The Southern Spirit OC6 is a true blue Aussie from the ground up, but in a paradoxical twist it has been all but shunned since its release in 1997. This seems to be due to an issue common amongst the consciousness of Aussie paddlers, indeed the globe over, wherever paddlers and associations are disciples of the Hawaiian way of things.

^{Kanu Culture Volume 4 1998 featured a profile and potted history of the then radical va`a which follows.}

Australia’s OC6 with Martin Thompson 1997
With the sport of outrigger canoeing expanding rapidly in Australia, there was the desire to see an Australian built and designed canoe, motivated     partly by the belief that overseas designs were not entirely suitable for Australia’s paddling conditions. It was also felt that the sport deserved a new design, one which reflected the developments and insights made in recent years.

Harvie Allison [who was with St George OCC, Sydney at the time] discussed this with sports marketing experts the Kookaburra Group, who in turn mentioned it to Bashford International - Australia’s largest yacht manufacturer. BI took a proactive look into the sport; taking paddle in hand and experiencing outrigger canoeing for themselves. The idea of ‘Southern Spirit’ was born.

They concluded that they needed to design a canoe that was easier to push through the water and that many refinements could be made to improve upon existing designs. Harnessing the design powers of America Cup Star, Iain Murray and long time paddler, Andy Dovell, computer design simulations began.

Whilst improvements to existing outrigger design were paramount, Harvie Allison insisted that the traditional feel and look of the canoe be maintained. Being more familiar with yacht design, the team took some time to adjust to the concept of how an outrigger canoe is steered and the effects of length and rocker.

Meanwhile, the paddlers of St George OCC, considered the user friendly improvements that could be incorporated. In this respect, reducing the time taken to rig and derig the covers was focused upon, which turned out to fall in line with the designers conclusion that current canoes lose valuable speed through flex and therefore a decked canoe would greatly    stiffen the canoe’s hull. This also created a dryer canoe and a separate cockpit cover arrangement for each paddler, taking minimal time to attach.

The stiffer design permits the canoe to track (hold a straight line) far better than open decked canoes. Steerers can concentrate more on paddling than steering and will be amazed at the greatly reduced turbulence the canoe leaves behind it, due in part to the  canoes reduced ‘footprint’ in the water.

Paddlers are seated further aft to increase the forward deck length, so # 1 and 2 paddlers remain dryer. The forward deck was also curved to promote improved water run-off and to reduce the occurrence of water impacting on the deflector, resulting in lose of speed. As a result, the nose doesn’t bury; even in big, steep swells.

The design was complete, a mould made and the first canoe tested to ensure its competitiveness and performance. St George OCC consistently paddled their training runs in record time. The canoe was deemed a success. Some mould refinements were made to give the canoe more clean lines.

In designing the ama, the feeling was the ‘Wedge’ or ‘Catamaran’ ama was a very effective shape; hard to improve upon, but in rough water was far from efficient. A wedge style ama with greatly increased nose volume, fine lines and a raised trailing edge tail to reduce drag, would improve the ama’s performance in rough water, and so the ama was created.

Production has now started on the new ‘Southern Spirit’, with five being ordered and built in the first few months. Construction methods have been adopted from yacht manufacturer using high quality materials and foam sandwich vacuum bagging techniques. As a result, Australian paddlers now have an Australian designed, manufactured canoe, competitive with any canoe in the world today, reflecting today’s progression, taking us into the future.’

Well, that was then, and while the orders did come in a brief flood, then a trickle, then zip, the demise of the Southern Spirit seemed pretty clear and why? Well specifically, it had something to do with the pervading mindset of the time, Hawaiian is better and the obsession with a race thousands of kilometres away, the Moloka`i Hoe and Na Wahine O Ke Kai. Add to this the fact that less competitive clubs are often motivated to purchase along similar lines as the more competitive ones, the tone and trend was set; if not a bit misguided.

Geographical nepotism is something which has existed in Australia for some time when it comes to purchasing habits and this is particularly common regarding OC1 and OC2 purchases, though the strangle hold manufacturers have had on this has begun to shift as has the mindset of paddlers. What’s this mean? Simply that Sydney clubs purchased the Southern Spirit, but few others did. Importantly, clubs such as Mooloolaba, Northcliffe, Surfers Paradise and Outrigger Australia did not flop open the cheque book at the time; their lack of interest in the SS OC6, essentially retarding its take off into the market.

Let’s also not forget that as misfortune would have it, its release coincided with the release of the Brent Bixler designed Force Five OC6 out of Hawaii, which found instant favour with the hard-core clubs of SE Queensland, dialled into the Moloka`i races and all things Hawaiian.

Ten years on and only now is this canoe being taken seriously on a level it has yet to experience and it deserves. It may be too late, given its excessive price and the possibility of new designs on the way. Time will tell and there’s a rumour, only 5 will be constructed over the winter months and then it will a struggle to purchase over the summer months on account of other demands being placed on the manufacturer; Ian Rawlings on the Gold Coast, the mould owned by Sydney’s Grant Hughes.

This story and many others in the June 07 issue of Kanuculture E-Mag http://www.kanuculture.com