"riverman" wrote in message ...

Enjoy your new boat. I suggest taking a rubbing of the dings (lay a piece of
paper over them, and rub a pencil on it) to see exactly how large they are.
If it is indeed caused by a spot where the foam did not expand, its entirely
likely that a week in the open sun will exand them. It would be nice to
compare rubbings over a month or so, to see if that's happening.

Those sound like they might well be "bruises" on the Royalex rather
than voids in the ABS substrate.

Since Spartec/Uniroyal changed the composition of Royalex sheets back
in the early 90's the material has been much less hardy than the
pre-90 sheets.

I wonder in fact if there was yet another, more recent, change in the
composition of Royalex sheets. Our newest canoes all developed similar
depressions after just a few river runs, and many of those "bruises"
(which are noticable only on the exterior skin of the ABS) were along
the chines where the boat pressed up against some obstruction. Those
bruises or depressions have never popped back out after full
sun/warmth exposure.

More and more I appreciate pre-90 Royalex; our canoes from the 80's
are much tougher and take a licking without bruising. Our canoes from
the early and mid 90's are less hardy, and our newest Royalex boats
are wimps compared to the durability of the old Royalex.