Wenonah Canoe Layups

I have an older Wenonah Sandpiper canoe that was built in 2002 according to Wenonah. That’s about the only information that they could give me on it. My question is, does anyone have any old sales materials with the Sandpiper listed in it? Or if someone could help me identify the layup, that would be extremely helpful too. It’s a dark green outside, you can see the fabric texture and lines in it, and on the inside, it’s sand colored on the ribbed core running along the bottom of the canoe, and along the inside walls it’s a darker green tight weave looking textured inside. What layup do I have?



Thanks!

weight?
The sand coloured inside sugests it was a tuffweave boat. tuffweave is a fibreglass type layup with a few additions Wenonah used. Good stuff I had a Sundowner made of it and it was great.

Flex core, gel coat
I was thinking tuffweave, but the ribs you mentioned made me think of a Kevlar boat with a gel coat.

Weight
What’s the weight of your Sandpiper? You might compare that weight to another similar sized Wenonah hull of known materials.

weight
A tuffweave sandpiper would probably be near 40 pounds. My tuffweave vagabond is about 42 and it is a foot longer than the sandpiper.

And Kevlar ultralight Sandpipers I’ve
seen advertised are a little under 30 pounds.

Sandpiper layups advertised weights
Royalex 39 lbs

Tuf-weave Flex-core 43 lbs

Kevlar Flex-core 35 lbs

Kevlar Ultra-light 27 lbs

Graphite Ultra-light 22 lbs

Sounds like your’s is unique
That doesn’t sound like a typical layup of the time. When you say ribbed core, does that mean ribs that run side to side on the bottom of the boat, or from a thickened floor of the boat up the sides to the gunnel, or does it have a single rib running the length of the boat along the keel line?



Are you saying the interior of your boat is two-tone, with the bottom painted sand while the inner sides are left green?





The description of the weave leads me to conclude as others before me have already, that the boat is a Tuf-weave construction. Typically these are painted on the interior a sand color, but I have seen a few Wenonah boats where the interior was not painted and the exterior hull color shows through to the interior. I have not seen a two-tone interior, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Wenonah did this on request for someone.



By 2002, Wenonah had moved away from their center-rib and cross-rib constructions, favoring the current Flex-core and Ultra-light layups. However, it kind of sounds like you have a Tuf-weave cross-rib boat based on your description. Weights at the time were 22lbs graphite, 27lbs Kevlar Ultralight, 35lbs Kevlar Flex-core, 43lbs Tuf-weave Flex-core, and 39lbs in Royalex.



A cross-rib Tuf-weave boat would probably weigh about 40lbs.


Try the way-back machine
The wayback machine is an internet site where you type in the web address, www.wenonah.com, and it shows you dates that site was archived. You can then view Wenonah’s web-site as it was. I’m not sure if these links will work, but the first one should get you started.



http://www.archive.org/



http://waybackmachine.org/*/http://www.wenonah.com

Kev UL maybe
Thanks guys for the help. Im thinking I have a Kevlar Ultra-Light layup. The graphite seems right as the color does look black at times, but the weight doesn’t match up with 22lbs. I weighed it on the scale with me holding it, and it added 33lbs.



The bottom is a solid core with the ribs coming up the sides. I could take a picture.


Kev UL should be obvious from color
I don’t believe Kevlar ultra lite was made w/ the green gelcoat you described. To best of my knowledge they all came as skin coat hulls w/ the honey/golden Kev color that darkens w/ age unless protected from UV light

From your description I was thinking Tuf-weave but 33# seems a bit lite for that layup ? How’s that wt compare to currently made hulls ?

Another option
It could very well be an ultra-glass boat.



Kevlar Ultra-lights have always had the option of a gelcoat exterior. So did the relatively rare Ultra-glass layup. Instead of being built with Kevlar, the Ultra-glass boats were made with fiberglass. That is why the core would look tan, but the sides green. The ribs on the side of the boat would also be tan in this layup. It’s not paint, but the true colors of the material showing through.

Probably gel-coated Kevlar Ultra-light
Wenonah’s Kevlar Ultra-light hulls came standard with skin-coat, but a colored gel-coat was a no cost option which added 5-8 lbs depending on the model.



The description you give of ribs extending out from the foam core indicates an Ultra-light construction. The weight you give is right on the money for a gel-coated Kevlar Ultra-light (27 + 6 lbs).

Picture
Here is what the canoe looks like guys,



http://www.rickharjes.com/Other/Email/i-6NKd9V6/0/L/IMG6276-L.jpg

Graphite Ultralight
Wood gunwales add 2 lbs

Adjustable hung seat adds another lbs



Not every boat leaves the factory at spec weight either.

Thanks
Thanks for the reply nermal! I was leaning towards the graphite after seeing other pictures floating around the internet that looked identical. I tested my scale out today with a 30lb weight, and it was reading heavier by 4lbs. So if my scale is 4-5lbs heavy, that puts the canoe in the high 20’s, with the seat and wood trim, which would probably mean it’s graphite.



Thanks again!!

looks like kevlar ultralight with a gel
looks like kevlar ultralight with a gel coat to me. cool boat.

From your picture, graphite outside,
Maybe just a single Kevlar layer inside, plus Kevlar over the ribs. They did a nice job of getting the Kevlar to conform to the rib contour. I would have rounded the edges more, but they got away with it.



Nice thing about graphite, if you trash it in the wilderness, you can pencil a help request, close it in a bottle, and hope it floats to civilization.