Fiberglass is usually dismissed as old-school and an inferior material for canoes. That’s like saying rubber is bad for making tires because the only rubber you’ve ever seen was a pencil eraser.

Canoes have probably carried more people to more places than any other paddlecraft. Weekend paddlers and backcountry adventurers appreciate the canoe’s high capacity, low weight, and shallow draft.

Canoeing down the Clark Fork River on a warm January afternoon might become a little more difficult in coming years. Royalex, the ideal composite material for making canoes, stopped being produced in ...