There are a few possibilities.

Call wenonah, the should be able to tell you how to paint it. Failing that,
call Souris River, their colored boats are paint, not gelcoats.

I don't see whay you couldn't paint it, provided you use a good marine
coating rated for constant exposure. As someone else has noted: gloss will
show every imperfection on the surface. If you are very particular,
painting may not be the thing for you. You could use a filling primer (or a
resin fill coat, maybe) to smooth the surface, but that is more work, more
weight, and may also have to be marine rated (I guess that depends on how
good the top coat is). A gloss coating will have better water resistance
properties than a matte finish.

If you are worried about UV, the manufacturers should be able to give you
decent handle on the anticipated workinglife of a skincoat canoe. Many of
the BWCA outfitters use them, call some of the bigger ones (Red Rock, CBO,
Canoe Country to name three) they probably have an opinion on that--a lot of
them stack the canoes bottom up all year long when in storage.

My guess is that the kevlar will discolor and screen out a lot of the UV
from getting deeper into the layup; it should only darken up so much. (You
could get a sample of kevlar mat, cover 1/2 of it, then sit it out in the
sun for several weeks comparing the expose to the unexposed half.) So then,
what you may really be dealing with is the durability of the topcoat. For
that I refer you to the manufacturers.

Overall, why bother? How much is the boat in use? Store it inside or
covered at the off times and spend the time you save paddling and or
fishing, and enjoy the 2-4 lbs saving on those long portages--if that's your
thing!

PS

"Bart" wrote in message
...
I've got a Wenonah Vagabond solo canoe in Kevlar ultralight layup. I
chose
it over the more durable Kevlar flexcore (with gelcoat) because of the
weight saving.

I don't mind the yellowy 'see through' look of the boat but do catch
myself
thinking, this would look the business with an off-white hull too.

So I am wondering, could one split the weight difference between a 'naked'
Kevlar canoe and one with gelcoat on it, by using, say, automotive spray
paint?

Clearly it wouldn't have the durability and flexibility of gel coat but I
wouldn't even mind sanding and repainting the thing once a year or so, as
long as I have a very light boat that looks great and has a bit of UV
protection thrown in.

Has anyone painted their kevlar ultralight canoe before?

TIA Bart