Anectodal UL experience
Posted by: kayamedic
on Feb-06-13 7:30 PM (EST)
I do a lot of Canadian Shield tripping and one of the facets of UL boats is the foam core added for stiffness.
I managed to wreck a UL boat as it folded around a rock in Temagami. There was some foam core damage..rather difficult to fix.
My understanding is that foam is added to stiffen the bottom. Since that miserable experience in which I owed my life to a roll of duct tape to get the 100 km to nearest town, I have gone with CF/Kevlar boats without a foam core. The CF adds enough stiffness to make the core unnecessary.
Just wrapped up another two weeks of paddling with such a boat in Florida which has surprise surprise, limestone laden rapids and oyster bars... each of which will literally slice a skin covered boat.
I am pretty hard on boats. Never again any UL all kev layup for me.