I just purchased a Wenonah kevlar canoe, from an authorized Wenonah dealer, that was a factory blem. I've bought a Wenonah blem canoe straight from Wenonah in the past and it was just a cosmetic blem. I bought this Wenonah blem canoe unseen, aside from the photos online. The other canoes the dealer had had specific photos showing the blems, including photos where they pointed to a pinpoint blem. The one I bought showed photos of fabric overlaps that were less than perfect and a close-up of the hull, which all looked fine. The dealer delivered the canoe yesterday and I noticed that the skin coat has many voids in the surface of the skin coat, many with exposed fiber on the outer layup. We are not talking a few, we are talking an absurd amount, at least 25% of the hull has fields of these voids (mostly small...pin head size to golf ball dimple size and a handful of larger ones). I've never owned a skin coat canoe before, all of mine have been gel coats. Is this going to be a structural issue? I've read that with the exposed fiber, water will wick in and can cause delamination. This seems outside the Wenonah blem definition. Has anyone else seen this before? I'm not sure what to do. Advise appreciated.
-
Happy National Cheeseburger Day! 🍔
Wenonah "Blem" Canoe
- Thread starter BFNastali
- Start date
Don't worry about wicking water and delam problems. I think that's a fallacy. Can anyone attest to it actually happening to them? I've owned many Kevlar boats, beat the crap out of lots (recovering whitewater addict?), and never had a problem with it.
This seems to be a hybrid weave on the outside of the boat, Kevlar, carbon, and maybe something else, polyester or glass(?). I don't know what Wenonah is using these days (likely what they can get their hands on?). I've owned two of their boats, one a Royalex Spirit that I sold years and years ago, and still have a vacuum bagged foam core bottom with foam ribs up the sides ultralight model 1996 Odyssey that my wife and I used until recently. And maybe will again next year(?).
What's the boat construction schedule? Obviously not vacuum bagged ultralight.
The only problem I can see is that voids are gonna pick up dirt and other icky substances from the water and look unsightly in the future. I don't see any real structural problems from this. The way Wenonah used to make their boats was to get first layer in place and let it gel (resin stiff, not set hard), and then do the rest of the layup inside when that had happened. Something happened along the way somewhere in there.
I might complain a bit that the actual "blem" wasn't represented well to you and want more money off the purchase price.
Good luck with it.
This seems to be a hybrid weave on the outside of the boat, Kevlar, carbon, and maybe something else, polyester or glass(?). I don't know what Wenonah is using these days (likely what they can get their hands on?). I've owned two of their boats, one a Royalex Spirit that I sold years and years ago, and still have a vacuum bagged foam core bottom with foam ribs up the sides ultralight model 1996 Odyssey that my wife and I used until recently. And maybe will again next year(?).
What's the boat construction schedule? Obviously not vacuum bagged ultralight.
The only problem I can see is that voids are gonna pick up dirt and other icky substances from the water and look unsightly in the future. I don't see any real structural problems from this. The way Wenonah used to make their boats was to get first layer in place and let it gel (resin stiff, not set hard), and then do the rest of the layup inside when that had happened. Something happened along the way somewhere in there.
I might complain a bit that the actual "blem" wasn't represented well to you and want more money off the purchase price.
Good luck with it.
Without seeing the entire hull I'd say it's not something I'd worry too much about. I have two Wenonah Kevlar skin coat canoes with numerous small voids like that and I didn't get any discount. It worried me a bit at first but now that both of the boats are over 30 years old and still in good shape I don't even think about it any more. I did fill in some of the larger voids with West System's 105 epoxy but that was after twenty years of use and I was filling in a few deep scratches in the skin coat.
Added: I'm not familiar with the newer vinyl ester resin mix so my example may not be applicable.
Added: I'm not familiar with the newer vinyl ester resin mix so my example may not be applicable.
Last edited:
It's a Kevlar base, with a Kevlar - Innegra Blend for the skin coat, not entirely sure what method they used on this, I believe they tested this Kevlar - Innegra Blend on several hulls in limited quantities (as well as a small production run on a different hull) to test the viability of the material both in production cost and value to the customer. While I've got scratches on my gel coat canoes from years of use, I've never had exposed fibers...nor cracks, the delamination has been mentioned by several canoe manufacturers if reference to exposed fibers in vinyl ester resin canoes (which I believe all current Wenonah UL canoes are vinyl ester resin). I just want to make sure this isn't going to create a structural issue.
The Kevlar cloth on my canoes was exposed in a few of the deeper voids and was eventually starting to fray with wear. I just dabbed some epoxy on it so the fabric was saturated and filled the void but I'm not sure that it would work the same with the newer vinyl ester resin. Hopefully you'll get an answer from someone that knows more about your specific concern.
Last edited:
