Monday, June 23, 2014 - Blog on a Log

2014 The Last Year for Royalex Canoes

If you want a Royalex canoe, you'd better move fast.

Over the last 30 year, the nearly indestructible material has become the top choice for whitewater paddlers, river runners, or families needing a boat that can handle a few decades of abuse.  It edged out aluminum, explains Winnipeg Free Press' Bartley Kives, due to its lightweight buoyancy and ability to keep its shape while taking a pummelling.

"There are numerous tales of Royalex boats falling off moving vehicles or getting wrapped around rocks in high-volume rivers and still surviving to paddle another day," writes Kives, "the mere existence of Royalex boats meant many rivers once deemed too rocky to paddle were suddenly navigable. You no longer had to be a perfect paddler to go tripping in remote places."

And that's what really made Royalex a game-changer.  Its forgiving composition allowed less experienced paddlers the chance to get out and tackle more challenging water without risking getting stranded by a wayward rock or branch.  Since our store opened, Royalex canoes have consistently been our top sellers, providing families and backcountry trippers the rugged reliability to keep their canoe floating for years to come.

But as of this year, Royalex is no longer being produced.

Despite its ubiquity, all Royalex for manufacturing canoes was produced by a single plant in Indiana.  When manufacturers Uniroyal were bought out by international plastics company PolyOne last year, all production of Royalex was halted.  As Kives explains, "PolyOne was simply too big to bother producing a product that was only used by canoe manufacturers."

With all production having been halted last year, this season's Royalex models are the last that will be available. Esquif has been working on a possible replacement material 'tformex,' which will have a prototype ready by the end of this summer.  Given time, it's very likely a material will emerge to replace Royalex--whether it's tformex or otherwise--but until it does, many manufacturers have been left with a large holes in their boat selection for next year.

If you've had your eye on a Royalex boat, 2014 is the year to buy.  Though we've stocked up, word is spreading and available boats are moving quickly.  Of course, that's no surprise - until a successful Royalex replacement is developed and tested (which will take time) canoe buyers will find their options significantly limited--and paddlers may have to scale back their trip plans until they've got a boat that can handle the punishment.

Read Kives' full article "Get your Royalex while you can".

This article was edited to add information on Esquif and tformex.

Photo: CC via ****u**** on Flickr.