Duribility of Kevlar
 

I have often paddled wenonah cannoes which are made out of Kevlar.
They stand up to quite a beating short of whitewater use. When a group of
friends and I were on the river a while back we had to undertake a swift
water rescue for a couple who decided that the best way to slow down their
wenonah in a rapid was to toss the anchor. Needless to say when we finaly
freed the now sunken boat it buckled against a rock on its downriver
journey. Dammage was actually minimal, the aluminum gunnalwalls were
cracked when the boat had tacoed and there were two cracks on the chines,
one on each side at the same point, but that was it. The couple decided
that they would never go boating again and gave us the boat, sad but
happy. After new gunnalwals about $100 installed ourselves and two kevlar
patches on the inside with epoxy, sanding and buffing it was as good as
new. So the repair was easy and cheap and the dammage was brutal. Hope
that answers your question. For lake trips where there will be portaging
the weight of a Kevlar canoe is unbeatable.

Milo