I have paddled canoes and kayaks made of cedar strip, okume plywood, fiberglass, Kevlar, polyethylene and Royalex over the years. I currently own a Royalex solo canoe that I bought for paddling shallow rocky stretches of the Mississippi. One thing I notice with plastic boats, both PE and Royalex is they flex, and as a result are a little less efficient. It’s like every paddle stroke a bit of that energy is lost to flex. So, the thing that make “plastic” boats so tough makes them less efficient. It’s a trade off that works for many paddlers in a number of situations.
I have an Old Town Appalachian 16'. The last year they sold were retailing at $1,895. I've kept it in a storage container, so it is in like new condition. I listed it for sale a few years ago for $1,500 and the party that had an interest balked at the price. So be it. It's a great canoe and I don't need to sell it. I have another Old Town Guide 16" wooden canoe. Glad I kept the Appalachian. The wooden canoe has never been in the water. I'll keep that one also!
You answered my question from your kevlar video, thanks. I paddle in the Ozarks, where our shallow river beds are lined with the same rock arrowheads were made of. Down here Royalex hulls were going for a premium. I have high hopes for T Formex.
Some clarification about weight and speed. Most royalex boats are about 58 lbs, not 70. Speed is influenced by hull design, not weight. A boat with a very flat hull is designed for stability and not speed, whereas a shallow arch or rounded hull is designed to go faster.
Weight depends on size. 16-17 ft canoe is 60-75 lbs. Hull design will affect speed for sure, that is a good point. Weight will also affect speed. Weight will also significantly affect speed of movement over portages.
I have a 1989 Dagger Legend, very first generation of Dagger canoe. My Dagger was born December 9, 1989 per the serial number. This original Royalex canoe is still in amazing condition and shape. It is my favorite boat of all time!
Biggest con I experienced with my royalex canoe was cold weather cracks. I had a Mad River with wood gunwales and trim. I was careful per manufacturers instructions to back out all of the screws and make sure there was no water in the ends for winter storage. That worked for a few years. A few years later it no longer worked. Cracks in the hull started to develop and it got worse every year despite following the manufacturers instructions. It was really disheartening. I finally got sick of patching it and retired it.
I have a royalex 2006ish wenonah aurora. It's taken serious abuse, including getting blow down a hill at night and traveling miles down great sacandga lake only to be blown into a cove and found a day later. Pulled it out and towed it back, bought some new paddles, just a few scratches on it. It IS heavy compared to a kevlar swift I just bought, but bang for buck it's amazing. I wouldn't want to portage it, as Jodi says it's annoying, but if you can't afford a kevlar canoe or you want to bang off some rocks this is a great boat. I would buy a royalex again as my first boat. BTW, this is not nearly as heavy as an old town plastic boat (which is not royalex but some other material) so if you are shopping don't assume all plastic boats are the same. Royalex is plastic SHEETS not rotomolded plastic like a kayak might be.
I have paddled an Aurora and loved it! A bit heavy for portaging but doable. Like you said, Kevlar is much nicer to portage but I never stressed about banging up the Aurora!
I have an Old Town Penobscot 16 Royalex and it runs just under 60 lbs. Best portage pad I have ever used is a split large pool noodle. Saves my shoulders and neck. A few other used around camp, too.
Thank you! Everything I could find on the internet said ROYALEX was shut down due to small amounts of production need. But that didn’t seem right due to T-FORMEX quickly taking the place of ROYALEX….
"When Royalex was developed more than 40 years ago under prior ownership, we've been told it was intended for a broad range of markets. However, the canoe industry is the only market where it ultimately gained acceptance," PolyOne spokesman Kyle Rose said in an email. Company officials at PolyOne, which is North America's largest compounder and one of the region's largest resin distributors, decided to end Royalex production for a couple reasons, according to Rose. "Royalex is a low volume, unprofitable product that was in a steady decline in demand well prior to our purchase of Spartech last year," he said. "We have not identified upside or growth opportunities for Royalex that would make it viable as a continuing product line." PolyOne explored a potential sale of assets of the Royalex line, but has not found any "viable options to date," Rose added. "Other canoe materials do exist for manufacturers and buyers as alternatives to those made from Royalex," he also said.
Got anything to back that up, or is this just speculation? Everything I've seen/heard was due to low sales volume and limited marketability of such a product for other uses.
@@DeepBarney That was what the guys that put on the World's largest paddlesports show told me to my face in Sept 2013 when it was first announced. I was told the land the factory was on was polluted and when the new company bought it they chose to close it down rather than make the investment to clean it up. One way to spin that is to say sales were not high enough for the new buyer to justify spending $100's of thousands or even Millions to clean the land. The term "EPA Superfund" was mentioned in that conversation.
@@WisconsinEric Demise Of 'Royalex' Material Has Caused Stir In Canoeing World 'Paddling Evangelist' Says Builders Are Seeking Replacements For Discontinued Composite By Cheyenne Lentz Air Date: Wednesday, September 16, 2015, 2:40pm Every August, Darren Bush, owner of Madison's Rutabaga Paddlesports heads to the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake City, Utah to get a glimpse of what’s new in outdoor sports gear. But this year, Bush said, the buzz among retailers was less about some new innovation than about the disappearance of an old mainstay. "One of the big stories in the canoeing world is the demise of a material called Royalex," he said. "The company that made it went out of business." Originally developed by the Uniroyal tire company four decades ago, Bush said the "bomb-proof, whitewater-friendly material" was an industry favorite. However, there was a catch. "It’s a very toxic material to produce. So it created what’s called a 'superfund site,'" he said. "They couldn’t shut it down because of environmental laws. They had to keep running. As long as they kept running they didn't have to clean it up." Eventually though, explained Bush, it made more financial sense to pay cleanup costs than to keep production going. "The labor force that made it was very skilled. It was very small, maybe six or eight people that made it. And canoeing was 90 percent of the market for it," he said. "So they just decided to mothball it." Bush said that many retailers, himself included, bought up as many Royalex boats as they could when they heard the news. "Everybody panicked because that's what people do sometimes when there's change," said Bush. But he cautioned that the situation isn't really that dire for paddling enthusiasts. "The truth is, there's lots of other things out there that can replace it," he said. "There are people working on different composite constructions and new materials to try and replace that sort of flexible durability … of Royalex."
A big downside of Royalex as well as aluminum is that the material can not be formed into the complex tight curves that are needed for a good hull shape. That's why Royalex canoes always have blunt wide entry lines and why those canoes are so full in the bow and stern. Fiberglass, Kevlar (and the several variations) as well as wood can be formed into good hull shapes that paddle well. Royalex's great claim to fame is that the material is indestructible. Old Town is the company that threw a canoe off their four story factory roof to demonstrate that.
