Royalex canoes soon to be a thing of the past?

[TBC]

I like those contoured wood seats! From Ed's right? We have had a couple sets of those.

Yes, they are Ed's. I would have bought from you but I found all of the outfitting supplies I needed in one store online in Wisconsin and got killer flat rate shipping. We'll see how well the contoured seat fits my contours tomorrow.

And the Wenonah drop plates were a disappointment. Not initially, but when I took them to a local fabricator to have them sheared to height, they told me that they could have made me two of them in stainless for what I gave for one of these in aluminum. Live and learn.

Ahhh no worries!!

[Canoe_Codger]

Have you installed them and paddled in them? What did you think of them, if so? All of my other canoes are converted to Essex ash and cane seats (except the Bell which came factory equipped with one) and I was looking for something more comfortable and durable for this Sunburst solo canoe.

[Canoe_Codger]

I am wondering how many jobs will be lost due to Polyone's former Spartech plant closings? And not just due to discontinuing Royalex production in Warsaw? 90 jobs lost in Cape G Missouri already.

http://www.semissourian.com/story/1986261.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Swift Canoes stated on their FB page that they were sourcing their ROyalex from a company, not Polyone?

Swift Canoe & Kayak: Fear not faithful paddlers, we don't actually have our Royalex made by PolyOne. We use another manufacturer, so to our knowledge we'll still be able to produce and sell Royalex canoes. It's just a big blow to so many other canoe companies, it'll make for some big changes around the industry. Hopefully PolyOne's Royalex division will be purchased and continue producing under new ownership, otherwise those companies will have to find another Royalex producer.

Like · Reply · 4 · Yesterday at 12:39pm ·

And a post by Richard Guin of Mohawk this evening:

Heads up, everybody! If you are or know somebody who is on the fence about buying a Royalex or Royalite Mohawk canoe (or from any other manufacturer for that matter), time is running out. The outfit that makes the laminate has announced that the last production will be in April 2014...

[Eric Esche]

Ah, I do not know what a batch of Royalex sheets cost or how many sheets are in a batch, but what would you think of some of us "investing" in a few batches or even 20 batches to ensure you stay in production? Any problems with storing Royalex sheet, like humidity, temperatures, max weight stack??? Does it come with a use by date?

I could even see pre-selling the sheets to get a boat reserved for future production within a certain time period.

Just thinking. Not ready for a new Arkota yet, but will probably want one in a few more years.

Eric Esche

[TBC]

Ah, I do not know what a batch of Royalex sheets cost or how many sheets are in a batch, but what would you think of some of us "investing" in a few batches or even 20 batches to ensure you stay in production? Any problems with storing Royalex sheet, like humidity, temperatures, max weight stack??? Does it come with a use by date?

I could even see pre-selling the sheets to get a boat reserved for future production within a certain time period.

Just thinking. Not ready for a new Arkota yet, but will probably want one in a few more years.

Eric Esche

They told me royalex has no shelf life and actually gets better with time. I'd probably listen to any investment proposals. I'm scrambling to secure as many sheets as I can. Not sure what Swift canoes is talking about but if it says "royalex" it's was coming from Spartech. I'm sure if there is another company making royalex type sheet they would need to sell to more than just swift.

[TBC]

I am wondering how many jobs will be lost due to Polyone's former Spartech plant closings? And not just due to discontinuing Royalex production in Warsaw? 90 jobs lost in Cape G Missouri already.

http://www.semissourian.com/story/1986261.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Swift Canoes stated on their FB page that they were sourcing their ROyalex from a company, not Polyone?

Swift Canoe & Kayak: Fear not faithful paddlers, we don't actually have our Royalex made by PolyOne. We use another manufacturer, so to our knowledge we'll still be able to produce and sell Royalex canoes. It's just a big blow to so many other canoe companies, it'll make for some big changes around the industry. Hopefully PolyOne's Royalex division will be purchased and continue producing under new ownership, otherwise those companies will have to find another Royalex producer.

Like · Reply · 4 · Yesterday at 12:39pm ·

And a post by Richard Guin of Mohawk this evening:

Heads up, everybody! If you are or know somebody who is on the fence about buying a Royalex or Royalite Mohawk canoe (or from any other manufacturer for that matter), time is running out. The outfit that makes the laminate has announced that the last production will be in April 2014...

I called Richard as soon as I found out. He didnt know yet but didn't act surprised a bit. I think they had been thinking it was gonna happen.

[Shark Attack]

There's probably not going to be an end to the material my favorite canoe is made of (western cedar), but I'm glad to have purchased a new Arkota last year. As a fan and a believer in the free market practice, I don't think there will be a shortage of good, high quality material for canoe making even if it costs a little more and is made overseas.

Another thought would be that maybe the producers of this product reached a level of the product being "over-engineered" to the point that the boats are lasting so long that they don't need replaced in a time frame to keep the typical consumers of the product to need to replace their boats. Thus the demand drops off. An example is the current pc industry.

[Canoe_Codger]

Royalex has been around, as a registered trademark at least, since 1958 (USPTO Reg. # 72044500 - United States Rubber Co.) and is still a currently renewed trademark. So no other producer can use this name for the vinyl/ABS "sandwich", vulcanized laminated sheets. But I don't think the lamination itself is a current patented process. IMHO, even if the sheets themselves are no longer to be made by the trademark owner, that doesn't prevent another plastics manufacturer from producing the sheets under another trade name, or even licensing, if not outright purchasing, the trademark from it's current owner. ABS and vinyl are currently produced worldwide by a number of companies. So I suppose it is possible that Swift Canoes (Canadian) is having someone else produce thermoforming sheets for them. They just cannot call it "Royalex". Which they do on their website. This suggests to me that, if their recent statement about an alternative source is true, they or their source have obtained a limited license to use the Royalex trademarked name from Spartech/Polyone. One might contact Bill Swift Jr. at Swift to inquire. However at this time I would imagine one would have to take a number. Or go through their Facebook page though that is a more public venue for contact.

http://swiftcanoe.com/swift/contacts.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[TBC]

I'm just wondering if the person posting to Facebook is just uninformed of the very recent polyone buyout.

[Canoe_Codger]

This may well be the case. Or they are confused because they buy from an exporter of the sheets, not Spartech/Polyone directly. They may assume that their exporter is the producer.