Whilst I was enjoying myself at the Banbury Canoe club Ross Warland race this weekend, Neal was hard at work on the C2 design.
He has increased the freeboard, so the boat should float 40 mm higher (to the chine line) under maximum load (195 kg) than The Darkness, and 55 mm higher with a lighter load of 155 kg (juniors, size zero models and racing snakes!).
We also added more volume to the rear of the boat following advice from “a well-known canoe builder and retailer”! This also allows the longitudinal centre of gravity and buoyancy to coincide to reach equilibrium, relative to the position of the paddlers. (This sounds like I know what I’m talking about, but I simply repeated Neal’s words!)
We’re raising the gunwale an additional 20 mm to reduce the risk of swamping when cutting through large waves such as motor boat washes. This will also support a full spray deck in anticipation of the Tideway.
CAD imagery
The illustration above shows the side view and half the plan view, where you can just make out the cockpit opening in purple. It also shows half a cross section, demonstrating the forgiving (and stable) curvature of the hull (I hope!).
There is even a small amount of rocker towards the bow to help with manoeuvring such a long vessel.
You can see that the paddlers are closer together than a conventional C2, plus they are not right at each end of the boat. We may have to adopt a modified paddling stroke, more towards a kayak style in the same way that I do for The Darkness.
This is getting more exciting than waiting for Christmas!
Darkside Canoes 
Hi Nick. How soon do you think you will have one on the water?
Hi Chris, I’m aiming for early next year. However, my biggest challenge at the moment is funding……..or lack of!
Maybe make it to the start line for the DW then? Would imagine set up costs are an issue, but you must have learnt a lot from the first build. How much do you need to finish the project if you don’t mind me asking?
Costs are indeed the biggest issue. The investment is as much to make one boat as it is for one thousand. Approximate costs for the next stages would be: £500 to complete the CAD design, £1,400 to fashion the full size shape in polystyrene on a milling machine, £1,000 to create the finished plug from the polystyrene core, £1,500 to make the mould and then about £2,000 for the first boat. So, I need about £6,200 to make the start line.
I did think about crowd-funding, but I really need a large donation rather than a loan, or investment I have to pay back.
At the moment I’m only looking to the next stage.