Northstar IXP - very lightweight, but strong enough for river tripping?
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Materials for River Trips
- Thread starter Black_Fly
- Start date
Never paddled a Northstar but i would think Ted Bell would use an appropriate layup schedule for river use. Its not only about the material, it is how it is cut and where it is applied and how many layers.
I have a Colden DragonFly that is carbon fiber-kev- FG and it was designed for river tripping. It is rather heavy for a composite boat but it has wood gunwales. It comes in at 38 lbs.
Millbrook has been using only composites including layers of glass, aramid and carbon for years. Millbrook is focused on whitewater use.
I have a Colden DragonFly that is carbon fiber-kev- FG and it was designed for river tripping. It is rather heavy for a composite boat but it has wood gunwales. It comes in at 38 lbs.
Millbrook has been using only composites including layers of glass, aramid and carbon for years. Millbrook is focused on whitewater use.
I suppose everyone has a different idea of river tripping but I think people worry about this too much. I took a cedar strip on a 30 day river trip with about 100 sets of rapids. I certainly didn't run them all but it got plenty of abuse, mostly from when I turned around and paddled back up the river to the put-in. The stems wore through to bare wood after about 3 weeks but otherwise it was fine. I took a day off and patched them.
For the next year I built a composite from carbon, kevlar, and fiberglass for a more remote 6 week trip. It did fine as well.
On these trips I was trying to run everything CII (my guess) and below. There were a few CIII or larger that I was able to sneak around on the edges.
Alan
For the next year I built a composite from carbon, kevlar, and fiberglass for a more remote 6 week trip. It did fine as well.
On these trips I was trying to run everything CII (my guess) and below. There were a few CIII or larger that I was able to sneak around on the edges.
Alan
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Black_Fly,
Pretty sure some have seen these, so I apologize. However, you asked. And, I'm biased = I am GM at Northstar. I paddled an IXP Phoenix for 17 days and almost 300 miles on the Thoa River in the Northwest Territories in July 2017. All the photos are rapids I ran. Load with me was ~350lb. I intentionally used the boat hard so that I could speak accurately about what IXP can do. First 3 days were a good bit of dragging. Next week was a good number of fun rapids. Last week was a fair bit of ugly portaging. Hope this helps.
Pretty sure some have seen these, so I apologize. However, you asked. And, I'm biased = I am GM at Northstar. I paddled an IXP Phoenix for 17 days and almost 300 miles on the Thoa River in the Northwest Territories in July 2017. All the photos are rapids I ran. Load with me was ~350lb. I intentionally used the boat hard so that I could speak accurately about what IXP can do. First 3 days were a good bit of dragging. Next week was a good number of fun rapids. Last week was a fair bit of ugly portaging. Hope this helps.
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That's pretty impressive Bear. Did the boat need any repairs after the trip?
Yeah, I'd be interested in seeing the hull if any photos were taken.
Black_Fly, I'm not sure where in SW Ohio you are, but I have a Phoenix in the IXP layup that you are more than welcome to paddle. Also, for what it's worth, Great Miami Outfitters up here in Dayton just recently became a Northstar dealership. I don't believe they currently have any Phoenix in stock, but they do have a Northwind solo demo boat in the IXP lay up. They also take boats on trade-in/consignment (I saw your sale thread).
Mike
Mike
The IXP boats aren't really ultralight boats (I mean this in a good way) A B17 in IXP is listed at 65lbs, and the Bell Alaskan in royalex was supposedly 72lbs. That's a lot of layers of cloth.
Quinn
Quinn
Wow, thanks Mike. I've bought 4 canoes and 2 kayaks from Andrew and his dad over the years, including 2 of the boats I'm selling. Didn't know they'd become a Northstar dealer. Last I heard they were dumping canoes for kayaks exclusively. Guess they came to their senses.
Hmmm, the Phoenix is listed at 41 lbs in IXP. I don't think either of my Kevlar UL solo boats is quite that light.
My old Bell Magic in kevlight was 34 pounds and good deal larger than the Phoenix.
Alan
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My Phoenix did not need any repairs. I did try to take photos of the hull after the trip - it was hard to capture much of the wear.
Since that photo failure, last summer I decided to take a video instead. Video is of an IXP B 17 hull. The B 17 was paddled for 7 days thru the Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande in Feb 2017, then on a few class two-sey whitewater day trips in MN/WI last spring and finally for 17 days down the Bloodvein and surrounding areas in Manitoba. I took the video on the last evening of the Bloodvein trip at our campsite.
My wife (the tech saavy one of us) is editing the video today (I hope), since I've promised it to others too. I didn't think anyone wanted to watch a long video of Bear digressions, so instead the cut down version should be ~4 minutes. I'm planning on posting it on the Northstar facebook page. For those that believe Zuckerberg is taking over the world (along with Bezos, etc..) send an email to bear@northstarcanoes.com and I'll send the video to you via a website called wetransfer.com.
Quinn, you saw my Phoenix at the BW Expo last June, do you remember it well enough to comment? It's the boat I was playing deadfish polo in.
Alternately, if someone really wants to see the Phoenix hull, I can try for a video of that, let me know?
Last, in our lightweight lamination, StarLite, the Phoenix is 28lb - the IXP version is about 50% heavier. Generally IXP boats are about 10% lighter than Royalex hulls.
Since that photo failure, last summer I decided to take a video instead. Video is of an IXP B 17 hull. The B 17 was paddled for 7 days thru the Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande in Feb 2017, then on a few class two-sey whitewater day trips in MN/WI last spring and finally for 17 days down the Bloodvein and surrounding areas in Manitoba. I took the video on the last evening of the Bloodvein trip at our campsite.
My wife (the tech saavy one of us) is editing the video today (I hope), since I've promised it to others too. I didn't think anyone wanted to watch a long video of Bear digressions, so instead the cut down version should be ~4 minutes. I'm planning on posting it on the Northstar facebook page. For those that believe Zuckerberg is taking over the world (along with Bezos, etc..) send an email to bear@northstarcanoes.com and I'll send the video to you via a website called wetransfer.com.
Quinn, you saw my Phoenix at the BW Expo last June, do you remember it well enough to comment? It's the boat I was playing deadfish polo in.
Alternately, if someone really wants to see the Phoenix hull, I can try for a video of that, let me know?
Last, in our lightweight lamination, StarLite, the Phoenix is 28lb - the IXP version is about 50% heavier. Generally IXP boats are about 10% lighter than Royalex hulls.
Why not post it to YouTube where non-users of the Book like me can see it?
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Video is now on Northstar's Facebook page and You Tube channel. Thanks for the suggestion. You Tube is hard to find - we've only got 3 videos. We need to do some work on that front, but I'm the marketing, sales, HR, and probably some other departments too, so sometimes we don't get to things quickly, because actually getting out paddling takes precedence.
Geez. That's some scratching. I'd add skids.
I don't remember your phoenix looking particularly beat up. Just standard composite scratches.
The bottom of that B17 looks like the bottom of a rental boat after a couple short BWCA trips!
Quinn
