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I bet it surfs great.
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The Arc is 51.5 cms wide or 20.28 inches whereas the V9 is 49 cms or 19.29 inches, a difference of 1 inch, not 1/4 inch.
I borrowed the demo for a few days.I bet it surfs great.
It surfs better than the V-9 for me. Much, much better.
It felt corky at first - almost wobbly like a narrower boat. Maybe it's a combination of the light weight and the waterline at rest. It's 1/4" wider than my 9, so I wasn't overly concerned about tipping over but it sure felt weird initially.
It certainly is fun to downwind. I started carefully, gradually moving into more challenging lines. After a few miles I was attacking everything with wild abandon. It inspires confidence.
It works better for me than the V-9 in every way. Holds a line much better across a wave. Self centering rudder is a huge help there.
Fit and finish is the best I've ever seen. Super light. Footwell is deep, well protected. Footplate is solid and very easy to adjust. FIt at calves is ideal - good feedback there. Comfiest bucket I've ever sat in.
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The Arc is 51.5 cms wide or 20.28 inches whereas the V9 is 49 cms or 19.29 inches, a difference of 1 inch, not 1/4 inch.
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Nice catch. It's tough being a woodworker in the US and dealing with our terrible measuring system. Science and our important industries have moved on to metric. The facade of imperial units will gradually crumble with time.The Arc is 51.5 cms wide or 20.28 inches whereas the V9 is 49 cms or 19.29 inches, a difference of 1 inch, not 1/4 inch.
My new Arc was recently manufactured. It's 5kg lighter than my V-9. (30# vs 19#)
It should be in the shipment after next, so maybe October for me.
Nothing compares to the feeling of a light ski leaping forward with the first stroke. The initial surprise will gradually fade - but the minor efforts to flick around on a downwind wave will endure. It's a game changer for me. I'll be able to do longer runs.
I strongly urge anyone in the market for a ski to test a light one. NK does the autoclave layup too.
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I tried out the Arc which had just arrived in Australia. Unfortunately I was only able to paddle it in a bay although it was very windy, and choppy in parts. I normally paddle in Sydney Harbour which has all sorts of varying conditions depending on the day. It can range from very choppy and windy, big swells, confused water, and placid conditions. Normally not many downwind days unfortunately. I found the Arc very comfortable and nice to paddle, great when I had the wind behind me. However I only weigh 70kgs and was concerned that such a stiff and light ski would react too much with the wind and rough conditions and I didn't want to take a chance and buy one without being able to test it in rough conditions. Light paddlers usually find stiff and very light boats sit too high on the waterline.
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I am a skeptic when it comes to boat weight. A light boat is wonderful to carry off the water, but on the water I feel weight does not make a big difference. In fact the one downwind i did in a friend’s arc pro is an example of weight not mattering much. It was a day with strong and building winds and the waves were really steep. I did not have a wave deflector on the arc. The water was coming over the deck and rails faster than the bailer could handle it. On every run I would tip the boat on edge to dump a few inches of water out. But that did not help much, as the boat being very heavy with water was riding very low. I surfed for about 15 km with a bucket that was full. I would estimate it was 30- 40 kg of extra weight in the bucket. And yet the boat surfed really nicely, averaging 15kph over the entire stretch (which is a fast speed for me) . The boat was more work to accelerate, but also kept its speed up with freight train like momentum, which helped with bridging runs. It felt absurd to be paddling a 7.5 kg ski that had 5 times that weight in water sitting in it. But it was still fun and fast. Toward the end of the run the bucket finally drained, and then the boat felt more playful, but it wasn’t necessarily going any faster. The one other time I had to downwind for miles on end with a full bucket was in the original Vega. In that case the 3d printed venturi fell off so I had no drainage at all. Again the boat took harder pulls to accelerate, but once underway felt unstoppable, and my mile splits were just as fast as they would have been with an empty bucket. The skinny vega also felt incredibly stable and planted with all the extra weight in it.
I get asked this question all the time. The simple answer is no.
The reason for this is that if you are catching runs you cannot go any faster than the runs you are catching. No matter what the boat weighs if it can surf and fit into the available chop then it will be the same.
In smaller lake and river type runs then there would be an advantage in a lighter boat as you paddle over the top of the smaller runs.
In all cases the boat shape and "surfability" are more important than a few extra kilos.
In very big conditions there may even be a slight advantage in a slightly heavier boat but that is up to the individual.
Dead flat is another story.
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