I went to the Swift spring sale today at Guelph Lake, and ended up coming back with a Swift Kipawa Kevlar Fusion with carbon-kevlar trim. I needed something to accessorize my new paddle I just carved, right? I seriously need a new house now, I don't have enough room for my outdoor toys. Their Kipawa model is supposed to be a great tripper boat for short to medium length trips. With a narrow waterline profile, it is very fast, although a tad more unstable unloaded than your typical canoe. It'll be more stable when gear is in the boat.
And this one is light. No lame skid pads or other accessories, just straight up. I haven't weighed it myself, but it is supposed to be in the 38lb range. To be honest, I originally wanted to check out their carbon fusion model partly made of carbon fiber at 3 lbs lighter, but they didn't have one at the sale. I think probably now, the Kevlar is light enough and has a bit more strength than the carbon. I don't think I'm that much of wuss yet that I need a mega ultralight canoe on a portage. Typically I am not a fan of the all Kevlar clear coat boat aesthetic. It's not like the cool texture of the carbon fiber - the yellowy Kevlar texture just puts me off a bit, perhaps it simply the yellow color that appears like sunbleached newspaper. But this one is two tone with a white bottom gelcoat, which seems to balance the aesthetics, and I think it looks good. The sides are translucent, which many of the ultralight canoes are. The full-on gelcoat weighs an extra 3 lbs or so, which I didn't want to add just for the sake of aesthetics, this one is likely half that for the weight. The gelcoat bottom will help protect against abrasion as well, so it is partly functional to boot.
The Carbon-Kevlar gunwales (edge that goes around the top of the canoe) are a cool option that Swift puts on their lightest canoes. Traditionally, gunwales are two pieces of wood sandwiching the and screwed together, or aluminum riveted to the main canoe body material. But this design is carbon fiber and Kevlar cloth weaved and wrapped around a piece of foam to give a T shape at the top of the canoe. The cloth is bonded directly to the kevlar body of the canoe. The advantages are that it provides a very stiff, form keeping shape, while being very lightweight as well. it distributes stress evenly since the seam is bonded continuously. It also requires no maintenance, unlike wood.
Other than that, the boat has cherry seats and handles, the front seat is adjustable, a nice feeling yoke, and vinyl caps. The flotation tanks have valves in them to let them breathe while in storage and not in use to prevent the air space from expanding or contracting.
Normally these are quite pricey for a canoe but I got a bit of a deal on this one. It does have 4 patches on the inside along the right side. The wind caught it and it fell off a vehicle (not while moving) while in Swift's possession. The patches are all done professionally of course, since the OEM did it and are not visible from the outside. I think the patched areas are likely even stronger than the unpatched areas. If that knocks $1000 off the cost of the canoe, that's fine with me.
This is a fine piece of tripping gear and I am excited to try it out this summer. I just have to treat it gently, not play pinball with some rocks and not drag it over things, like I would my polyethylene kayak.
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