: How many people have experienced a structural failure of their cedar strip
: kayaks while in use?

Maybe this would be a good topic for another Wiki survey.

I have had slight damage to my S&G Chesapeake 17, and nothing more than glass crazing (white spots) and lots of varnish scratches on my Guillemot.

The Chesapeake hit a submerged rock going about 3kt. I peeled off the single layer of glass, and crushed the okoume keel about 1/2" deep.

I simply sanded away the crushed spot, and put 4 layers of new glass on it. Fortunately, here at the stem, there was a lot of material there that was removable with no replacement necessary.

The Guillemot has survived rock beach surf landings, a drop from a 6' roof rack (the guy on the other end of the boat dropped it--not me!), several 4' drops onto a stem, and a couple good whacks at the sheer where I peeled out of an eddy with too little room for the stern to swing around.

Heck, I haven't even put fresh varnish on it in 2.5 years.

Hull has double layer of 5 oz. glass. 3 extra strips of glass stem and stern. Deck is 5 oz. inside and out. Inside hull has an extra layer of 5 oz. in the cockpit, and 15 oz. biaxial inside stem and stern. 1/4" strips, and kayak was 47 lbs. new.

Shawn