Need help.

[Crunchy]

J.P. wants to put some kind of bow and stern protection on 30 canoes.
Royalex boats.
Used at a camp.]
He does not want to use skid plates.
Any idea of a nose guard (ala whitewtare kayaks) that he can use to add to the boats?

[sbroam]

...
He does not want to use skid plates.
...

By that you mean the conventional kevlar / resin skid plate? Someone posted some new patching material here recently that came available as a "skid plate" type application. I can't remember enough about it to come up with a good search off hand...

You can use ABS, but you will first need to aquire it - which can be a challenge in some locales (we can get it here in Columbia). Then you need to form it - you can use heat or solvent (acetone). I've used this approach in repairs.

[craig]

I've seen sections of bicycle tires used instead of skid plates. Not sure how to adhere them though

[sbroam]

This?
http://www.recrepair.com/skid_plates.html

[milkman]

I've used some of the Rec Repair material as a patch on a canoe and am finding that it adheres really well to vinyl and can take serious scraping from rocks. I think it would make a great skid plate material and be lots easier to install than the traditional Kevlar skidplates. It also wouldn't chip or crack like a Kevlar skidplate.

A really cheap skid plate is kayak or raft vinyl material. Just put it on with vinylbond. The downside is it won't be as durable as the Rec Repair material.

[Al Donaldson]

Folks:

I've been working with the Rec Repair skid plates for a couple of months now (although they are not in dealers' hands quite yet.)

A few notes and observations:

1. The material used on the skid plate kits differs from the repair material (patches and patch kits) in a few ways:
a. The skid plates, as currently in production, are (I think) a bit thicker than the patches (all appear to be a fabric (up to 3 ply) in some thermoforming plastic matrix.)

b. The repair patches come with one side that has an adhesive pre-applied, and the skid plates do not.

2. The skid plates weigh about 6.5 ounces each, and I've been using about 4 oz of the thickened West Systems G-Flex to attach each. The entire application for two plates is thus pleasingly less than two pounds. (I've not yet become quite good enough to use the supplied 3M epoxy, at least in the warm weather in which I tried to use it -- it just set up faster than I could work!)

3. The plates form quite nicely to typical whitewater canoe bow and stern shapes, but are a little tricky (at my low level of skill) to apply to sharply-curved surfaces. The forming job takes some patience and skill, so the first ones that I formed took a LOT of time to do and looked as though a team or monkeys had installed them.

4. The abrasion resistance of the material is better than anything that I've seen on the water: kevlar, fiberglass and poly are ground off much more quickly, although I suspect that 440 stainless would abrade less.

5. I have no idea how the impact resistance will work out, as I haven't had any hard impacts on the plates yet, but in over 250 miles of Iowa stream paddling (read as "fairly slow water, lots of logs, rocks, gravel and the occasional fence post or rebar,") the ones I have used are unmarked.

Again, these are not out (as far as I know) in the hands of dealers yet, but as far as I've seen so far, these take a bunch less time than a "good" four-layer kevlar and glass plate (Max Wellhouse style) and a little less than the commercial 6-pound kevlar "kotex pads."

They come in any color you want as long as you want BLACK.

At this point, I am quite enthusiastic about these units. Anything that, given my limited skills, can be applied this easily, that gives a relatively good appearance (and will do the intended job well) deserves some consideration.

I hope that these come onto the market soon!

Regards,

al