I’ve been lucky to work with Andrew at McConks on a few things in the past, playing a small part in the development or testing of a new product. In 2020 I swapped small parts in development to something a little larger, the creation of a brand new board, the McConks Go Race 14C.
Friday 21 August 2020 - Genesis
I had been getting faster on my modified McConks carbon Sport but was finding the limit that a 27” wide touring board can maintain, that limit is just under 9 km/h for 30 minutes and just under 8.5 km in an hour on flatwater. One August evening I was chatting to Andy about my SUP challenge group, SUP My Race and asked if he had any plans for another, faster hardboard.
The answer was an emphatic “No!”
The main reason behind that was simple, from his experience with the Carbon Sport he found that small numbers of long fragile things made on the other side of the world are difficult to manage and to move. Its much easier with larger numbers, a container full of hardboards is less hassle than two or three.
Of course I had anticipated this and put forward that something made in Europe would be easier to deal with and maybe he could contact Prestol in Latvia. They have a history of making high end carbon watercraft including SUPs.
Andy’s “No!” turned into a “maybe …”.
Wish List
I had a clear performance goal with the new board, to maintain 10 km/h for 30 minutes and more than 9 km/h for over an hour on flatwater. To do that the board had to be skinnier than the Carbon Sport and have less rocker. It would also have to be useful in a range of conditions not just on a lake. I am tall, 193cm and heavy at 100kg so the new board would be designed around those two numbers and later tweaked for production if need be, the target volume was 290l.
Race board lengths have standardised over the last few years to 14 feet. Of course there is a market for 12’6 and longer, unlimited boards but 14’ is by far the most common. So this board would be 14’ long.
Width is a trickier figure especially for a prototype board and depends on many factors, we settled on 25”. I can paddle a 24” but when I have they have never felt stable, if I was to paddle fairly fast for long periods of time I would need to find the right balance between stability and speed. I knew I wanted a dugout, both to help with stability and because they can look awesome!
I also was clear on what I wanted at the sharp end. I like to push the bow of a board through waves and chop, my size and paddling style help a lot with that so I wanted a sharp, peircing bow. I knew that the bow of the Carbon Sport worked but could have been better and I wanted some connection between the two boards so my thoughts were to improve that shape, taking away from the top and bringing in the bow at the waterline. The deck would also need a deflector to push water away from the dugout in choppy conditions.
Also learning from what had worked in the past the hull would have multiple concaves to help with stability and tracking and the single US fin box would be mounted further forward than on the touring board.
Then the smaller but important details.
- Dugouts need well positioned drain holes to make sure they do not flood and water that gets into the standing area needs to be directed away from the feet, there is nothing worse in winter than standing in freezing water! To handle this there would be two drain holes forward in the dugout and the standing area would slope slightly towards the front.
- Colour was important as I have had overheating issues with the very black Carbon Sport so white was the logical colour, the Ying to the Carbon Yang. Here in Sweden summer days are really long and the sun has a lot of power, I specified two gore-tex valves to handle that.
- A single, substantial fabric handle in the middle of the board, screwed in not stuck on.
- Multiple leash points allow different types of leash to be used, at the tail, in the middle and slightly in front of the standing area.
- A deck pad that’s not too aggressive and only where it is needed with the option to add grip tape further back. I personally don’t use kick-pads so none was specified, if I ever get that far back on a board then it’s nearly vertical and while that looks cool it’s pretty much pointless for me.
- GoPro mounts at the nose and in front of the standing area.
- Some cargo storage for a small dry bag.
I sent my list to Andy and waited…
Tuesday 29 September 2020 - Conception
It was over a month before our conversations turned into something tangible, something that looked like the board in my imagination. In that month I knew how much time Andy had spent working on ‘Project Go Fast’ and after around 20 hours sat at his laptop he sent me the first version of the completed model.
It was good. Very good.
Andy had taken my words and using his experience with designing boards he had transformed them into a SUP. Everything I had asked for was there with one exception, there was no raised deflector but instead he had designed a cut away to direct water down, away from the dugout. Clever.
He had also got in touch with Oto at Prestol and my wish took a big step towards production when the design was signed off and the file was sent to Oto for his CNC machine.
We waited …
Thursday 19 November 2020 - Problems
The message from Andy was laced with stress, the first of two blanks had been cut and Oto was not happy with it. This could have been a disaster if he hadn’t experience with making boards like this and spotted the potential problem with drainage. Andy had already remodelled the board and sent the updated file to Latvia, a new blank was cut and Oto was happier. More volume had been added taking the board up to 360l, more than I wanted but better than the alternative.
There is a lot of waiting involved when working on a project across three countries and that’s what I did next, I waited…
Friday 22 January 2021 - Transport
Before Christmas I was sent a video of the unfinished board ready for painting. To say I was excited was an understatement, it looked amazing. There was even an indication that she might be ready and despatched before Christmas which was even better. But there was a delay with painting which pushed completion back to January and then some political stuff happened which had a huge knock-on to transport networks across a lot of Europe.
This was frustrating but by now I was used to waiting… until that Friday when I received an image of the board prepared for transport! She was leaving Latvia the following week.
Monday 1 February 2021 - Arrival
It felt like Christmas on Monday afternoon. It was snowing heavily when a HGV pulled up on the main road near my place. A slightly stressed driver opened up the back and there she was, strapped down in a near empty lorry covered in cardboard to protect her from the empty space! He seemed quite relieved when I popped her on my shoulder and walked off up our road, putting her down carefully on the snow before returning to sign the paperwork.
Unwrapping took forever, soggy cardboard taped to bubble wrap combined with my reluctance to use a knife but eventually there she was, uncovered and perfect on the floor of the garage. And I mean perfect. The shape was as I had hoped, the paint finish and graphics were flawless. The cut away Andy designed was certainly the major feature (and hard to photograph!) and the rest was almost exactly what I had wished for months before. The only thing missing was a cargo net but nothing that some stick on cargo points and a bit of bungee cord couldn’t fix.
Sadly for me that Monday was the start of a very cold snap here. The local lakes were already frozen solid before she arrived so the sea had been my only paddle option but with temperatures plummeting to -18 huge stretches of the sea froze as well. It was thick enough for paddle buddies to ice skate to an island I usually paddle to, a 10km round trip!
Luckily I got on the water the day after she arrived for quick paddle, more on that in part 2 …
