No more Royalex canoes

[John Bacon]

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/durable-royalex-canoes-soon-thing-past-152837285.html

 

Some say a unique material has spawned a revolution in back-country canoeing in the North.

It's called "Royalex" and is used to make tough, reliable whitewater boats.

Dozens of new canoes made of Royalex just arrived at Kalin Pallett's Whitehorse outfitting store — and more are on the way.

Pallett says the unique material is perfect for northern waters.

"It has that elasticity, or that resiliency," said Pallett, who owns Up North Adventures.

That durability, which is essentially a sandwich of vinyl, plastic and foam, is key for many river paddlers. The material means it's buoyant, lightweight and relatively affordable.

But it's also a niche product, and its lone U.S. manufacturer is discontinuing the material.

"It's all happening very quickly, there wasn't a whole lot of warning," Pallet said. "I know a lot of manufacturers are testing other materials, but right now, to the best of my knowledge, no one has found a material that offers all the different characteristics of Royalex."

But not all paddlers will agree about gear — especially canoes.

"I don't think it's the end-all, be-all of canoes," said Trevor Baun, a paddling instructor at Whitehorse's Yukan Canoe. "And I think the companies are working on another solution for it, they just haven't let people know what that solution is going to be at this point in time."

Still, it could take years for any new canoe material to get to market, and even longer to win the confidence of serious paddlers.

"Some of the rivers that we take clients to — the Wind River, the Snake River up in the Peel Watershed — it's a pretty remote place, so that's the last place you want to be when your boat fails," Pallet said.

There are still many new and old Royalex canoes available to buy, many with years of life left in them, but the last sheets of that raw Royalex material roll out next month.

 

 

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I will continue to carry a roll of duct in my Kevlar canoe.

Coleman still makes poly canoes, not the best canoe but they don't break.