Wood Canvas
That is the way to go.
Canvas the consumers, and see who
wood agree with you.
Royalex arose in the SE US, and because it seldom gets super cold there, cold related damage is uncommon.
And, in the SE we are afflicted with a mental illness where we do not run big, bodacious whitewater in ultra low temperatures. This illness can be overcome with heavy medical marijuana smoking, but then, paddler lose motivation for cold weather paddling anyway.
Good makers of composite ww canoes can supply boats that will not show brittle damage in super cold weather.
I like that - good one g2d
It gets pretty cold up here, and cold related damage is still uncommon. The main problem that I see with Royex is wear. As you have noted above, once the vinyl gets worn off, you will start to get cracks in the ABS layer. I say if a boat has been paddled enough to wear the vinyl off the bottom, a crack every now and then is justified.
Is your poly canoe still un-warped?
– Last Updated: Mar-15-14 4:02 PM EST –
I've see more Old Town canoes made of poly in the last 5 or 6 years than I care to count (I don't know, 50, 80 of them?). Every single one of them was badly warped on the bottom, to the point that I for one would not even consider owning one (and that's ignoring the many hundreds of them I've seen at the Ozark rental places, all of which are in even worse condition). As already pointed out, "to each his own", but Royalex has been extremely popular for decades now, and with reasonable care it will never warp. To mty knowledge, poly is the only material which has (partially) replaced Royalex, and poly isn't liked by very many, except as used in those new kinds of extremely tiny whitewater canoes. And of course the rental places like poly because it's the cheapest material available and also the toughest (except for that warping thing).
Various other modern canoe materials haven't replaced Royalex to any great extent. Instead, they've added to the variety of very expensive but not-as-tough choices in the composite realm. Good materials for sure, but in an entirely different part of the market than that occupied by Royalex.
Well Eric
I would guess the river dorks that rent those poly boats don’t even know the canoes are warped. Probably looks normal to them, especially by the time the get off the river 
Interesting as I thought Royalex
was a Maine thing… Its almost time for the Kenduskeag Race…there will be some 700 RX boats, the majority Old Town…
Some of the boats are very old…from the 80’s…And they do get dragged. And bondoed
Don’t get me wrong rpg51
Wood canvas canoes are beautiful - I’d love to have one. Composites are great too, but I have a Wenonah Spirit II in kevlar that sits on the rack because I don’t want to scratch or bang it up. My royalex boats have all the fun.
I kinda like my polycanoe
it was cheap to buy- 300 dollars new although a bit deformed- paddles good, and is very durable. Heavy to carry, and the way its set up without thrwarts you can’t portage it over your head, and the wife feels tippy in it (seats are bit high for her, and she’d like more initial stability) but I was pleasantly surprised at how well it paddled. In my universe its all good- rafts, kayaks, duckies, canoes, innertubes. I’ve paddled kevlar, royalex, poly, twintex, aluminum, pvc, hypalon, and glass. Some boat types and materials work better in some situations than others. If it gets you out on the water, and it works in your current situation then I don’t see what the issue is. Add me to the list of river dorks who believe gettin’ out is more important than bein’ cool. “Its all good”…some folks are just slow to realize it.
No, because I store it properly
Unlike most of these canoe rental places that leave them on racks out in the hot sun where they warp.
There’s more to it than that
As I said in that earlier post, that observation was made without needing to include the ones I’ve seen at the rental places. All the poly Old Town canoes I’ve seen have been warped, regardless of age or storage method.
There are exceptions. I saw some brand-new Nova Craft canoes made of poly at Canoecopia last weekend, and those were the first poly canoes I’ve ever seen that were not warped. I’ll admit that I did not check out the Old Town display. I might have found some exceptions among brand-new boats there, but at other times I’ve seen plenty of brand new Old Towns made of poly that already had wavy bottoms. It’s just a bad material for maintaining shape with boats having as much flattish surface area as a full-size canoe. I’m hardly the first here to point that out.
“River dork” clarifiction…
– Last Updated: Mar-16-14 8:03 PM EST –
ClarificAtion -or- the rest of the story........
What boat someone paddles, how much it costs, and what material is used in it's construction, has nothing to do with "river dorks".
River dorks are not "cool" no matter what they paddle. They are drunks & dopers in rental boats, blundering down the river, creating traffic jams, trashing the river, and gravel bars, filling the air with obscenity, and loud music, urinating in public, aggravating young women, and generally acting like obnoxious drunken buffoons.
The term "river dorks" was created by a group of paddlers in a Swiftwater Rescue Instructor certification class, on the Spring River in Arkansas, in August of l995. The original label was "Spring River dorks".
BOB
tdaniel: RE river dorks
Please let me clarify what I mean by river dorks, and what most of the people I paddle with mean by river dorks.
Being a river dork in my definition has absolutely nothing to do with the kind or costs of the boats they paddle. It has everything to do with how they behave and treat others on the river. It is behavior you would not condone in your neighborhood or other public places that have no connection with rivers.
They tend to be overly inebriated, either by alcohol or other mind altering substances. And by that I mean out of control and not just mildly buzzed. If they were to drive a car in that state they would have their licenses yanked and spend time in jail.
They care only about themselves and showing off for their buddies no matter what effect that behavior has on other users of the river. What I find most galling is their lack of respect and the way they act in front of families, their children, older folks, and anyone that does not share their inebriated state.
River dork behavior puts other users of the river at risk.
In my experience they are the ones who most befoul the rivers. Beer cans, broken liquor bottles, empty chip bags, and all other sorts of trash and debris left wherever they have happened to be - both in the river and on the shore.
So the term river dork, the way I and many I paddle with define it, relates only to behavior and not the skill of the paddler or the type of vessels they use.