Last weekend I bought a used Mad River RX15 canoe. It’s in great shape except for the normal scratches on the bottom from being used.
On the stern there is a section about 4 inches long that has worn through the vinyl and is showing the exposed white surface of the Royalex. The bow has some scratches, but has not worn through the vinyl.
I was thinking about putting skid plates on the canoe, but I’ve also heard about epoxies and resins. I heard some complaints about the way a canoe handles after skid plates have been applied and so on. I use my canoe for floating down mostly mild rivers and stream (no whitewater or even close). That’s why I bought the canoe, so I could float stretches of the Cahaba River in central Alabama, fishing and overnight camping. I hardly will use the canoe on a lake except to play around in the neighborhood pond.
What would some of you recommend? Skid plates or epoxy?
Thanks
Skid Plates…
Shouldn’t affect performance at all when floating and fishing.
Skid Plates
Save yourself some time and go by Alabama Small Boats or Alabama Outdoors and pick up the Old Town Skid Plates. The people on here that talk of losing performance by having skid plates on a canoe don’t understand that the Cahaba is like paddling on a belt sander. The Little Cahaba is like razor blades in low water.