Help ID this Mad River ASAP

[Oldtyme]

I have this canoe on hold. Seller wasn't quite sure on material. Is it Royalex ? Is the small crack and gunnel an issue?
Any experience with this model regards to handling?
Thanks for any help

 

[Guest]

I have this canoe on hold. Seller wasn't quite sure on material. Is it Royalex ? Is the small crack and gunnel an issue?

Mad River made both a Royalex (2003 – 2005) and Rotomolded (2008 and beyond) version of the Adventure 14, and it isn’t the junky rotomolded poly version

It is Royalex. But, I think, not standard Royalex.

This is from vague memory, but I’m pretty sure the RX Adventures were made of Royalex Light, and I’m also pretty sure that MRC RX light was not like Mohawk and other’s R-84, which had an acrylic outer skin for weight savings. MRC’s RX Light was simply much thinner/lighter Royalex.

One thing that is not vague in memory; MRC’s RX Light was very prone to cold cracks. Repeated cold cracks, fix a couple, find more next spring. Maybe why they only made that RX Light canoe for a few years.

I might be interested in repairing cold cracks in standard Royalex. I wouldn’t touch a cold cracked MRC RX light canoe.

The only way I would even consider that canoe would be if I did the gunwale replacement with vinyl gunwales and pop rivets.

 

[Oldtyme]

Thanks so much.
Ok. Here is a hypothetical. The seller is asking $250. I do have an OK random French Canadian canoe that I like but don't think it was built as good as the MRC might have been. To me the damages look minor but that's why I'm here. Worth 250 or pass.

 

[ppine]

Worth the price. It would make a good solo boat.

 

[dougd]

I fixed one with a lot of damage and planned on keeping it but after I paddled it for the first time I gave it back to my friend. Being made of the RX lite the bottom flexed with every paddle stroke. Here's the write up of it:

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?b...onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=24;src=postname

Really wasn't a hull I would be happy with.

dougd

 

[Guest]

I still dunno, even at $250.

As Doug points out MRC’s RX Light had a reputation for oil canning. It also had a reputation for cold cracking, typically at the screws in wood gunwales.

From the photos it looks like the Adventure 14 may need new gunwales and deck plates. The yoke, and seats with new cane or webbing, may be salvageable if stripped, sanded and revarnished, and the seat hangers are MRC’s un-rottable plastic truss style. If you have wood working skills and a source for clear lumber you could mill your own replacement wood gunwales.

But the hull has already proven to cold crack at gunwale screws, and I’d be hesitant to put the time and materials into making replacement wood gunwales for a hull, and end up taking them off for more repairs when it cold cracked again. Canoes that develop cold cracks often keep developing cold cracks, year after year.

See this thread on CCR. That it was an R-lite hull with aluminum gunwales, not the “usual suspect” wood gunwales with screws. Note that his canoe cold cracked every few years, in 2012, 2015 and 2018. Waiting on the 2021 report.

https://myccr.com/phpbbforum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=39795

A friend who repaired a cold cracked canoe kept finding new ones, including some incipient cold cracks that had just gotten started and were hiding under the wood gunwales. He became the master of repairing cold cracks, including canoes from different manufacturers (OT, MRC, Dagger). And later became the master of cutting up (several) canoes that kept cold cracking with a Sawzall. His take is that he will never again work on another cold cracked canoe.

I enjoy repairing used canoes. Not sure I’d enjoy fixing new cold cracks year after year. Maybe it wouldn’t cold crack again with pop riveted vinyl gunwales (although, see aluminum gunwales above), but with replacement vinyl gunwale and matching channel deck plate costs it isn’t a $250 canoe anymore.

The “cold” part in cold cracks definitely matters, and I don’t know how cold it gets in South Bend. I saw a wood gunwaled Royalex Explorer (standard Royalex) that cold cracked at, not the screws, but each and every one of the lacing holes. Every single lacing hole. And that was a Maryland area canoe.

I’d be curious about the width of the Adventure 14, and the bottom shape. If it is a wide, flat bottomed pumpkin seed boat with Royalex Light expect a lot of oil canning motion while you paddle.

My take is that a short/wide/slow, flat bottomed, oil canning thin Royalex cold crack prone $250 canoe that needs a couple hundred dollars in materials + time and labor is no bargain.

On the other hand I don’t know your intended uses, and it might never cold crack again.

 

[Oldtyme]

Thanks everyone for your awesome responses. I might hate myself later but I passed. Just too much to gamble on While my Canadian canoe might be a strange build I absolutely love the way it handles. Light and fast. I also just made my own seat for it and it turned out nice. Just too much at risk for something already damaged.

 

[Guest]

Thanks everyone for your awesome responses. I might hate myself later but I passed. Just too much to gamble on.

Just too much at risk for something already damaged.

I think that was a wise choice. Too much of a gamble, for all of the reasons above.

Sleep well and tell yourself that in the end, after repair $’s, it would have been a short, fat, slow, oil-canning canoe that needed annual cold crack repairs, and that you dodged a bullet.

I’d still like to know the dimensions of the tandem RX Adventure 14. There aren’t many 14’ tandems with a svelte length-to-width ratio.

 

[Oldtyme]

I fixed one with a lot of damage and planned on keeping it but after I paddled it for the first time I gave it back to my friend. Being made of the RX lite the bottom flexed with every paddle stroke. Here's the write up of it:

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?bl...4;src=postname

Really wasn't a hull I would be happy with.

dougd

Hey Doug. I cannot access that. Is there another way to login or just view it?

THanks

Nevermind: I found it on another site : http://scooter-bangortoportland.blog...oe-repair.html Haha. Using my Google Fu I found it from another forum.