The yellow is starting to show on the bow and stern of my 17 ft Old Town Penobscot. Will skid plates add significant weight to an already 65 pound boat? Would they effect performance? I carefully applied some good epoxy and painted over it, but I'm not sure how long that will last.

Thanks!

I don't think skid plates will add significant weight or reduce performance noticeably.

Your's is not a racing canoe, so the effect on performance would be minimal.

awbrown: "Your's is not a racing canoe, so the effect on performance would be minimal."

No, it certainly is not. Thanks for the feedback.

Put them on mine. Unless you are an expert, you probably will not notice a performance issue. They do not weigh that much and if you are OK with 65 pounds, you will do fine.

BAWaters: "The yellow is starting to show on the bow and stern of my 17 ft Old Town Penobscot. Will skid plates add significant weight to an already 65 pound boat? Would they effect performance? I carefully applied some good epoxy and painted over it, but I'm not sure how long that will last.
Thanks!"

Hey, you're good to go! Until it's showing again, I wouldn't worry about it. Skid plates will add a few more lbs and make it a tiny bit less efficient, but not notably so in either. But I don't bother anymore. They're too expensive and if I can save a little weight and a lot of cash, I will. I like to use a little JB Weld on deep gouges, and just touch up with spray paint. If it's a larger area, I use spray-on bedliner and sometimes fiberglass and epoxy from auto body repair kits instead. You'll spend less at less weight.

Skid plates are a must-have for me. First I'm a bit hard on landing at times. Most of my day-to-day canoe trips are on the Chesapeake Bay tribs and nothing eats glass better then a chunk of shell covering anything. So I use skid plates.

I don't feel a difference, and I know that it has to add 2 to 3 lbs to the boat, but the pluses far out weight the minuses for me.

I was just curious about drag and tracking, Sounds like the impact will be negligible for a freighter like this one. Three additional pounds isn't a big deal either, although I'm not getting any younger. The time for Kevlar is fast approaching. Thanks for the info!

ozarkpaddler: "

BAWaters: "The yellow is starting to show on the bow and stern of my 17 ft Old Town Penobscot. Will skid plates add significant weight to an already 65 pound boat? Would they effect performance? I carefully applied some good epoxy and painted over it, but I'm not sure how long that will last.
Thanks!"

Hey, you're good to go! Until it's showing again, I wouldn't worry about it. Skid plates will add a few more lbs and make it a tiny bit less efficient, but not notably so in either. But I don't bother anymore. They're too expensive and if I can save a little weight and a lot of cash, I will. I like to use a little JB Weld on deep gouges, and just touch up with spray paint. If it's a larger area, I use spray-on bedliner and sometimes fiberglass and epoxy from auto body repair kits instead. You'll spend less at less weight.








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Agreed, I think I'm good for awhile. I've already had the boat in the Boundary Waters and on the Mississippi River since I applied the epoxy, and the areas I repaired are still perfectly intact. I will get skid plates when I need to though, although with Royalex I probably have some time, as long as I don't abuse it. There was only a little yellow showing.

+1 on JB Weld. That stuff is amazing!

Skid plates do not add a lot of weight, and won't affect performance (I guess unless one really botched up the application) -- Chuck - formerly of Spring Creek Outfitters in Mt. Iron, MN still puts them on for the same price you can buy a kit. I imagine he's done hundreds, so they come out looking good. Just had some added to our Bell Seliga as the fabric was showing.