In 2003, I was looking for a replacement for Old Bessie. She was big and heavy, and after several hundred trips, I was worried she was going to start falling apart. The dealer who sold me Old Bessie recommended the Wing Probe as a stable boat that was lighter and more manueverable. I took a chance, and my first trip in the Wing was terrible. I felt like I was going to fall out of the boat backwards. I ended up using the boat for guests for a year and I even considered getting rid of it until I decided to try putting in a bigger backrest. I tried a large Hyside backrest first. After just a couple of rapids I could tell that the boat was much more comfortable and stable. I tried the smaller backrest as an experiment, but it just never felt right.
I was still a little bit tentative with the Wing. That summer, I ran Rattlesnake Creek in Old Bessie for comfort, and I wished I had the Wing for lightness (there were at least 9 wood portages on the trip). By the middle of summer, I switched full time to using the Wing.
The next year, I added a foam footbrace to the boat. I considered putting in footpegs, but I just wasn't sure about them. In the end, the footbrace has worked out great, except for the couple of times I've forgotten to bring it. Another thing I did was to get a friend to devise a set of webbing loops in the floor for attaching gear. This makes it very easy to tie in everything from a pump and lunch bag to a weekend camping bag.
The Wing has become my primary boat. I've even tried to get a spare, but I have been unable to get one since they made so few of them. I've only found one other, and the deal on that one went sour. I continue to try new boats, but it's going to be hard to beat the Wing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment