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Long, Version A, Short |
Long, Version B |
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I acquired my Bluewater Long, Version A from L&S Sporting Goods in1989. This rack is 378 mm. tall, 67 mm. wide, and 25 mm thick. It weighs 717 g.
This rack has a purely classic design: a coiled eye, wide frame, and solid aluminum bars. The large gap between the nut and the eye is wasted length: either the rack should have been made shorter for the same control range, or the control range should have been increased by lengthening the nut side of the rack.
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I acquired this rack on eBay from S. Scott in 2008. This rack is 360 mm. tall, 71 mm. wide, and 45 mm. thick. It weighs 684 g.
The previous owner set this rack up with five bars, although it is long enough for six. The rack is actually shorter than version A, so with six bars, it would have about 2 mm less free bar motion. All five bars are 3/4" (19.3 mm) solid aluminum and stamped "BLUEWATER." All five bars have angled slots. The eye is angled 90° from the plane of the bars, a feature that facilitates using the rack with harnesses hold the attachment maillon vertical rather than horizontal.
A previous owner filled grooves in the top four bars to help guide the rope, and engraved the initials "GSR" into the top bar.
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I bought this rack on eBay from Vern Veer Jr. in 2005. This rack is 274 mm. tall, 73 mm. wide, and 23 mm. thick. It weighs 607 g.
The previous owner set this rack up with five bars. The top bar is 7/8" (22.4 mm) solid aluminum and unmarked. This bar has a factory groove cut to help center the rope. The bottom four bars are 3/4" (19.3 mm) solid aluminum and stamped "BLUEWATER." All five bars have angled slots. Five bars barely fit on a short rack like this, particularly when the original owner did not file them to move them to the back side. In effect, this rack, as rigged, is a constant-friction device when used with five bars.
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©2008, Gary D. Storrick