C-Forum

what's the consensus of esquif paddlers out there? are you seeing excessive wear on the lower edges of your boats? my blast seems to have 80% of it's scratches there. so far i've been patching the deeper scratches with pc-7 as they occur. i only have 5-6 trips on the boat so far, but some sections of my home river are on the bony side during normal flows. i'd like to hear from other esquif owners to hear what the long term effects are. any thoughts on adding long kevlar skid patches to reduce serious wear? i love the boat, but have concerns about wear compared to other royalex boats i've had.

All in all, I think esquif uses really really tough materials on their boats... i mean, if you lift one up, you'll notice they're quite heavy... thanks to a thick ABS. That being said, the double-chined boats, namely the det and nitro (although i believe the blast has the same double-chine concept) are notorious for having bad wear on the chines.

I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that the very bottom of these boats (inside the second chine) is quite a bit narrower than would be the case if the boat just had a single chine, and flat bottom. This narrowness causes the boat to sit slightly lower in the water, and thus come in contact with a couple more rocks. Also, you'll probably notice on all boats that the majority of wear is on the chines... old ocoees are a classic example of this - their chines are almost always worn through, even if the rest of the boat is in good shape... the difference with the esquif boats is that there are two chines per side to wear down, and a small piece of flat ABS in between that just gets beaten up.

hmmm.... sorry, quite long-winded... anyways, i think it's just due to design, becuase i know the zoom's are touted as being tough as nails, and use the same material.

as for kevlar patches on the chine, i know there are a lot of quebec boaters who do just that, but i've never seen a boat firsthand with skid plates along the chine... but it's done, so probably works alright (except for the added weight)

ok... too much writing, and you're all probably bored of reading.

cheers,
-allan

Hey,

Is this Trevor? How are you doing? I'm hoping to get a blast too this Spring/March? and outfit it for solo/tandem. My buddy Pat, had two Nitros delam at the double chine. He used grunge plates to keep the boat going, but this was only done as a last resort to prolong the boat.

I think until something major occurs, don't worry about the scratches, but kevlar would be a good choice when the time comes.

Let's paddle sometime, I'd love to see the finished setup. I assume I'll be doing something simillar.

Any Esquifs I've seen wear quickly- the vinyl seems to be softer and easier to scratch off than boats from other companies...

I had the same problem with the Blast so put on standard skid plates. Better than nothing but not great- they are too brittle and so are breaking off. The next think I will try is melting black ABS drain pipes in acetone- apparently you leave it for a few days and then this gives a brush-on paste. Think I saw the recipe on cartespleinair.org text on outfitting.

There are surely other epoxy type compounds which can do a good repair (maybe West System products)....

Actually I believe the wear is due to the short radius of the chine turn where the bottom meets the chine. A very tight radius has little surface area for distrubiting wear will not flex away form a hit compared to a longer radius chine of traditiinal openboats. Rather than flexing away . the small chine takes the hit even if its a small one. One thought , if you put kevlar/Glass etc. on the chime with epoxy for protection and the boat takes a big hit , the patch can take a chunk of the boat with it if comes off the hull. Epoxy is tought stuff. Good luck!

I have been paddling my nitro for 2 years now and there is definately some chine damage, mostly due to me hitting rocks. Althougth I have to say after seal sliding countles times off a ten foot high slab of granite not much damage has occured. my chines have scrapes but I just fill as needed, and I don't think I have ever gone through to the ABS.
Keep paddling that blast, and remember boats are meant to be beat up, Battle wounds.
Sean

my nitro is fairly worn on the lower chine as allan describes - Alot of ppl put kevlar skid plates - do a search on this board, I recall a bunch of threads about wear and tear (that I might have started) about 6-8 mos ago. Search for nitro/kevlar/skid plates for more info.

If you are going to patch the wear on the chine area, I suggest scraping off the vinyl and using cloth, not Kevlar felt. S-glass has good impact resistance. If you are hung up on Kevlar, get some of John Sweet's Carbon/Kevlar weave.

The epoxy will (in my opinion) bond better to the naked ABS layer than to the vinyl top layer. If you want the boat to slide better, you can get carbon powder from West, and mix it in with the West epoxy.

A two or three layer strip of cloth on the chine will be thinner and stronger than a Kevlar felt strip.

I have a word of caution about putting glass on your chines. One of my many repairs that extended the life of my Viper (Mohawk) was to put S-glass on my paper thin chines (with West Systems epoxy). After about a year, I noticed it getting a bit fuzzy. This came to my attention one summer afternoon when my legs started itching like the dickens - my technique for dumping my canoe is to lift it up to my thighs, then fling it overhead. I'm sure you could maintain the glass, just be aware

Back in the old days we used to use a rubberized urethane paint to cover the worn areas. The paint is very thick right out of the can, so you have to thin it quite a bit. Apply multiple coats.

Here is a link to one similar product;http://www.epoxyproducts.com/5_urethane.html

F

creeks. I think well all be usin the Teaurea or howevery you say it. I p[addle it on the Gauley and loved it