I think I heard somewhere that it’s not wise to leave a royalex canoe out in a freezing garage all winter. Any advice on this? What are the dangers?
Is it really necessary to find a warmer place–the basement, say–(if we can manage to move all the vast amount of packrat stuff down there, and make room?)
Many thanks for any thoughts on this…
no problems, as long as…
you back out the screws of any wood gunwales (if you have them) to allow for expansion and exercise special caution when moving around the boat in sub-0 F temperatures. In temps that cold, the plastic boats have a tendency to become brittle, and even a piece of lumber dropped accidentally on the boat could be enough to cause a crack.
But in temps of 20-30 degrees, no biggie. I use a Royalex solo boat for wintertime paddling on rivers up here in northern Illinois, and have never had a prob caused by carting it around on your typical midwestern winter day.
As Said
Back out the screws on the gunwales. I ended up cutting a Dagger Caper into halves after it cracked down the length of the saddle with no way to fix it. Also, if ya can do the basement that would help some. Otherwise keep it out of harms way, back out the screws and wait for warmer weather.
dougd