• Happy Caesar Crosses the Rubicon (49 BC)! "alea iacta est" 🎲

Here some thing...

I imagine the tuff stuff from Noa is pretty good from what I hae seen but holy cow, that is getting pricey. Look at that nice little clipper for $2k. People should learn to be a little more careful with their boats and then they would not need Royalex, tuff stuff, et al.
 
My beef with the canoe industry is affordable, tough canoes for groups like school clubs. When our club started in the 60's, everything was wood canvas. In the mid 70's the switch over to aluminium began, and in the last ten years I have been replacing them with royalex. When I started a good royalex hull from Nova Craft was 1600 bucks, the last one I bought was 1799. The royalex prospector from NC comes in at 63 pounds, which is a weight that most kids can carry fairly easily. I'm thinking of just going back to quality fiberglass builds. There is an empty spot in the market right now for those hardy club canoes that had a reasonable weight.
 
memaquay said:
My beef with the canoe industry is affordable, tough canoes for groups like school clubs. When our club started in the 60's, everything was wood canvas. In the mid 70's the switch over to aluminium began, and in the last ten years I have been replacing them with royalex. When I started a good royalex hull from Nova Craft was 1600 bucks, the last one I bought was 1799. The royalex prospector from NC comes in at 63 pounds, which is a weight that most kids can carry fairly easily. I'm thinking of just going back to quality fiberglass builds. There is an empty spot in the market right now for those hardy club canoes that had a reasonable weight.
Click to expand...

Get together with the shop teacher, cut some CNC forms, and have the kids build a woodstrip plug with no tumblehome. Then they can build a one piece female mold and you can pop out as many canoes, with whatever composite material, you want. Maybe they can sell them to other schools in the area and use that money to fund their own trips.

Is Wenonah still manufacturing the Tough Weave layup? What are they going for?

Alan
 
Iskweo said:
I imagine the tuff stuff from Noa is pretty good from what I hae seen but holy cow, that is getting pricey. Look at that nice little clipper for $2k. People should learn to be a little more careful with their boats and then they would not need Royalex, tuff stuff, et al.
Click to expand...

Tuff stuff is nothing new and sure not Nova craft invention. Hellman canoe in Nelson BC have done that for 20 years. So is Souris river out east. Nothing new there but yes it is pricier, but last way longer, is way lighter, faster on the water, and easier to fix so really it is a cheeper boat!!

As for school, I would go the route Mem is thinking of, a good glass boat will last 100 years. Look at the Clipper Yukon, a great canoe for a school, and I'm sure that if you talk to Marlyn, he could give a "club" discount!! Same with Bob at Hellman. These guys are all about having there boats out there!!

I never been a fan of Rx boat still not. Heavy, slow, oil can like crazy, hard to fix, and when the core is shot, the boat pretty much become a planter box and an ugly one at that!!

Just my 2 cents of cours!!

I like Alan's idea to have the kids build boats, and to sell them!! http://urbanboatbuilders.org Super light weight, cheep to build, and fast to build to!! They von't do great in ww, but for every thing else, they would do just fine!!
 
We built strippers for the club for about five or six years, but due to an allergy on staff, we are not allowed to varnish any of them at school anymore. We still run about five strippers in the fleet, but I've got to lug them home every year for maintenance, and then they are not allowed back in the school for three months. Tough weave and similar layups doesn't do too well with kids and all the sharp rocks we have up here. I want my royalex back, gosh darnit!
 
I've been paddling composite canoes for now well over 15 years, and the rocks up here are sharper than the Ripster, and they do as well if not better than RX.
Even if I don't really understand the love of RX, I do understand that a lot of people think that they were the ultimate...
 
Rippy said:
Never know if the Ripster is sharper than a rock? The more I think about it, the more I think we need to meet at the bicycle rack after school.
Click to expand...

lol, never know indeed... I should have said:" the rocks up here COULD well be sharper than the Ripster..."
 
Or maybe.... The rock up here are as sharp as the Ripster... never mind, lost in translation....
 
Good question... An other thing we'll never be able to know... No wart hog up here that I know of!!
 
Canotrouge said:
Here something for the people that can't wait for a RX replacement.... Mind you, the stuff never been tested yet, never seen the day light yet... But yet people think it will be a miracle product!! Anyhow, interested to see what will come out of it!!
Click to expand...

I have been following Esquif’s announcements for the past 2 years. A Royalex-like material that could be used in existing RX molds and ovens would be a great thing for filling the void between poly and composite canoes.

One thing that has never been addressed by Esquif is whether T-Formex is DIY repairable, and whether DIY outfitting like minicel and D-ring anchor pads can be adhered without specialty adhesives or vacuum bagging/thermal techniques that are beyond the ken of most shade tree DIYers.

If that were so I would have expected Esquif to have touted it early and often. So far nothing but crickets. . . .

If I can’t repair or outfit it myself (Twin-Tex) I’m not interested.
 
Mike McCrea said:
I have been following Esquif’s announcements for the past 2 years. A Royalex-like material that could be used in existing RX molds and ovens would be a great thing for filling the void between poly and composite canoes.

One thing that has never been addressed by Esquif is whether T-Formex is DIY repairable, and whether DIY outfitting like minicel and D-ring anchor pads can be adhered without specialty adhesives or vacuum bagging/thermal techniques that are beyond the ken of most shade tree DIYers.

If that were so I would have expected Esquif to have touted it early and often. So far nothing but crickets. . . .

If I can’t repair or outfit it myself (Twin-Tex) I’m not interested.
Click to expand...

I'm with you Mike! like I said, people are putting there hope in a product that never been tested, that will be put on the market as boats that never been testes, from a company that was claiming that Twin-Tex was the future, from a company that at least twice now have been telling people that the product will be available "this spring", and they the product always get delayed and no reasons are offered( think L'Edge and now T-formex)... And that they have a hard time returning phone call or emails!!

Do't get me wrong, I think that Esquif did tremendous for the WW canoeing world, but to a point, So did Black Fly canoe, and Kaz @ Millbrook boat!!

Anyway, it will be fun to see when and what comes out of those speculations of them!!
 
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