I just bought a new Mad River Royalex canoe and I already have alot of scratches on it, should I be worried? I have not run it up on to rocks but it looks like I have. I don’t really like the looks of those skid plates anything thing else I can do?
Embrace the scratches.
They mean you paddle your boat. They are a fact of river life.
But, if you get the white showing you should hit it with paint or duct tape to protect the ABS from the sun.
Now it’s a real boat
I don’t even like to buy a boat without scratches. I call them wannaboats.
You take a wannaboat out. You show it the river, lake or sea. It gets scratched, gets a little character. Next thing you know you got a real boat.
Congratulations!
Battle scars
War wounds
Finally!
There now, isn’t that better? You don’t have to worry about scratching your boat next time out. Enjoy.
I still have one in my garage that is clean as the day it came out of the mold. Running it on Red Mo Downriver Race this Saturday. At least that will be over with and I can start taking it wherever.
NEWBEE
Aren’t you affraid of looking like a newbee when you show up?
Superficial scratches are only an
aesthetic concern. Deep scratches you can fill with something like 3M Structural Adhesive. But a deep scratch is really of little concern unless it cuts through the colored vinyl surface layer and reveals the pale blue-green ABS underneath. ABS is very sensitive to UV. (Vinyl isn’t.) So a scratch showing the ABS should be filled with 3M or something similar.
About a dozen years ago I bought a Royalex WW boat, a Mad River Synergy. Almost immediately I scratched it down to the ABS. I mixed up a little 3M Structural Adhesive (a urethane) and troweled it level into the scratch. Now, a dozen years later, the 3M fix is still intact.
Good to know
about the 3m. I have 3 Royalex boats and all are pretty scratched.
no worries
unless its worn thru the hull then worry otherwise who cares. The boat is a “tool” so use it. All my boats have thousands of scratches some deep.
psychiatric help
for your boat is a must, and pronto. All the other boats will laugh at your boat, and it will get mean spirited and want to kill you because of its scratch complex.
Many boats are scratched, and even
beaten, by their “loving” owners. There is a network of shelters for abused boats. E-mail me for where to leave your boat so it will be safe from your brutality.
When you wear through the vinyl
…right down to the ABS, you’ll know that you have a happy boat. I bought my WW boat that way from OC1 on this board.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2303377910075003331OGAahz
He obviously had a lot of fun in it, and now it my turn. It’s currently being held together with a mixture of epoxy, dissolved Lego’s and Gorilla tape – hopefully it has a lot more years left on it. When the scratches in the scratches get scratches, its time to worry. Until then, have fun.
Take up dominoes
Stay indoors, encase your canoe in glass, and take up dominoes. You are just an outdoor wannabe.
First days are the hardest
There was a guy who used to post here that advocated “keying” a new boat on the car before it even left the sales lot. Then you never again worry about that first scratch.
A boat without scratches is an unloved boat. Boats that sit in the shed watching the other boats around them getting scratches may need to be spoken to to maintain their self-esteem. You’ll feel less insane if you just occasionally paddle such a boat than if you counsel it.
Possible exceptions might be boats purchased as a collectors or those bought with the intention of resale for profit. But that’s not most of us.
LOL. Reminds of my best friend,
a contractor. When he goes to take delivery of his new pickups, he let’s the salesman go through the “presentation” routine and then casually takes a cinder block from the bed of his old truck and throws it into the new one just to watch the reaction.
I was asked the exact # of 3M.
It is 3M Scotch Weld 3532 B/A Urethane Adhesive. Comes in two tubes and mixes 1:1.
I used this about 10 years ago to fill a scratch that was through the vinyl and down to the ABS on my Royalex whitewater canoe. The patch has stayed in, and has stood up to UV exposure when the boat has been carried all around the country. The consistency of the mixed 3M is exactly right for filling scratches without needing to thicken the mix.
does it come by the gallon?
– Last Updated: Mar-27-10 6:23 PM EST –
half kidding.
Getting close to warm enough to mix up my abs/acetone slurry, as well as break out the epoxy resin and fiberglass. Then again, it was 21 this morning...