So seriously, a plastic boat left in the sun day after day, year after
year, and not treated with a protectant or covered with a tarp suffers
how badly from UV deterioration? The plastic gets brittle? Faded?
Warped? Or what?

wrote:
So seriously, a plastic boat left in the sun day after day, year after
year, and not treated with a protectant or covered with a tarp suffers
how badly from UV deterioration? The plastic gets brittle? Faded?
Warped? Or what?

Some of the rental companies around here have Prijon T-Canyon and Prijon
Taifun kayaks. Mostly they were red (T-Canyon) or Orange (Taifun).

Mostly they left them outside on the trailers for years, out in the sun.
I've seen more T-Canyons than Taifuns, but usually they are faded, some
to the point where they are almost white (just a tad of pinkish, from
the original deep red) and the plastic indeed gets brittle.

Some (?) of the modern plastic kayaks seem to have a kind of UV
protection (UV stabilisors) baked into the plastic, but that's still
only going to help for a certain amount of time.

I deliberately keep my kayaks locked in a shed, to keep them not only
from the sun, but also to prevent them from filling up with dead leaves
etc when left outside.

--
Wilko van den Bergh wilkoa t)dse(d o tnl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
---Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.---
http://kayaker.nl/

All three (brittle, faded, warped) can happen. Store your boats in
garage or covered and use a good protectant like 303.

We have a detailed article on storage and care of canoes (applies to
kayaks as well) at
http://paddledognation.com/LearningC...e-Storage.aspx

Happy paddling!
PaddleDog Bill

http://www.PaddleDogNation.com
Where paddlers connect!

wrote:
So seriously, a plastic boat left in the sun day after day, year after
year, and not treated with a protectant or covered with a tarp suffers
how badly from UV deterioration? The plastic gets brittle? Faded?
Warped? Or what?