: I don't know a whole lot about the stuff but from what I have gathered it is
: a paint like substance which seals, waterproofs, dries quickly and shrinks
: the canvas. It is quite caustic, and is sometimes called aircraft dope as
: it is used on small airplane wings and fuselages for basically the same
: reason as it is used on kayaks.

: My perception of canvas coated with dope is that it is the old guard
: technology whereas nylon/polyurethane would be more contemporary stuff.

Whether to use dope or not has been discussed over at the baidarka-mailing list archive.
http://rtpnet.org/robroy/baidarka/