Curious how everyone feels about Kevlar skid plates, and their impact on the paddling performance of the boat? Is the weight and paddling impact of the plates worth the abrasion benefits?
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Kevlar Skid Plates?
- Thread starter NikonF5user
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I paddle a lot of rocky whitewater rivers, all my boats have skids plates or will have them after a bit of initial wear.
I no longer use Kevlar felt but rather use Dynel or Dynel over S-glass with thickened Gflex epoxy.
There are several in depth threads about skid plates and dynel if you do a search.
For me the weight is irrelevant (it's not much), a properly applied skid plate should not affect paddling to any noticeable extent.
Depending on your boat and usage you may not need them at all or can get away with a few layers of s-glass which will be almost invisible.
I no longer use Kevlar felt but rather use Dynel or Dynel over S-glass with thickened Gflex epoxy.
There are several in depth threads about skid plates and dynel if you do a search.
For me the weight is irrelevant (it's not much), a properly applied skid plate should not affect paddling to any noticeable extent.
Depending on your boat and usage you may not need them at all or can get away with a few layers of s-glass which will be almost invisible.
There are many opinions and many threads here on the topic of skid plates, including detailed photo threads on their installation. You can see some of those threads appearing in the Similar Threads feature below this thread.
Not in my opinion. They also uglify an elegant composite or wood canoe.
More specifically, I wouldn't install skid plates preemptively on any new canoe, as I did unnecessarily on my first canoe 44 years ago, but rather would wait until they are necessitated by significant abrasion on your stems. Secondly, Dynel seems to be preferred these days for abrasion resistance over Kevlar or fiberglass.
I am looking at a Merlin 2 that has Kevlar skid plates installed. I've always been against them on principle as I cannot help but feel they detract from the water flow over the hull. It's an otherwise awesome boat. Ugh!
The aesthetics probably deter you. In racing of course seconds matter and skid plates would add seconds. For the canoe tripper there are so many ways you can lose time that seconds on the water don't matter ( unless being pursued by a tornado).
Part of tripping pleasure is how you feel about your boat! If its fugly to you now unless you add some personalized scars it will be fugly to you later.
When a boat has a nice sharp bow entry and it makes clean and quiet wake lines (without any, gasp, bubbles) it just feels faster, but yes, it really is just seconds. (Is that a leaf on my bow?)
Sometimes a noisy/rough skidplate can be quieted with a careful application of thickened epoxy (see here for an extreme example). I wouldn't walk away from an otherwise good canoe just because of a skidplate, unless it was priced at a level where it should be mint.
Sadly the person with the Merlin withdrew the sale. Ugh.
I'm with you, I hate skidplates on any but the worst WW, they're ugly (especially mat or roving), can be noisy and are hard to clean which is important with the plethora of invasive species today. The only time I've ever added them is when the stems are worn to the point of showing the substrate, and by then there are probably already far uglier patches elsewhere anyway.
I apply abrasion plates to the stems of canoes after they have sustained significant damage. But just say no to Kevlar felt skid plates.
I have purchased canoes with Kevlar felt skid plates and I have removed them and replaced them with abrasion plates of a woven fabric, usually Dynel but sometimes S fiberglass. These can be made much thinner and smoother with nicely feathered edges that create less drag than a thick, ugly Kevlar felt skid plate. And they are stronger for weight as well.
Kevlar felt became popular for skid plates for a couple of reasons. First, the material is easy for those uninitiated in the application and lamination of woven fabrics to use. The precut material maintains its shape and does not tend to fray along the edges the way woven fabrics do. Using a plain weave fabric material requires some care to make sure that it maintains its cut shape and does not fray excessively along the edges during application and wetting-out.
The second reason Kevlar felt became popular is because folks assumed that being Kevlar it was very strong (ooh Kevlar). But felt materials consist of many short, randomly-oriented compressed fibers. The fibers may be individually strong, but being very short the material itself has relatively little structural integrity. When applied to whitewater canoes it is very common to see big, irregular chunks of the felt material broken off as the result of impacts.
I have purchased canoes with Kevlar felt skid plates and I have removed them and replaced them with abrasion plates of a woven fabric, usually Dynel but sometimes S fiberglass. These can be made much thinner and smoother with nicely feathered edges that create less drag than a thick, ugly Kevlar felt skid plate. And they are stronger for weight as well.
Kevlar felt became popular for skid plates for a couple of reasons. First, the material is easy for those uninitiated in the application and lamination of woven fabrics to use. The precut material maintains its shape and does not tend to fray along the edges the way woven fabrics do. Using a plain weave fabric material requires some care to make sure that it maintains its cut shape and does not fray excessively along the edges during application and wetting-out.
The second reason Kevlar felt became popular is because folks assumed that being Kevlar it was very strong (ooh Kevlar). But felt materials consist of many short, randomly-oriented compressed fibers. The fibers may be individually strong, but being very short the material itself has relatively little structural integrity. When applied to whitewater canoes it is very common to see big, irregular chunks of the felt material broken off as the result of impacts.
That's what's happened to the Kevlar felt skid plates I put on my MR Royalex Explorer 40+ years ago, and I'm not sure it's even due to impacts.
I was tasked a few months back with a Wenonah to repair for a neighbor of the CEO here . It was a freebie as I still have the boat and am storing it , but it allowed me to scrutinize the workmanship and I learned how to repair aluminum gunnels and repair the stems and mess with kevlar. Both stems were worn through the outer kevlar skin. The stuff is a pain to work with! I ended up masking off both stems and prepped and layered several coatings of laminate resin. In the future if I wished a bit more substance I would use a couple feathered glass layers . It is not unsightly and very low profile, and not hard to do. The gunnel repair was more challenging as I had to cut some strips of kevlar and lay it along the inner and outer skin as the accident ripped the rivets and the gunnel free , repair the aluminum then re-attach .
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I order internal skid plates, when I can.
I'm not a fan of external skid plates.
A better option, in my opinion, is applying a tough tape and replacing it when it gets beat up.
Kevlar felt takes an orbital sander to Install smooth. Also, you have to saturate the felt to gain protection for the stems. You’d be surprised how people install skids, often just sticking them on and leaving the fuzzy surface out. Rivers can be tough. I just installed skids on a boat that had two huge bonks. Probably going to need a new bottom with another season of rough use. Wish I’d tried dynel but I had Kevlar on hand, and know how to get it hard and smooth. Not sure how much weight was added. Sure do miss royalex.
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I had to repair a Wenonah last year. I used kevlar skid and two layers of S-glass, then peel ply then sand and a final coat of vinyl ester. They turned out well! I will add that on the external skids I repaired I masked off a symmetrical area wider than the coverage of the fabric.
Substitute 100% Polyester fleece, ( Sweat Shirt material ), for Kevlar felt.
The polyester will add thickness to the wear areas, and the big plus, it can be sanded, unlike Kevlar.
I have used it on a few composites, I really like it !
Oh, you have a big choice of colors, with polyester.
The polyester will add thickness to the wear areas, and the big plus, it can be sanded, unlike Kevlar.
I have used it on a few composites, I really like it !
Oh, you have a big choice of colors, with polyester.
I went against what seems to be the preferred ideas above and had the Kevlar skids installed on a new Kevlar canoe before I picked it up. My rational for this involved 2 things -
First, the area where I will be retiring does not have any shops close by, and this is something I would never attempt myself.
Second, due to both my weight and the immense amount of comfort gear I always tag a rock hiding below the surface HARD whenever I paddle, the last time in what was close to the middle of Lake Lila. Actually, twice on Lila.
I read the pro's and con's, and a little weight and an occasional gurgle doesn't bother me at all. I am a preventative maintenance guy, so I rust proof my vehicles, change my engine and tranny fluids on schedule, and generally over think this stuff. Heck, I've had the same toy car for 30 years and have never been close to the redline. The positive side for me is knowing all is well in the places I can't see.
I didn't apply them to my 2 Royalex boats.
First, the area where I will be retiring does not have any shops close by, and this is something I would never attempt myself.
Second, due to both my weight and the immense amount of comfort gear I always tag a rock hiding below the surface HARD whenever I paddle, the last time in what was close to the middle of Lake Lila. Actually, twice on Lila.
I read the pro's and con's, and a little weight and an occasional gurgle doesn't bother me at all. I am a preventative maintenance guy, so I rust proof my vehicles, change my engine and tranny fluids on schedule, and generally over think this stuff. Heck, I've had the same toy car for 30 years and have never been close to the redline. The positive side for me is knowing all is well in the places I can't see.
I didn't apply them to my 2 Royalex boats.
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