skid plats and plastic deck/gunnels on a rival

[riverharlot]

I was given a rival - royalex light. I am trying to see how I can lighten it (I am 5' and 105lb).
My last royalex was a mad river outrage with wood gunnels and i was able to load/unload it by myself. Right now the rival feels much heavier.
It has skid plates that appear to have been glued on. Can I remove them without damaging underneath? If so how?
The deck plates and gunnels are plastic. If I replace the the plastic with wood will that lighten it?

thanks
riverharlot

[Paddle Power]

Have you weighed it? Did you weigh your old MR Outrage?

The 2001 Dagger catalog lists the Rival at 43/40 lbs (wood/vinyl). That's probably Rolayex, not the RX lite/light version.

But I'm sure you could swap out the gunwales for wood and save weight. See here: https://www.madrivercanoe.com/us/custom ... nwale-faqs

Removing skid plate is an idea. They sometimes can be chiselled off. The bigger question is how were they installed--installed over the vinyl or was the vinyl removed to expose the ABS layer and then the skid plate was installed over the ABS? In your case, it would probably be better is the vinyl was not removed.

Nylon air bags are lighter than vinyl as well.

Use lightweight airbag lacing. Lightweight painter/throw bags, etc.

[riverharlot]

the skid plates were just glued on. There is a lot of excess glue. Thanks for the ideas about the bags and laces! I had not thought of that. Every ounce helps!
thanks