Is this canoe royalex?

I got a canoe on Saturday. I paid extremely little money because it is old, badly cracked & broken, and had to be dragged out of a farm pond full of cow manure.

I used to canoes a bunch back on my boy scouting days (actually did a lot of miles on one during a high adventure trek in Maine one summer), but I've never owned one and have always wanted to.

Anyway, is this canoe made out of "royalex"?



I believe it is. I took a sliver of the plastics and put them in acetone and they dissolve. That plus the layering of what looks like vinyl, plastic, hard foam, some other plastic, plastic, vinyl seems to match what I've read online.

I'm going to try to fix it well enough to hold water and just use it in a little pond behind the house. I'm still looking for a "good" canoe to actually take places this will just be a beater.

 

Looks like Royalex
to me, I use to have a Mad River Canoe that was Royalex.

 

Thanks!

I'm planning to try a trick I read about online involving Legos and acetone to glue it back together.

If that don't work in I'm seriously considering just cutting the back two feet of the boat off and turning it into a flat backed canoe by epoxy glueing in a homemade plywood transom. The back behind the rear seat is where 95% of the damage is. I'd just move the back seat forward a little bit and might have to remove the back one of two cross bars.

But I'll try that only as a last resort.

It looks like somebody dropped it hard on the back, maybe lost it off the roof of a vehicle, causing the major cracks and stuff mostly in that spot.

 

I have a friend shortened a damaged canoe - it would float but was rendered very tippy!

 

Yeah... I didn't honestly think it would do anything much good for it to modify it. BUT if fixing the cracks doesn't work and the choice is between the dump or an attempted last ditch effort to make it useable then I'd still give it a shot. At that point I'd really have nothing to lose.

I've got a few things around the house I could stand to get rid of. I'm going to start getting them posted up on craigslist and either use the cash to put toward a better boat or offer trade/partial trade for one in the ads I post. I've actually had a couple good scores doing that in the past. Some folks are happier to trade than sell and it's a good way for both parties to walk away feeling ahead (get rid of something in the way for something they can/will actually use).

 

thinking about it now - his was damaged in the middle - so he has a bow and a stern - - the first time he demoed it for me it instantly flipped.

 

Got a picture of the whole boat? If there is a hin number that might help some manufacturers put a RX in the number if they are royalex. There a lot of plastic composite boats so its hard to tell what it is. Have you weighed it? Most 16-17 foot royalex canoes will be 55-70lbs other plastic composite boats will be 75+ thats a good place to start.

 

Old Town Canoe made a ton of Royalex boats back in the day, my stepfather used to run one of the ovens there. You may be able to get repair kits from them.

 

I didn't save the picture off the ad and it's been deleted now that I got the boat. I'll take some pics soon. It's pouring rain right now so I'm not motivated to do it at the moment. When the rain lets up I'll get pics, an accurate weight, and dimensions.

That must have been a neat job! Whatever I do to this boat I'm not looking to invest much. It's just not worth it. I'd guess a repair kit would cost more than I care to spend or believe the boat would be worth even after repair. I'll look into it though.

 

im not sure if he would describe it as neat, but the few times I went out back I thought it was. I sent him the picture and he said it looked like it was royalex. Hope you can get it fixed, the worst thing OlD Town did was quit making those boats.

 

Wasn't just Old Town. Dupont stopped making the sheets of Roylex as it was no longer profitable. Basically the only companies using it was canoe companies. There have been a few options that have come out in the past but nothing is quite the same. Many royalex boats are worth more now then when they where new.

 

yes that’s correct. I guess Old Town looked into purchasing the setup(along with others I’d guess) but decided the equipment was too old to make profitable again. I know around here Old Town royalex boats are definitely more than they were new. Those are really the only ones I’m sort of familiar with because that’s where I live, its kind of taboo to own anything else.

 

Okay, here's the details on this boat if anybody is still interested.

It's 15' tip to tip, 15' 6" total length.
34" wide at its widest
About 15" tall at center
23" tall at the rear
24" tall at the front

About 79# in weight (it was slightly damp from rain so maybe a lb or two less than that in reality).

Here's some pics:


I've been all over it like a fat kid on a cupcake and can't find any identifying markings. I suspect the data plate was removed as you can see here:


Does the old decal remind you of any particular maker? I don't know canoes enough to recognize it myself, here's the one on the other side:


Lastly, here's some pics of the extensive damage. The cracks and breaks were covered with fiberglass patching which seemed to adhere okay but I think didn't flex with the boat and therefore cracked. I've been working to remove it with hammer and chisel to try to start again but the more I get into it the more I think it's just a lost cause. I should cut my loses and try to find a better boat. But, I'll at least TRY to get it working I guess.

 

Wow that’s had some use! I don’t think that is royalex. royalex was normally used in high end expedition canoes. That is a recreational hull. I’m not normally one to say let a canoe die but that old girls best days are behind her.

 

Oof, I like seeing old boats saved as much as the next guy but there are a ton of 'free' boats easier to get back on the water than that..

How much do you like your neighbours?

 

Ain't no such thing as a free boat around here. Actually a tub of water on the inside with a fountain shooting water up in the air to make it look like a canoe in a cartoon that sprung a leak would make me chuckle! Redneck water feature.

But no that's not for me. Not that I give a shit about the neighbors, I just wouldn't like it enough to bother with it.

I'm still going to give it a try to seal it up. Might as well. I won't spend much money on it but if sealing it as is, or cutting a few feet off and adding a plywood back doesn't seal it up, then off to the dump it goes.

I saw another local ad for an aluminum canoe with two small holes above the water line for not too much money that I might try for. I'm liking the idea of aluminum despite the weight because it sounds rugged and easy to repair. A little low temperature aluminum brazing rod and good as new. Most of the aluminum ones I see seem big though at 17 feet and I was hoping for 16 max. The reality is I'm not likely to go cross country in it so weight is not that big a deal.

 

My Dad collects Sportspals.. he's got three now in different states of 'watertight'.. he has a 12ft and two 14ft models.



I'm a kevlar guy myself;

 

Definably Royalex
That canoe looks like a Blue Hole OCA . One of the toughest Royalex boat built,
You can repair it with S glass cloth and epoxy resin
In the 90’s we would buy new Dagger Ocoee’s and cut about 16 inches out of the middle and patch them back together, of the 3 I cut I did not have 1 fail paddling 4 + whitewater

 

My Mad River Explorer 15 (Royalex) is by far my most favorite/versatile canoe. Was able to buy it just before production of Royalex ended.

Also have a couple of older Old Town Campers in Royalex. Don't use them much, but not getting rid of them.