Drennan Acolyte rods

[sam vimes]

A mate of mine imports telescopic sights, under his own brand name, from one of the Chinese optics factories. They are built to his own unique specs. Unsurprisingly, you can buy scopes, from other brands, that look superficially quite similar. Chinese factories will generally do as the customer requests. If the customer pays for it, that can include top level QC and different levels of exclusivity. If the customer wants cheap, they can do that, but QC and exclusivity is likely to go out of the window.

Just because a blank might be sourced from China doesn't mean that is available for any other brand to buy. Drennan blanks may, or may not, be sourced from a Chinese factory, but they could easily have a tight exclusive deal. An exclusivity deal may be the reason why Drennan are reticent to even admit where their blanks are sourced. However, if the Acolyte blanks appeared under another guise, I'd happily take a look. The design and lightness of them should mean that they'd be fairly easy to spot, even with different graphics, colour schemes and handle designs.​

 

[Philip]

It raises 2 basic questions the first being the $64,000 one as such : - ARE the blanks available either separatly or under a different guide elsewhere ?.. and I wonder if Drennans relucntance to shed any light may be a clue or an attempt to protect that…and who can blame them !

And second what really makes a rod , is it the blank or the build ?

Probably a combination of both but, for me, the blank is the heart of a rod not the dressing they add after.

 

[mikench]

Chinese optics factories.

Would that be the brand with models bearing the names of snakes Chris?

 

[fishcatcher60]

If a company will not reveal details when asked it usually means they think their customers won't like the answer.

 

[stillwater blue]

Taken from Drennan's own web-site

All research and tackle development remains in the UK together with some of the more complex high-tech production, however, the company now has six purpose built factories outside of Europe in an economically competitive location. This low-cost location allows the company to offer the bulk of its range of tackle at prices which are comparable with Chinese manufacture but which are of superior design and have a much higher quality of build.

Whilst they not saying what country they're not exactly hiding the fact it's made overseas. I'm sure I saw an interview with Peter Drennan where he said most of there stuff was made in Malaysia

 

[sam vimes]

I'm sure I saw an interview with Peter Drennan where he said most of there stuff was made in Malaysia

I suspect that you are confusing Malaysia with Mauritius.

 

[stillwater blue]

I suspect that you are confusing Malaysia with Mauritius.

I suspect you're correct

 

[dicky123]

Sam/ Guys',

I often wonder if this damage thing is a bit like Chinese whispers, one chap breaks a rod, and it gets around that all the rods are a problem. I honestly think if Drennan had this problem we would have known about it bigger time, as we anglers love to moan.
I have to concede the lightness must come at some price, but design is coming on leaps and bounds. I'm touching wood now, but in 50 years and maybe over 100 rods in have never broken a rod, apart form one. That was a wrap around with braid, it had no chance really.

The Acolytes are amazing rods, I have two and love them both.

Rich.

 

[lutra]

I don’t see any reason to think acolytes have any more of a problem than other float rods, especially fine tipped carbon ones with hollow tips. eBay always seems to have a few with a few inches missing from their tip.

I’ve never broken one casting a float or playing a fish, so can only presume they don’t take kindly to having other things done to them.

 

[Keith M]

Sam/ Guys',

I often wonder if this damage thing is a bit like Chinese whispers, one chap breaks a rod, and it gets around that all the rods are a problem. I honestly think if Drennan had this problem we would have known about it bigger time, as we anglers love to moan.
I have to concede the lightness must come at some price, but design is coming on leaps and bounds. I'm touching wood now, but in 50 years and maybe over 100 rods in have never broken a rod, apart form one. That was a wrap around with braid, it had no chance really.

The Acolytes are amazing rods, I have two and love them both.

Rich.

Rich my Acolyte Ultra tip section suddenly decided to fold itself into ‘several’ pieces along about a foot of the blank one morning while threading line through it’s rings; after only being out of its bag a couple of times before, and without it ever suffering from any wrap rounds or being hit against anything or being unduly stressed.

When looking at the broken pieces it looked fairly obviousl to me that it must be a fault with the blank and the Carbon was as thin as a cigarette paper in places and how they even managed to whip the rings on in places was baffling to me.

During my 56-plus years of fishing I have owned many different light float rods and I too have only ever had one rod break before, and that was a Shakespeare match international back in the late 70s which broke near its tip while I was playing a fairly large Roach but that was because I had previously caught a branch when striking, but believe me this recent break was not caused by any mishandling of the rod by me.

Fortunately Drennan seem to have fixed the fault that plagued their first batch of the rod and their ultras now seem to be fine, so I just put it down to a temporary glitch that was quickly sorted.
I have owned many Drennan rods before and every one of them have been excellent rods so I was a little surprised when this fault happened to me.

Keith

 

[thecrow]

Perhaps this problem that now seems to have been overcome was caused by putting the rods out to the public to soon without enough real world use?

 

[Richox12]

Rich my Acolyte Ultra tip section suddenly decided to fold itself into ‘several’ pieces along about a foot of the blank one morning while threading line through it’s rings; after only being out of its bag a couple of times before, and without it ever suffering from any wrap rounds or being hit against anything or being unduly stressed.

When looking at the broken pieces it was quite obviously a fault with the blank and the Carbon was as thin as a cigarette paper in places and how they even managed to whip the rings on in places was baffling.

Keith

I have to ask. How do you KNOW it was faulty ? What technical knowledge and technical expertise do you have to be able to come to the conclusion that the section was definitely faulty ?

Surely very fine diameter tips are going to be very very thin in the wall. It's compressed carbon cloth after all.

 

[Keith M]

I have to ask. How do you KNOW it was faulty ...... Surely very fine diameter tips are going to be very very thin in the wall. It's compressed carbon cloth after all.

Even ‘ultra ultra’ thin carbon fibre used on modern built rods doesn't suddenly collapse and bend along a foot of the blank (before and after whipped on rings) without being under any stress whatsoever, no matter how thin walled it is.

Otherwise it’s simply ‘unfit for purpose’; and thankfully Drennan (who usually make excellent rods) seems to had realised this and have solved this problem and replaced most of the rods that users have returned with this fault.

When I say wafer thin I mean ‘really’ wafer thin in fact so thin that you could almost bend it with a light breath of wind and definately looks unfit for purpose.
I know it’s hard to believe because Drennan are well known for their great rods and their other tackle.

Keith

 

[mikench]

I think Keith would know if a rod was faulty! If a nearly new shirt fell apart at the seams I would conclude , not being Dr Bruce Banner,that it was faulty!

 

[thecrow]

One problem with carbon is that while it will compress/bend one way it doesn't like doing it on the other plane, obviously the thickness of the blank wall will have a bearing on it.

 

[tigger]

Regarding the weight of the acolytes and the thickness of their blank walls, remember that they're unvarnished carbon an so if you added a coat of varnish the full length of the blanks the rods would be very similar weights to other rods such as normarks. What i'm trying to say and hopefully without offending anyone, the blank walls are probably not overly thin.

 

[Keith M]

Maybe I’m completely wrong and someone took their eyes off the ball one night and overtightened the whipping pressure on the whipping machine resulting in the very thin blank walls eventually splitting and breaking down, I don’t know, but there was definately a fault to cause the blank to fail while threading line on a rod that had not been out of its bag more than a couple of times and not had any stress on the bank.

I often hear people saying “the rod must have been accidentally damaged by the user” but I can honestly say that this wasn’t the case in this instance.

Keith

 

[binka]

Well, and in my own personal conclusion...

I'm of the opinion that there is overwhelming evidence to suggest that Drennan pushed out a batch of dodgy rods, there's just too many reports of failed tip sections in conjunction with those I know personally and given my opinion of those who I don't know but have also reported issues I've no reason at all to doubt them.

Whether or not you were affected personally seems to be a bit of a lottery and all credit due to Drennan for handling it the way they have (in the main) but let's face it, a cock up's a cock up.

Everyone makes mistakes and it's the way that they are reacted to that makes the difference and I suspect it's one of the reasons why Drennan have been so successful for so long, I just think a press release warning of the issue and an open offer of replacement wouldn't have gone amiss.

And let's face it, given the hand of cards they hold how many companies wouldn't push the issue back to their supplier to rectify at the supplier's cost?

There would of course have been a risk of reputational damage with such an action but given that these tip failures are fairly common knowledge I can't really see how it could have been any worse and I think a proactive stance would have gone further in Drennan's favour.

 

[barbelboi]

From experience, I've had my 14' ultra for two and a half years now and it has coped with everything that's been thrown at it. The same as my Titan2000 that has been overused for the past 20 years and the tip is still there. As said in other posts above, possibly the early model of the Drennan (if having a fault) have since been corrected - the only tip break I've had, and my son's went soon after, was the first edition of the Preston Carbonactive 13' float road (c2000) almost immediately which were replaced without question and they're still going strong...........

 

[S-Kippy]

I totally agree, Steve. I'm fortunate in as much as my Accy has not yet broken...but unfortunately its reputation for doing so has put me right off using it. If it does go on me it will be the 4th Drennan rod that has done so. Makes you wonder doesn't it ?