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Well, the WWII like the WWC1 is a downriver racing design. Very unlike whitewater river runners or whitewater play boats. The priority for downriver boats is to get downstream as quickly as possible. They require significant depth to help keep water out as much as possible because water in...

I honestly can't make any sense of the photos. There is obvious fabric showing in them but it almost looks as if the fabric is underneath the green and white. If this is a Royalex canoe, that just doesn't make any sense. If that is not the case and the fabric is the exterior layer, I would...

Yes, while I have never owned a Nova Craft canoe of the TuffStuff layup it does seem to have a good reputation. I would still expect it to be more susceptible to cracking from a hard impact than a plastic boat, but cracks in composite boats can usually be easily repaired. The gel coat will...

You do realize that the TuffStuff Haida is also a composite canoe that is gel coated?

I won't say that it was a terrible boat, but one of the most disappointing boats I have paddled was the Wenonah Rogue. This was marketed as a semi-whitewater tandem hull. It was quite deep and had a fair bit of rocker for a Wenonah. But the bottom had so much bottom flex that it oil canned...

Yeah, the two Exped pads that I had blown baffles with were about that vintage as well.

I have used a low viscosity "penetrating" epoxy to recoat the interior of several Kevlar canoes after the material became dry. The one I have used is System Three Clear Coat. I have also used it to coat the interior of a Bell canoe to eliminate the aggravating "Bell blush" that many were known...

I believe that Bell measured gunwale width at the outer edges of the molded hull, which would not include the width of the outwales. I used to volunteer with a nature conservatory that maintained a livery of canoes and we had a couple of the Galyan's Woodsman III boats. They were nice hulls...

Do you recall about what years those three Exped pads were manufactured? The reason I ask is they swear up and down that the defects have been corrected. But I am still rather leery.

Keep in mind that societies that use tump lines or carry loads on their heads start at a very early age. They develop good technique and strong paraspinal muscles when they are young and progressively build up. In some of these societies a person's livelihood may depend on carrying loads on...

It might help if you told us exactly what 16 foot Royalex canoe you have. You might notice a bit more hull torquing in a Royalex hull than you would in a composite hull with the thwart removed. For what it is worth, Mad River sold some 16' Royalex canoes that came stock with only the two...

The thing you have drawn a circle around is properly called a thwart, not a yoke. And as Glenn said, that is not a Royalex canoe. If the boat is 16 feet in length or less you probably won't notice too much difference with that stern thwart removed, especially in a composite canoe which tend to...

I have paddled Prospectors made by Wenonah and Nova Craft, but never a Swift. I did paddle an Esquif Prospector once. It was not the 17 foot model. I believe it was a 16' but might have been a 15", and it was Royalex, not T-formex, but I presume they are using the same mold. The Esquif...

It has also been my impression that as the three-layer polyethylene canoes age, the material becomes softer.

My gut feeling is that polyethylene is probably a bit more abrasion resistant than T-formex. I have never owned a T-formex boat but I have owned and paddled scores of Royalex canoes as well as a good many single layer polyetheylene canoes, kayaks, and C-1s as well as some three-layer rotomolded...

The Spirit II will have the edge in terms of straight ahead efficiency. The Prospector will have a slight edge in maneuverability. The Prospector will be more severely affected by adverse winds, especially in open areas. The Prospector will have a bit more capacity for load.

Remember

I have no idea what that brown, crumbly-looking stuff is but I suspect it was some rather inexpensive material, the sole purpose of which was to give the hull some additional thickness, and thus stiffness. I would measure its approximate thickness and replace it with new core material. A core...

Sorry to hear yours ripped but thanks for the info. I had mine up for several days including two that rained and one with fairly stout wind and it did well. But I usually do adjust the tension on my guy outs to keep the tarp taut. Yes, the pegs that come with the tarp are cheap hook type pegs...

I have a rectangular CCS Tundra Tarp and I like it a lot. But I agree with Mike that a catenary cut tarp has distinct advantages in some situations. I recently bought a tarp at a very reasonable price that I used for a camping trip this past May. It is the Mountainsmith Mountain Shade 12x12...