Kaholo CLC wooden SUP - any experience out there?

[oldfartsuperdad]

I'm going to get a 14' flat water board by hook or crook!  I'm dollar challenged and won't be going for a $2K+ Dominator or anything similar.  Been looking at the CLC Kaholo kit.  I have built their kayaks before and find them to be relatively easy and fun to build - very good quality.  The overall shape and weight of this board seems to fall in line with other racers out there.

Is there any groupthink on the viability / useability of trying this kit for recreational racing and fitness?  Or should I continue to save my pennies for a "real" racer...would there be that big of a difference in performance?

[GSXXTRS]

As long as you aren't totally set on winning it's a fun and relatively fast board.  My experience may differ from some Kaholo owners because my build is heavy and slightly custom.

My build came in overweight for three reasons:
  1) I built in a standard fin box instead of the provided twin skegs
  2) I didn't follow the weight saving options in the manual
  3) It was my first glass job and it has way more epoxy than anticipated.

So my 43 lbs Kaholo(advertised 30?) is slightly faster than a stock class race board such as the Surftech Bark.  But a fair bit slower than the 14' race boards I've paddled such as custom Bark, M&M, Angulo proto.  All with me paddling and using a GPS.

I hope this helps.  And you can always say with a Kaholo that you may not have the fastest board but you do have the prettiest.

[PonoBill]

There's been a Kaholo wooden SUP at the CCBC since the first year I think. To me it seems to be the best board for that leisurely 32 mile marathon. Plenty fast, great looking, very useful with that cool brass compass binnacle. I'm sure Mr. Stoneaxe will pop up with the paddler's name, but I'll tell you for sure that he has a fine time with it. I've thought of building one myself, and probably would except that adding one more board to my absurd accumulation of SUPs is just way too much.

[stoneaxe]

And here I am....

Ryan Flynn has done the last two CCBC's on his CLC the "Amelia Ann" named after his girlfriend Amelia, who has taken most of the awesome pics we have of the CCBC, and where he grew up, Cape Ann. There's a couple in this vid of him sitting on the folding camp stool he had on his board when we took a couple of breaks...everyone was pretty jealous of his setup. His board is pretty fast and isn't that heavy either. He did a beautiful job on it including some very nice woodburning before it was glassed.


there's also a couple of great looking builds already on here. Here's one of them

http://www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=7938.0

[Wood_Ogre]

Oldfart! anyone can own a plastic fantastic SUP,just plunk down the money and your just like everyone else.! Build the Kaholo and you will have soul,you will have class, everyone will want to spend time looking at and talking about your woody !!  I have over 1500 miles on my current woody and have just started building a Kaholo. I have never paddled a plastic fantastic and never will !! Wood is Good !! Go for it !!

[808sup]

Here are a few pics. of my early wood board.

[Bill Huson]

Just got the plans and manual for the Kaholo. I have built numerous small boats and spotted several questionable construction techniques offered up in the CLC manual. A Kaholo builder on another forum verified the flaws. Example: Using wedges to force the bottom stringers down for gluing caused his hull bottom to deform. He ripped them out and reglued them using copper wire (S&G) on the second shot, and it worked.

I'll be building soon so feel free to contact me about the build. I think the Kaholo is perfect for the intended user, my daughter, who plans to visit a variety of flat water venues in our area. And as someone else mentioned - wood is good. The wood/epoxy catamaran I built for my daughter draws an admiring crowd every time she launches it.

[GSXXTRS]

Just got the plans and manual for the Kaholo. I have built numerous small boats and spotted several questionable construction techniques offered up in the CLC manual. A Kaholo builder on another forum verified the flaws. Example: Using wedges to force the bottom stringers down for gluing caused his hull bottom to deform. He ripped them out and reglued them using copper wire (S&G) on the second shot, and it worked.

I built from kit and the bulkheads are stitched into the bottom and the rail panels.  No wedges needed.  

I think the instructions lack emphasis or mention of the need to bevel panels especially the bow and special care needed when glassing the top deck overlap.

[Bill Huson]

Just got the plans and manual for the Kaholo. I have built numerous small boats and spotted several questionable construction techniques offered up in the CLC manual. A Kaholo builder on another forum verified the flaws. Example: Using wedges to force the bottom stringers down for gluing caused his hull bottom to deform. He ripped them out and reglued them using copper wire (S&G) on the second shot, and it worked.

I built from kit and the bulkheads are stitched into the bottom and the rail panels.  No wedges needed.  

I think the instructions lack emphasis or mention of the need to bevel panels especially the bow and special care needed when glassing the top deck overlap.

Yes, but I was talking about the two bottom stringers. They follow the side curve and CLC says use wedges and weights to hold them in place - as in wedges between the frames and stringer. Apparently the force required to keep the stinger curved pushes the  flat bottom out into a bulge and after the epoxy sets the bulge will remain to a degree. Of course it easy to over pressure with a wedge (high mechanical advantage there) so if one used care I think the problem of bulge-bottom could be avoided.

[GSXXTRS]

Oh Yeah.  I didn't use wedges either.  I just used a couple hundred pounds of various objects.

[

[Bill Huson]

Oh Yeah.  I didn't use wedges either.  I just used a couple hundred pounds of various objects.

[

Wow. Hope you took all that stuff out before you decked it. 

[D Owsley]

To anyone out there thinking of building the Kaholo from CLC Boats, go for it, easy build, beautiful board. I have three under construction right now because of the first one, Damn family members all want one now and we already have plastic ones.
Treat the instruction manual as a suggestion manual and be sure to let common sense over rule the printed material if in doubt. It can be built easily as written but such things as mentioned above in some post like using wedges to hold the bottom reinforcement strips in place is just NOT smart. Bending anything out of place while gluing can only cause problems or bad looks later. Beveling all edges to match adjoining surface is mentioned but not stressed, does make for much better looks of the finished product. Sequence of assembly is not cast in stone either, the use of super glue as a tack weld to help hold pieces in position is a big helper.
I have photos at a couple of locations, www.daowsley.com and  https://picasaweb.google.com/106255817651697951794/KaholoFirstDay?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ2upsPVzPfsbg&feat=directlink

Feel free to write anytime with questions and enjoy your build.

[jt737]

What weight do the Kaholo boards come in at please?
Would they be more of a cruiser or race board?
If not a race board as good as any available, are there any kits or plans available for a race board (12.6' or 14').
Thanks

[Bill Huson]

Kaholo promo sez the board comes in at 32 pounds. I figure give or take from that number by a few pounds depending on how heavy handed one is with epoxy and the epoxy glass part.  I doubt that it is a 5 star race board, but it is rumored to be quite fast, and mondo fun.