What should the next DR boat be?

[kwhilden]

kayaking is becoming Stand Up Paddle... in case you missed all the buzz about it. What could be more fun than making class II seem like it is class IV?

Corran's new whitewater oriented SUP should be a blast.

[civediamoDC]

Whatever it ends up being, the chrome logo plates need to go. Especially in the creek boats, they get bent up from hitting rocks, etc., and then become a liability in terms of a sharp edge protruding from the side of your kayak. I think you could just as easily mold in the logo and it would look just as good, if not better.

[DanH]

They are one step ahead of you! They haven't had the DragoRossi logo plates on the sides of the kayaks for a while now (maybe 3 years). The only have them behind the cockpit now if at all!

[aaronl]

After seeing the new CAD drawings and reading the previous posts, I thought I would throw my .2 cents into the ring. I have paddled all of Corran's boats, but I think the one thing that is being overlooked is the possible redesign, or tweaking of already existing boats. For example, a Stinger 2.0, one that has a little more stern, or a Thruster that has lower sidewalls, or a Fish that isn't so damn boxy and roomier.
I agree with all that Albert has said and feel the same way. I think that one reason people keep going back to the X's boat is the tweaking of current designs. People are buying a product they are already familiar with, just updated and yes, people will pay money for a boat that has minor performance tweaks. I did have a love hate relationship with the Stinger, I loved it, but in bigger water the stern killed me. I also weigh 190-195 and the Pintail was a good boat in theory, but unconventional as it wasn't a playboat and not a creeker. I thought the fish was a tad tight and didn't want to pump it up as Albert had done. The Thruster was awesome, but f-ing a pain in the ass to roll for new paddlers and it was a catchy SOB in big water. The Mafia was too small for me on the steeps, and the CM was overkill, although a super boat.
Corran I don't think you are that far away from a breakthrough, but rather you need to take a trip down memory lane and revisit past designs with the goal of tweaking them. I also advise a broader range of weight ranges for your boats. I find, with the exception of the Thruster and Creekers, that overall your boats are small and don't tolerate the breadth of different size people (I'm not talking about weight here, but physical size).

On a different note I am glad I found the old "Dragorossi" crowd, now I need to get back to studying. This PhD program is killing me.

Later,
Aaron