Alex Horvath ) writes:

Anyone else do something similar? This may seem somewhat extreme but a
loaded glass boat on rocks in the surf zone will take quite a beating.

Yes. It's always better to load and unload the boat in the water. It's
also better if you can get in and out of a small boat with the hull afloat
parallel to the shore.

I've been to a couple of used boat sales, beat up rentals being sold by a
canoe manufacturer. The hulls are badly scratched up. That may not be a
problem for knocking about on your own but if you are on a trip with a
group and their hulls are smooth you are easily paddling 10% more to keep
up. That's like paddling 11 hours to their 10.

BW the boat rental business looks like quite a racket. The boats are
rented and get really beat up, then they are sold for half the original
purchase price. It's not just the renters who beat the boats up. I've
seen employees tossing them about like fire wood. The bottoms of the
hulls I've seen at the sales are criss-crossed with deep gouges - more
than a 10% difference in paddling effort there.


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