The OC-6 your club has been looking for.

Designed specifically to perform in moderate seas as opposed to huge open ocean waves.
The Advantage is the best built most maintencance fee OC-6 on the market.

At 44' 8", the Advantage is one of the longest canoes in competition. Entry and exit times are as fine allowed within the HCRA rules. The generous rocker profile allows maneuverability, to turn quickly in surf conditions, yet provides enough tracking to keep the boat on course. The sides of the Advantage are high to decrease the amount of water coming in when paddling through waves. The combination of high speed, maneuverability and rough water capabilities make the Advantage the perfect boat for all Outrigger races.

Canoes will be available at regulation 400# weight or at 300#, your choice.
Orders for the Advantage can be completed in as little as 4-6 weeks.

Club Pricing:

Ama: $1250
Iako (pr): $400

Manu
Local Blank: $60
Local Finished: $160
Koa Blank: $140
Koa Finished: $240

• "Blanks are saw cut to size, pre-drilled for deck hardware, and are ready for carving your own Manu.
• "Local" refers to locally grown woods, eg: Maple, Alder

Splash board (hardware not included): $75.00

As the popularity of outrigger racing continues to grow worldwide, demand for well built racing craft has also grown. Second only to race performance is most club's concern for low maintenance. The Clipper Advantage was built to meet and exceed the needs of the most demanding outrigger racers - one of our taller orders! From the start of the project our goal has been to build the best OC6 (six person outrigger) available. This page was put together to help you learn more about what makes the Clipper Advantage such an exceptional canoe.

HISTORY

In 1996 Western Canoeing was considering production of a six person Hawaiian racing outrigger. After the success of the 31' Northern Dancer, a project large enough to require development of new laminating techniques as well as new mold tooling, we felt confident that we could develop another big canoe. We heard that Greg Barton was working on a similar project in Seattle. During discussions with him we decided to collaborate on the project and the concept of the Advantage OC6 was born. After a year and a half of design work, prototype testing, and tooling, the first production canoe was completed early in 1998.

Greg came into the project with considerable hull design background as well as the respect among the paddlesports racing community that comes from two Olympic golds, a first place Molokai finish, and the continuing racing success he enjoys. Greg raced the Advantage to a first place in the mens masters division at Catalina 98 with Team Hawaii Masters steered by "Nappy" Napoleon.

HULL DESIGN by Greg Barton.

"At 44' 8", the Advantage is one of the longest canoes in competition. Entry and exit times are as fine allowed within the HCRA rules. The generous rocker profile allows maneuverability, to turn quickly in surf conditions, yet provides enough tracking to keep the boat on course. The sides of the Advantage are high to decrease the amount of water coming in when paddling through waves. The combination of high speed, maneuverability and rough water capabilities make the Advantage the perfect boat for all Outrigger races"

The Advantage was designed to meet Hawaiian Outrigger Specifications using either the Hawaiian or California test methods. On April 18, 1998 a production canoe was weighed, measured, and tested by Bud Hohl of California. By the end of the day it had passed and was certified race legal by KOA (Kalifornia Outrigger Association) standards.

When loaded to the 1500 lbs displacement for waterline measurement the waterline length is 36' 4 1/4". It starts 44" from the bow, measured along the rocker line. Please keep in mind that this is the waterline for testing only, an 1100 lb crew in the 400 lb hull will not trim the hull out in the same way because of the distribution of the weight. Because of the fullness of the Advantage's stern relative to the bow, a shift back in crew weight will shorten the canoe's waterline. A shift back in crew weight to move the waterline 3" further from the bow should only move the stern waterline back a little over 2". In short, this means that the Advantage's depth and considerable rocker make it sensitive to trim - something that can help in a race once you learn how to use it.

COMPONENT DESIGN

Canoe spreaders are on 10'7" centres. This will accommodate a Channel Master Ama, the Huki Ama or Western Canoeing's own Clipper ama.

The splash board and manu ends are not permanently attached to the canoe. They bolt on with stainless fasteners into threaded inserts mounted flush in the deck. Wooden manu ends are not included with the canoe but can be ordered. Clubs may choose to use the canoe without manu, or customize it with manu carved specifically for their canoe. Molding the decks without fiberglass manu allows us to build stronger ends into each Advantage and allows traditionalists to race their canoe with koa manu.

Our urethane coated nylon spraydeck slides into an anodized aluminum track, the track is included on all canoes. Instead of fitting over the splash board, the splash board is removed, the spraydeck is installed, and then the splash board is bolted back on through a foam gasket sewn inside the end of the spraydeck. The result is a very watertight and sleek fit at the front of the spraydeck. Spraydeck joins at the iako use a new roll-down system and quick release buckles that is very watertight, gives lots of adjustment, and can be quickly opened and reclosed to adjust the rigging.

Seats are contoured and are bolted to a rail on the hull. The bolts allow for some adjustment of seat placement to fine tune the trim. An Advantage could be ordered with seats permanently glassed into the hull, this would probably increase the torsional stiffness of the hull marginally but the adjustability of the trim would be lost, keep in mind, the torsional stiffness of the hull is already very good.

CONSTRUCTION

Western Canoeing's building experience is very diverse, our line includes open Canadian canoes, decked canoes and kayaks, and several big canoes. From the beginning of the Advantage project we felt that a different approach could be used to build an OC6. Our construction method centres on the concept of eliminating seams. We have developed a way to make the Advantage essentially a one piece canoe built in a two piece mold. The laminate includes a lot of unidirectional and biaxial fibres to enhance stiffness as well as woven kevlar and structural foam. The building technique includes crucial timing sequence of building stages, vacuum bagging, and rotating the whole mold to different orientations during construction. There is no "chop" and no wood used anywhere in the Advantage.

Our goal has not been to build the lightest OC6 possible. Advantage weights average in between 365 and 370 lbs. Our goal has been to build extremely durable outriggers requiring minimal maintenance, outriggers that will still be competing when they are 20 years old.

CLIPPER ADVANTAGE OC6 RIGGING NOTES

TOE IN:

Most canoes are rigged with some toe in , perhaps 3/4", in order to compensate for the ama drag causing the canoe to turn towards the ama. The Advantage has more gunwale beam at the rear iako than at the front iako so rigging it evenly (measured from the centre of the ama to the outside of the port gunwale) is actually rigging with about 1/2" of toe in.

Ama weight

• a light ama means less drag (a fast canoe) but also less stability
• adding weight to the ama (eg: two small weight training weights, one on the ama-end of each iako) can dramatically improve stability.

Canoe lean

• if the canoe is rigged with lean towards the ama (usually accomplished by adding a wedge between the gunwale and the iako on the ama side ) some of the weight of the crew and canoe are transferred to the ama, pushing it down and increasing stability.
• as the ama lifts, lean disappears and so does the stability from it.
• the heavier a crew is, the more they push the canoe down into the water - as this happens, lean decreases - consequently, identical rigs are less stable with heavier crews in them

Width

• a wider rig (ama farther from canoe) is more stable but the ama drag also has more effect on steering than with a narrow rig.

Suggested rigs for average conditions with a crew of intermediate experience - start with these rigs and then fine tune to suit water conditions, crew weight and experience, etc. These are for the Clipper Advantage rigged with a 25 lb Channel Master Ama and iako supplied by Western Canoeing

LIGHT CREW: (average paddler weight 140 lbs)

• both iako at 69"
• ama side gunwale wedged 1/2" at both iako

HEAVY CREW: (average paddler weight 200 lbs)

• both iako at 69"
• ama side gunwale wedged 1" at both iako

Max # of Paddlers: 6