A Boat in a Bag

Last summer we went for a paddle with friends to try out their new canoe, a Zodiac Jumbo, a replacement for a Dagger Legend that was unable to fit on their motor home roof. First we had to take it out of the boot and inflate it. We were very sceptical that it would have the attributes of a ‘proper’ canoe, but were happy to give it a go. It was actually very good, didn’t take long to inflate, handled well, turned corners in a pleasant manner and, most surprisingly, wasn’t floppy like an old lilo.

This set us to thinking as the first canoe we ever considered buying was an inflatable which we saw at a trade show many years ago. It was, we thought at the time, too expensive. A search of the Internet took us to the Grabner website - the manufacturers of the canoe we had seen at the trade show. There was so much to choose from but we liked the look of two of them: the Outside and the Adventure. They were suited to our needs – can be paddled on flat water and moving water up to grade 5 for one and grade 4 for the other, folded up reasonably small to act as luggage on a transatlantic flight, carry enough gear for a weeks tripping and looked OK. The price was the same as any other new canoe too.

The catalogue arrived, so I brushed up my German and set too (they do catalogues in English but had run out). We settled on the Adventure, 4.5 metres (about 15 foot), with rigid recurved ends, lots of separate chambers for safety and a self bailer, happy to run grade 4. A phone call to Austria and some dodgy German later one Grabner Adventure was on its way to us.

Our first trip out was to do some work with friends building moving water confidence, so we thought that would be a good start for the new toy.

People were interested but sceptical as we explained its attributes. We were quite happy playing at a mill race, coaching break-ins & break-outs, forward ferries, the usual stuff, whilst the kayaks around sneered as they did their play boat thing in the hole. The hole was fairly deep so we avoided it until we donned our dry suits, then went out to play…We surfed our hearts out, Paul and the front of the boat disappearing, until all that was visible were Paul’s shoulders and head, whilst we shredded across the wave, squeaking and squealing to ourselves. We pulled out of the wave with the boat full of water, but stable, paddled forward and the self bailer did its thing - a minute later we were dry again. Definitely a good toy.

On the Sunday we did a river trip, loaded the canoe with the dog (on a piece of karrimat, claws can cause accidents), daypacks and us. We all had a lovely day, sunny and warm with good company, even finding a huge fig tree, bulging with unripe green figs. The canoe performed well all day and was very comfortable, with no extra kneeling pads needed!

This summer we are touring in Ireland. We are getting a spray deck to fit (it comes with lashing points for a spray deck) because we know why its called the Emerald Isle… when we first moved there, it was August 1985, the coalman came to fill the coal hole and I turned him away saying it was summer, it also rained every day for the first 50 days we were there, what little I knew!

We are not getting rid of the hard hulled boats, but this definitely has its place in the fleet as it fits inside the van, can travel as a piece of luggage on planes, and when not in use lives in a cupboard in the study! It would have saved us a fortune in hire charges if we had had it on trips to the USA and Canada. I am not telling my Dad about the inboard motor mount that fits through the self-bailer or we will never see the canoe again!

After sales service is excellent too. Recently I had to call about a problem with a sticking valve which was then replaced free of charge without any hassle.

See for yourselves at www.grabner-sports.at or phone for a catalogue (they have people who speak English) on 0043 7434 42251.

SW