Thoughts on Zephyr and twin-tex material

[KAYAKN]

Just wanted to get some pros and cons of the material that Esquif uses on the Zephyr

[cmnypny]

Well ... this is my personal opinion only based on fact of what I have seen from two of my friends Zephyrs.

One of the boats gets paddled pretty hard the other not so much.

Both boats have alot of stress cracks in them and have had to get them patched in multiple places which tends to be expensive at a 100 bucks a patch.

I personally would not buy one but that is only my opinion.

I am sure there are lots of other happy zephyr owners out there.

[philinasheville]

From my experience, the Twin Tex does not hold up well on the class 3/4 rivers that I paddle in the southeast.

Too bad cause it's a very fun boat to paddle!

Phil

[sbroam]

Treat it like a composite boat. I've been paddling mine a lot on low flow class II+ (cause that's what I got here in town and that's what I get to paddle 95%of the times these days) and no damage here. Not a lot of impacts, but a lot of scraping and sliding.

[KAYAKN]

I paddle more of claasIII/IV creeks in my kayak. Sounds kinda like the Zephyr is a problem boat. I have paddled it and had a blast, but i dont need any problems

[girocks]

I ran into a problem with my Zephyr. The D-rings kept popping out, because no glue will stick very long to twintex. Finally, I drilled holes and bolted a seatbelt and added a knee wedge to make a thigh retainer. New outfitting works great! I haven't cracked mine yet, but its bound to happen!
-Jeff

[Randy Dodson]

based on my friends boat: abrasion resistance is awesome. Impact resistance not so great.

Personally I don't think that this material is going to be the latest greatest thing that we all hoped it would be.

I like polyethelene....Prelude, Spanish Fly, Aftershock etc. It ain't light but I don't care.