Bought the RZ 96

[Christov_Tenn]

Well, I bought the RZ96 today. It should arrive at our destination before we get there.

It's 2003 expedition model with fore and aft hatches, keel strips, rudder, sprayskirt of the drysuit zipper variety, new style fasteners, PVC hull. Will probably bear a strong resemblance to Ann's boat, sans backbands.

The two halves with horseshoe and block assembly may take some getting used to.

I'm looking forward to doing a river float and some lake paddling before bringing the boat home to Tennessee.

Chris

[Franz]

Congrats!

The more I learn about Pouch, the more I like it / them.

[Anne]

Great, looking forward to pictures and comments! My RZ96 is getting its first hull patch this week

[Christov_Tenn]

My RZ96 is getting its first hull patch this week

Ugh. What happened?

I read on the Pouch Unofficial site that Marian Gunkel was unimpressed by Pouch's hypalon hull on this boat. Said something about the reinforcement on bow and stern being not particularly heavy.

C.

[Anne]

Bow and stern reinforcement are only additional strips, compared to Klepper's beefy bow and stern caps. I read the comment by Marian Gunkel as well, and somebody else with a hypalon RZ96 mentioned it in a trip report. I think the reinforcement is adequate and makes the skin a little lighter and easier to fold, but I will add another strip in the stern when doing the patch. The (small) damage happened on land when the stern dragged on pavement while carting it. For kayaking, landing, etc. bow and stern don't need more reinforcement for my use of the kayak.

[Christov_Tenn]

Well, I bought the RZ96 today. It should arrive at our destination before we get there.

The boat actually arrived today at our home in Tennessee. I did get out on the water in Indiana, but in an outfitter's SOT. Still a pleasant experience. And I spent most of yesterday paddling and exploring parts of a large lake unfamiliar to me in the E68.

No time yet to assemble it, but I took all the parts out and looked at them. Had trouble folding up the rear gunwales to lay flat, probably I have a functional limitation in the area of spatial relations. Everything looked in good shape with the exception that one of the plastic clips on rib number seven is partially broken. I may Gorilla Glue it while trying to get a replacement part. I think it looks like it will be easy to assemble, but I may find the inner and outer coaming + rear crosspiece baffling.

The hull is all supple and shiny black, smells clean almost like new, nothing like scarred but hardy skin of my E68. Deck's a nice deep blue canvas with hatches, perimeter lifeline, bow and stern bungie rigging, hatches. The Pouch branded spraydeck appears to be sound and in excellent condition. The RZ's seats appear somewhat better cushioned than the seat that came with the E68. Also in the boxes were two Zolzer float bags and a small hand pump to inflate them and the kayak's sponsons.

As to the bags, the long "backpack" bag is unlikely to ever be used as a backpack while containing the boat's long pieces. I will probably buckle the skin and long bags together and move them around using a Folbot cart I've got in the boat-shed. It may be a challenge to get this boat in the 850, even with the back seats folded forward.

I'll assemble it later this week and take some pictures after I've done the adult thing, deferring gratification by mowing the lawn and washing the car spattered with Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee bugs. We're planning to paddle that lake I mentioned above on Saturday morning, so maybe some pictures then, too. No bug pictures.

Chris

[Anne]

Hi Chris,
Are the sponsons not in the skin? That's odd, but perhaps it's not that difficult to insert them in the sleeves.

The long frame bag fits easily in a Ford Focus station wagon with the seats folded down, which I believe is a smaller car than the 850. The RZ96 frame bag is somewhat shorter than the RZ85 bag.

For packing the frame bag I found this picture helpful: http://www.pouch-inoffiziell.de/pics/nu ... packen.JPG
It is for the RZ85, but also works for the RZ96. The text is in German, but you may be able to recognize the parts on the pictures. This is one method to get a square bag with a flat bottom, which is handy when putting the bag on a boat cart.

This one for the skin bag http://www.pouch-inoffiziell.de/pics/nu ... packen.jpg I havn't tried yet.

[Christov_Tenn]

Are the sponsons not in the skin?

Hi Anne,

I probably mumbled in prose in my previous post - sorry - the sponsons are in their sleeves in the skin. One of the shipping packages contained a small hand pump intended for use inflating both the floatation bags and the sponsons. The pump's tip seems to perfectly fit the inflation tubes to the sponsons and the float bags.

Thanks for the picture links. What's the difference between "sack" and "asch"? I'm learning to read German, albeit in pidgin-fashion, from spending so much time looking at German folding kayak websites. My mother says I spoke or at least understood the spoken language during the time, as a fairly young child, we lived in Wiesbaden (if that's how the city's name is spelled). Pity we came back before the language really took root.

Chris

[Anne]

Sack is a sack or a bag, and Tasche is a bag (can e.g. be a duffle bag which would not be a sack). With folding kayak bags, the skin bag is often called Sack because of its shape, but there is no real difference between Sack and Tasche when it comes to kayak packaging. The kayak and frame parts are much more difficult since many parts have names that are not commonly used words. "Waschbord" puzzled me for a long time. Perhaps I will put together a German-English list of kayak parts, if it does not exist already. Some parts I still don't know what they are called in English or German.

[Christov_Tenn]

I've posted some pictures I took this evening (and one I took Monday) in my album on the main site. It's really humid and hot here in Tennessee today, and night was slowly falling as I worked and took snapshots.

We intend to paddle this boat early Saturday morning. My wife, sitting in the bow seat on the grass, seemed pleased, and said she found the legroom a happy change from what she had in the Puffin II.

More reports to follow..

Many thanks to you, Anne, for your information, advice, and photos.
Many thanks to Ralph Hoehn for yet another demo Pouch kayak.

Happy Motoring,

Chris

[Paul]

Nice pictures and captions. I thought it looked long so I looked up the dimensions--18 feet!! Looking forward to your paddling review.

[Anne]

Looks exactly like mine except the black PVC looks more shiny than the Hypalon hull.

The seats can go in any time after all the ribs are installed. I don't use the Pouch seat but sit on a dry bag with Thermarests inside. Paddling is much easier when sitting a bit higher, especially for the front person.

Does your keelboard have a mast step? Mine doesn't have one so I need to put in a piece of wood before I can sail. A picture would help so I know what to make (although exact dimensions are probably not important for the mast step).

[Christov_Tenn]

Does your keelboard have a mast step? Mine doesn't have one so I need to put in a piece of wood before I can sail. A picture would help so I know what to make (although exact dimensions are probably not important for the mast step).

I just uploaded some photos of the mast-step to my gallery on the main site - they're not great photos, and I can only blame my preoccupation with thoughts of mowing (didn't get done), and why in blazes can't I figure out how to fold the rear set of gunwales flat against one another like those in front? I really should have paid better attention in OCD fashion when I first unpacked the bags to inspect the parts. That's when I really should've been taking pictures.

Hope the photos help. The hole in the mast step appears, although I haven't measured it, to be of the same diameter as the aluminum fitting on rib number two.

Chris

[Anne]

Thanks Chris for all the pictures of the mast step. They are very helpful. I will try to find a similar piece of hardwood as the ash in your kayak and glue and bolt it to the keelboard. Hope it will all be ready in time for the big trip in August.

Does the black hull feel hot in hot weather? I have a black spraydeck which I would not want to use somewhere hot, but it's ok in the Pacific northwest.

[Christov_Tenn]

We didn't knowingly find the black hull especially hot last Saturday - it didn't seem to be a source of heat-related discomfort. The carbon fiber shaft of my wife's Aquabound paddle got pretty hot and sort of seized up after our time on the water. During packing the hull didn't become unbearably hot to the touch, either. Probably because, before folding it, I laid it out with the blue deck up.

We'd've COOKED if we'd used the one-piece black zippered spraydeck. You're fortunate if your temperatures permit use of a similar device this time of year. I guess your winters may be colder than ours, but your water doesn't freeze up there?

We're using the paddles we already have with the 96 - a 220 cm in the bow and 230 cm in the stern. What length paddles are you using with your boat?

Another question - what sail rig did you get for the August trip you mentioned?

A lot of questions. Apologies if they're irksome.

Chris