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Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Gear Forum :: Royalex Crack!
 
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ayudell
08/06/2020 08:54AM
 
CanoeStan: "Cannot provide any repair advice, however I own two well used P16's of the same age ( Royalex/AL gunwales) that have always been stored in an unheated garage in northern Illinois. Never have had any cracking problems with either boat. Best of luck with the repairs."


It sounds like some do, and most don't.


Old Town's response was basically: "You should buy our $100 repair kit".
 
Brock63
08/31/2020 12:03PM
 
I have heard the repair kits work very good...so fixing should not be an issue. The price of repair kit is far better than replacing the canoe..and since Rx is harder than hens teeth to find used at moment. LOL


That actually looks like impact stress crack from either something hitting that rivet point hard when cold or something heavy being sat on top also over that rivet point to be honest. A small crack or chip could have formed years ago and finally let go in the cold of winter when things are more brittle....


I would not stress it too much...the joy of royalex is you dont have to deal with replacing the gelcoat for every gouge or crack you get. Just rolls with punches. Good luck.
 
ayudell
08/03/2020 10:17PM
 
I just saw this 10" crack in my Royalex Old Town Penobscot 16. The boat is a 2002. The crack is about a foot aft of the bow stem and appears to originate at a rivet. The crack is all the way through the hull. This canoe has aluminum gunwales.

The boat has never been abused in whitewater. My buddy has a P-16 that we have pinned multiple times in whitewater and paddled through the break on the Pacific. It has dents, but no cracks like this...

Has anyone had this kind of a crack? Should I expect more of them to appear?

I plan to fix by stop drilling the crack with a 1/8" bit and laying down a layer of glass with West 105 on both sides of the hull. Should I do two layers?


 
kona
08/04/2020 07:01AM
 
Bummer! Usually see cold cracks on wood trimmed royalex, though I have seen on on an aluminum trimmed P16 in the past. Curious: is the winter storage space buffered from the elements?


GFlex is the top epoxy recommendation for cold cracks. Lots of info on cold crack repair online. No glass patch needed on outside. Other folks will chime in on whether it’s needed inside or not (I’ve seen several with just gflex, no patch, holding strong).

 
ayudell
08/04/2020 09:45AM
 
Canoe is stored outdoors in Bemidji under my garage eaves, supported on 10' centers by a dog kennel fence. I can't believe that they would expect all the Canadians that buy these boats to store them in a heated space...

I thought I was safe from cold cracks with the Al gunwales. I'll look into Gflex only, but I'm hoping that Old Town will help me out on the price of their $100 repair kit.
 
MississippiDan
08/06/2020 08:22PM
 
I have also heard good reports using g-flex epoxy. Here is one
https://www.epoxyworks.com/index.php/repairing-a-royalex-canoe-with-gflex-epoxy/


The Georgia Canoeing Association has an article on royalex repair
https://www.gapaddle.com/royalex-canoe-repair/


For large cracks the edges may not line up very well. Put small blocks of wood on the inside of the hull. Use wax paper between the wood and the hull so you don't glue the blocks to the hull. The epoxy won't stick to the wax paper.


From the outside of the hull and on each side of the crack put a screw through the hull and into the wood. Drywall screws work well. Place the screws about an inch from the crack so you have room to work the epoxy into the crack. After the epoxy cures, remove the screws and fill these small holes. A few small holes will be less noticeable than mismatched edges.
Dan
 
jwartman59
08/04/2020 10:50AM
 
Need a photo from the interior side to fully understand the problem
 
ayudell
08/04/2020 02:27PM
 
I've attached an inside view of the crack. The crack appears to go straight through for its entire length.



 
CanoeStan
08/05/2020 07:44AM
 
Cannot provide any repair advice, however I own two well used P16's of the same age ( Royalex/AL gunwales) that have always been stored in an unheated garage in northern Illinois. Never have had any cracking problems with either boat. Best of luck with the repairs.