One of my favorite builds from this last year was from Iain in Scotland who is an experienced canoeist and wanted to try our building system.
He put together a fantastic Student Build blog and also has been adding videos of his paddling adventures to his YouTube channel: Adventure Made.
Ian and his friends seem to paddle a lot of bigger swift water rivers with the occasional more serious rapids.
I’m always really upfront about the durability of skin on frame in these applications: excellent impact resistance but not so great with a lot of long-term abrasion. The lifespan of a skin depends on skin thickness, coating thickness, judgment, and the type of rocks you’re paddling around.
Basically, if you get surfed into a rock you’re gonna have a lot less chance of putting a hole in the boat then you would with anything made of fiberglass, kevlar, or carbon. But if you’re scraping over granite ledges all day long you’re going to be replacing the skin sooner than later.
Iain used 9oz Nylon cloth and 3 coats of Coelan polyurethane. 12 ounce cloth and five coats of two-part polyurethane would add a lot more toughness to the skin, but significant weight as well.
___
This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed.
See the original post and discussion here.
