Fastest plastic ski ever made??? - Sneak Peak

Could this be the fastest plastic ski ever made.

Spirit, the people behind the very popular PRS ski have just released a sneak peak of thier new ski on Facebook and boy does it look quick!

The worlds two quickest plastic skis (Spirit "PRS" and Finn "Molokai") are both made in my City of Perth, in Western Australia so I look forward to checking out Spirits claim to the fastest plastic ski soon.




Specs

Length 5.7m
Width 46cm
no word on weight just yet

www.facebook.com/SpiritPaddleSports?fref=ts

www.spiritpaddle.com.au/content.asp?cID=2

Note: Spirit do not (yet) claim that this is the fastest plastic ski, but it is clear from thier website that they like to be able to claim that title for their PRS while Finn Molokai paddlers often differ in opinion

This looks identical to the Spirit ski I bought just on 2 years ago.I have paddled in the sea and rivers and have found the following:

Too much rocker,way too slow,does not turn well.A Fenn XT would be a rocket ship in comparison.It is also way heavier than a fibreglass boat,the scupper is taken clean off after one river paddle and now takes water faster than I can drink beer on a Friday afternoon.This scupper has never drained properly resulting in a very wet cockpit.

The idea is great,especially for rough river waters but you do need a noseguard.Is this sneak peek an updated version and if so what has been changed?

The differences stood out straight away for me, but I see loads of these boats at all our races so I guess I am quite familiar with their lines. here is the current PRS, compare it to the pics on my original post.


The new Fury is 4cm narrower and the nose to me looks more refined.

If I was a betting man I'd wager that they may have tinkered with the shape of the hull. The PRS has quite a rounded almost flat bottom which gives it a fair amount of stability.

Word in paddling circles was that some sponsored paddlers had their PRS boat "Squished" while the plastic was still warm coming out of the mold so that the hull was narrower and had produced more of a V shape.

Any boat that has a scupper and goes down rapids will risk having it torn off.

The Finn Molokai uses the anderson bailer that can be retracted but if you are unlucky you can catch the leading edge of the bailer even when closed and rip it off, it's just one of the risks taken with rapids paddling.

Some paddlers seal them and revert to a pump for white water marathon races.

Yes they do weigh a lot But then again they are pretty bulletproof , hence the reason they are so popular as an all round ski. I have owned both the PRS and now the Molokai and they were both around 20kg. But as for an XT being a rocket ship in comparison, I think that's an exaggeration. I've seen a PRS paddled at over 12km/hr over a 20km race and I've paddled my 20kg Molokai at 12.1km/hr over 12km so while they are heavy they do get along.

The nose does look like it would be easily bent if placed between two rocks and sideways force applied, but what ski wouldn't? At least a plastic ski will most likely spring back into reasonable shape and be able to keep going

I had a quick paddle in the Fury last night on the Swan river, very small bucket that a lot of people would not currently fit. Stability is noticeably less then the PRS but still quite stable. I am sure that Spirit will sell a lot of these boats once they hit the stores. Could be plenty of second hand PRS's on the market in Perth soon.

I don't understand the point, or why there would be a market, for plastic surfskis. Anybody care to enlighten me please?

They're half the price of a composite ski, they're almost indestructable, they can be as fast as most intermediate skis ( with the right paddler on board)and are reasonably stable. They usually come with a choice of surf rudder or trailing rudder.
Heaps get sold to folks who want to train and do the Avon descent.
You then pick them up second hand a few weeks later for under a grand.
Everyone I paddle with started on plastic skis and then moved to composites. Most of us still have the plastic in the garage for the kids to play on or the occasional river race.
The only real drawback is the weight.

The Avon Descent is a white water race near Perth Australia.

The river is seasonal, the rocks sharp and the water level has a range of around 2.0m.

For a large number of paddlers, hitting and bouncing over rocks is quite normal and the plastic skis handle this pretty well.

Avon snapshot