and worse until the
boat was almost unrowable, then gave. it fell to him to limp home at
zero pressure; i felt bad, but he definitely pulls harder than i do these
days, so i figure he probably did most of the damage, so all's well
e
John Davis (johnn...@yahoo.com) wrote:
: Jared:
--
e
Matthew Turner
> Kaschper anywhere on it, then I don't buy it!
I think just about every builder has had production problems of one
sort or another. Stampfli build beautiful shells, but they got buried
back in the '80s when someone bought the wrong covering fabric for
their hulls. Problems didn't show up until months after the boats had
left their shop.
You get slightly more tolerant when you try to do the work yourself.
In the last few years, I've had to deal with: 1/8" marine plywood
shipped in three different thicknesses (and I've only bought it three
times...), a gallon can of unpromoted gelcoat that took a week to
cure, a supplier that can't remember whether they sell airex or
core-cell, an epoxy manufacturer's tech notes that were just plain
untrue, plus three of my own major design changes.
And that's not even considering the question of employees; thank god I
don't have any. I've known one guy who once nailed a bed together out
of 2x4's who called himself a cabinetmaker and another I met who spent
five years building harpsicords in his own business who "didn't really
consider himself a woodworker". If a guy leaves community college with
a welding ticket that says he's proficient in welding aluminum but
can't, or someone says they glued the fin on but didn't, it can be
pretty hard to weed the person out before they do a whole mess of
damage.
The real question is: what did the company do about it?
Matt Turner
Turner Racing Shells Limited
TNW
It is possible (though highly unlikely) for their fins in particular
to fall off. Most boat makers have the fins attached to the inside of
the hull in some way. For example: Vespoli has the bolts that come
through the hull and into the fin; Hudson and Van Dusen have the fin
boxes; Empacher, BBG, Filippi, and (if I remember) Drew Harrison have
set screws; and so on. Kaschper, though, decided that it's good enough
to just glue the fin on to the hull. No fin box, no bolts, no set
screw. So here's a hypothetical situation: guy working at Kaschper
goes to glue on the fin. It's late in the day, and he wants a beer.
Maybe he doesn't mix the epoxy quite right, maybe he leaves a small
bubble in the epoxy after he puts the fin on, or whatever. Anyway, you
can't see the problem as the boat's sitting in the shop, so you ship
it to the customer. The customer's out rowing. That hypothetical
little bubble is letting water seep in between the fin and the hull
until it just...drops. It's feasible, though (as I said) highly
unlikely.
Kaschper would've done well to complicate their building and repair
processes a bit to avoid problems like this. As it is now, we've gotta
worry whether the boys in Lucan are thirsty for Molson on a Friday
while they're building a boat. I think there were similar concerns
with Van Dusen, but that was a while ago. (I don't have any
experiential basis for any supposed Van Dusen problems; I just
remember reading about it in Brad Lewis' book.)