Close your eyes and picture your ideal canoe. Red with polished cherry trim? Swift Canoe’s vision of perfection may change your mind.
Swift Canoe launched their Tech Package earlier this year, creating 100-percent composite boats. There are no wooden parts and no bolts in these designs, instead featuring carbon or Kevlar everything: thwarts, gunwales, yoke, seats, decks, handles and trim. This innovation has only been seen commercially in racing boats and is new to the recreational and touring market.
“It’s a real revolution in the industry,” says company president Bill Swift. “And it’s about time. I’ve been riding on a carbon road bike for six years asking myself, why aren’t we doing this with canoes?”
According to Swift, these all-composite designs are stronger and more durable, and boast a two- to three-pound weight savings over Swift’s already feather light 35-pound carbon and Kevlar models. One thing is for sure: The Tech Package is damn good looking.
All carbon parts are created in aluminum molds under vacuum pressure in Swift’s South River, Ontario factory. Bonding between carbon parts and hull is done with an ultra-tough urethane adhesive, says Swift.
Six years ago Swift Canoe began manufacturing integrated carbon-Kevlar gunwales and has been at the cutting edge of material innovation in the industry since. Last year the company…
