Manufacturers of Fine Quality Canoes Since 1969
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Materials and Construction of Voyageur Canoes
- Woven and continuous synthetic materials are laminated to produce the lightest weight, highest tensile, impact and flexural strengths attainable.
- These canoes exhibit the paradoxical qualities of flexibility (to absorb shock) and rigidity ( to displace a trough of water and prevent unnecessary hull movement). Too much movement (from wave action and impact) can fatigue some synthetic hulls.
- All areas of greatest impact and wear are reinforced with extra material and for added protection, keels contain continuous rovings which extend well up the bow and stern.
- These hulls contain sufficient positive floatation to give buoyancy when capsized.
- Our STANDARD and DELUXE fibreglass lines differ in the trim details
- FAKX - Kevlar-glass composite / wood trim,
- KEVLAR - Kevlar-epoxy / wood trim
- CEDAR-PLANK CANVAS COVERED - traditional wood-canvas.
- Both our STANDARD and DELUXE canoes are constructed by laminating many layers of woven fibreglass cloth and rovings with polyester resin to produce one of the most durable and impact-resistant hulls available.
- Compared with other heavier, less expensive and chopped-glass canoes, our construction is lighter, stronger and more flexible.
- Woven fibreglass has good strength along the weave lines and by non-alignment of the weave we achieve maximum laminate strength
- Our standard hulls are trimmed with aluminum gunwales and the bottoms are reinforced with a foam, triaxial glass cross-rib structure
- Deluxe hulls are trimmed with wooden gunwales (aluminum is optional), and the Standard hulls are trimmed with aluminum gunwales.
- Hulls are reinforced with an epoxy fibreglass-Kevlar rib structure installed using pneumatic pressure, which imparts firmness to the canoe bottom and prevents unnecessary flexing.
- Bottom movement is restrained by a high-density foam core sandwiched within the laminate, which provides great structural integrity at minimum weight.
- Our deluxe line of larger canoes are trimmed with our finest steam-bent Canadian Oak, while the standard line employs our proprietary fibreglass gunwales to provide maintenance free gunwales at a reduced cost. Click here to see examples of the differences between deluxe and standard models.
- Depending on your budget, we are willing to discuss modifications to our designs to help meet your needs.
