This may seem like a dumb question from someone with my email address, but hey, what can I say? My Momma didn't have no plastic experts for kids. Some of you I know paddle canoes, as well as kayaks. I have a three or four year old Mad River Eclipse canoe made of Royalex. Unfortunately, I believed the hype about Royalex being a good material for white water paddling. Result: rips in the outer fabric. These are several inches long and about a half inch of the fabric has pealed away in some places. I see "repair kits" on the market, which seem to include a cute little section of sandpaper, a little piece of what looks like fiberglass cloth, some resin, a putty knife, etc. Very nice, especially at north of $40. I can't determine from what I have seen what the resin is that they use in these kits (could be they don't want you to know?). So, my question is, has anyone repaired this stuff? And with what? I'd love to be able to just use some of the epoxy resin and various forms of cloth that I keep in my shop. But I'm concerned that this material might not bond well with it. Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcomed. TIA, Mark Lane (P.S. They don't make sailboats out of Royalex <g>.) *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Mark Lane "Sailboat Restorations, Inc." wrote: > > ...<snip>... > Some of you I know paddle canoes, as well as kayaks. I have a three or four > year old Mad River Eclipse canoe made of Royalex. Unfortunately, I believed > the hype about Royalex being a good material for white water paddling. > Result: rips in the outer fabric. ...snip>... > I can't determine from what I > have seen what the resin is that they use in these kits (could be they don't > want you to know?).... First, please note that Royalex is an excellent material for whitewater boats, and is capable of withstanding extraordinary abuse, but only when it is used in sufficiently robust layups. The Mad River Eclipse is made with what Mad River calls a "Royalex Lightweight" construction, which they do NOT recommend for whitewater use. They state this explicity in their literature, in which they point out that the Eclipse is "better-suited for flatwater use"; it uses "Royalex Lightweight" and is "intended for recreational rather than whitewater use." In short, you should not be surprised when your Eclipse fails to hold up when used on significant whitewater--don't blame advertising hype for your problems. I have several solo whitewater canoes constructed with Royalex (including one built by Mad River) and have found their heavier Royalex construction to be very well suited to whitewater use (and abuse). As for repairs, I have never had to repair hull rips in my Royalex boats but I have added skid plates using epoxy resin. This works quite well for skid plates because the ends of the boat do not flex much. If your rips are in an area subject to significant flexing (which can be quite a problem with lightweight construction) then the patched area might crack off due to the flex of the boat. Information on the repair of Royalex canoes can be found at the following site: http://www.noc.com/store/rphelp.htm I would also call Mad River. Good luck! Dan Hagen *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Dan Hagen wrote: > First, please note that Royalex is an excellent material for whitewater > boats, and is capable of withstanding extraordinary abuse, but only when > it is used in sufficiently robust layups. The Mad River Eclipse is made > with what Mad River calls a "Royalex Lightweight" construction, which > they do NOT recommend for whitewater use. They state this explicity in > their literature, in which they point out that the Eclipse is > "better-suited for flatwater use"; it uses "Royalex Lightweight" and is > "intended for recreational rather than whitewater use." In short, you > should not be surprised when your Eclipse fails to hold up when used on > significant whitewater--don't blame advertising hype for your problems. You're right. The canoe was a gift and all I ever knew was that it was made of "Royalex." I just checked the Mad River web site and they do indeed say that this boat is not recommended for whitewater. Live and learn. Anyway, thanks for the help. I guess I'll try an epoxy repair and see how it works out . . . . Mark *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:15 PDT