LL Jefe vs. DR Critical Mass

"it looks too long" is often the comment out of people's mouth when they first see the Critical Mass. Corran's boats tend to look a bit longer than they are, often because of the deck lines.
The Critical Mass IS longer than most creek boats, but not by much. (as you can see in the photos)



it's mostly a matter of keeping the rocker profile going another 2 inches on either end to get more over all rocker, better resurfacing ability, and more reach to get over those pesky holes.



The boat has plenty of stern volume to keep from back endering and let you go power downstream. All that rocker makes it turn easily too. Many paddlers say that it "paddles small" because it's so nimble and manuverable.



thought it would make sense to show the boat up against it's counterparts within the DragoRossi line up too.







Critical Mass (left) Gangser/Idra (center) Mafia (right)

The Flume (Housatonic River)

Ok. I think that the photos will tell most of the story of this sunny day on a fun rapid. (there is much more downstream, but I wanted to put the camera away and get into the boat tooo......)



The Flume is a very nice 7' drop that is intimidating because it is not straight.



but it is also not difficult if you can hit the center of the horizon line



the sides are super shallow, and people have hit their heads and face



but if you can hit the center (about 10' wide) and have a reliable roll, then you can just chuck yourself over the drop (you WILL roll about 50% of the time)



Here is local paddler, Bonnie, in her EZ doing the right to left approach



Maurice in his new yellow Pintail XL showing us how it's done



Kenny in a C1 converted Fish hitting the last cross-bow needed to set up the move



and Kenny again showing us just how deep the hole at the bottom is (don't worry folks, he pulled it out like he always does)



Steven's first attempt at the low-water, crossing boof move. If you screw it up, then you get pounded on the rocks. He didn't quite nail it perfectly, but he was able to deal with the minor line adjustments he had to make rather well. Terrific first attmept. This kid is good.



Jeff demoing the Critical Mass with a beautiful boof into the eddy.



Maurice firing it up again in his Pintail XL.



Ted rocking the Pirouette old school style, showing that long boats can boof too.



Jeff in his Crux firing up the creeky line.



Ted firing up the Critical Mass to show that light dudes can paddle the big boats too.



Ted pulling into the eddy (the kick back into the hole is pretty darned strong...)



and one last shot of Jeff, who wanted to give the Critical Mass another try. He was amazed at how "small" the boat paddled. (I guess that means that it turns well)

Mafia Gangster CriticalMass

Critical Mass (left) Gangser/Idra (center) Mafia (right)

just a quck cut and paste image so you guys can see the subtle differences between these three excellent creeking options. Everything was kept to scale in this image; to be as accurate as possible. Still nothing beats seeing them up close and personal. If you have a chance to paddle one, I would strongly recommend it. With so many options, you're very likely to enjoy one of these boats.

Critical Mass details

This green boat is the standard basic Performa outfitted Critical Mass for $799


you get triple safe stern grabloop system already installed


the hatch cover is rivetted down to the stern of the boat. There is solid plastic underneath it because the stern access area is not cut out. Double plastic. And, it looks cool


bow grabloops is included and installed with the $799 price.

this photo should give you a good idea of how much stern access there is behind that high back seat.



here's the Performa seat, and you can see the bow foam pillar.

all this in the green

DragoRossi Critical Mass $799 at 100Waves.com

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below you can see some of the options that can be bought and added to the Performa boats.


Add the side grabloops that provide three more attachement points each. Choose to add a drainplug. If you get really ambitious you could remove the hatch cover, cut out the hatch, and create easy access to the stern.


Here you can add a safety ring just in front of the cockpit for an extra attachment point.


Add a bulkhead and a bowring.

Creek boat safety ring (bulkhead)

Standard with the Elite outfitting, the bowring replaces a foam pillar in creekboats for added safety and foot room. Some people are retrofitting this plastic ring into older models,and I'm sure some will add it to the boats they get with the Performance outfitting.

This view of the inside shows the position of the two screws on the side of the ring that hold it in place. Also seen is the overlap of the bowriing and the seat that, when combined with the two plastic bars under the seat (indicated by the rivets) help keep the hull rigid where it really needs to be.


Just a photo to show the position of the bow ring screws in relation to the seat screws (for those who are doing a retrofit)
the screw in the deck is usually a long one that helps secure the foam pillar. With the addition of a bow ring, the foam pillar is not necesssary, so you need to put a new, shorter screw in the hole to fill it up. Some people just squeeze a bunch of silicone in there, but I think the best solution is a combination of the short screw and silicone.