Friday 7 September 2012

Rob Mercer in the Tiderace Xplore L

Rob has been waiting for some decent sea conditions to get the new Tiderace Xplore out into, and Wednesday presented him with a chance to get out amongst it off the cliffs north of Sydney Heads.
Chris James came along in his Rockpool Taran with his lipstick camera mounted forward to give Rob some video feedback on the way the boat handled the bounce & chop on a moderate day.
Rob will write up his initial impressions of the boat shortly, but in the meantime here's a video of some great fun conditions around our home waters off Sydney.
Thanks to Chris for setting up the camera, and to Carlos Santana for the tunes…! 

4 comments:

  1. Moderate conditions guys? I think you might have a slightly different view on what 'moderate' means than what I do! I like the way the long shots show the hull tracking.
    Mal.

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  2. That boat looks pretty smooth through the water, Mark. Mind you that may have a lot to do with the paddler. :)

    I've been wondering when someone was going to bring in the Tiderace boats, they seem to get some very good reviews in the UK and sound like they should suit our rocky coastline quite well too. Maybe I'll get to take one for a spin sometime when my travel schedule calms down a bit. This years been really interesting from a work perspective but a dead loss for leisure time.

    cheers,

    John

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  3. G'day JA, thanks for the comment. Sometimes we struggle to understand what the designer was trying to achieve with a particular boat, but these Tiderace hulls define themselves pretty quickly, especially once you hit some moving water. They're definitely different, maybe not for everyone, but made for a purpose, rather than a dealers desired price point.
    We'll see you in November for a spin!

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  4. And sorry Mal, just saw your comment! Yes moderate is in the eyes of the beholder. The forecast for this particular day involved a bigger swell, which would have really made things interesting. It didn't eventuate.
    What you see here is mostly wind generated, a stiff 20kn northerly pushing a sea onto the steep cliffs to the north of Sydney Heads. None of the fast moving big hydraulics that swells conceive, so yeah moderate, rather than challenging. Rob looks pretty relaxed right!
    Thanks for taking the time to comment.

    ReplyDelete

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