* Which is better value for money bottom line?
* Anybody used the same boat in both materials?
* Opinions?

It seems my kingpin is linear plastic* and my allstar is crosslink, but I can't see a big difference. ( I bought the crosslink not for its plastic but for the availabe color at that time, otherwise I would bought the linear because of the money)

* www.mv.com/users/morris/paddling/boat-repair/plastics.html

crosslink are tougher than linear but if they are pierced they are more of a pain to repair than the linear plastics.

actually i had a number linear boats with small cracks, but wasn't able to repair those very sucessfully either so the difference in 'repairability' seems pretty hypothetic to me....

I would only ever paddle a super linear plastic boat.

You cannot weld cross linked plastic. April last year we portaged a waterfall and threw the first kayak down (fully loaded for a 5 day trip) it hit a rock at the base and obviously cracked... A small stove was used with a screwdriver and it was welded closed within 5 minutes, no problem. Cross linked also produces more fumes for the workers moulding the boats and requires a higher temperature and longer cooking time. So not exactly very green.

Sure, you might get a lighter and stiffer (debatable) boat but in my mind it makes it more brittle. Mate of mine cracked his cross linked playboat - he threw it away.

Interesting read here, and also interesting the first two comments at the end:
cksblog.com/?p=1602

Each to their own though... That's just my thoughts Eventually all boats will crack over time. Only blow moulded kayaks will last longer but that's because the process allows 'better' plastic to be used versus rotational moulding like most kayaks. But that's another story..

AdrianTregoning wrote:

Cross-link or Linear?

As a manufacturer I looked into this and it was a no-brainer...

Crosslinked kayaks can not be recycled. The plastic can be ground up and used as filler in some circumstances but just as they can not be repaired by welding, they CAN NOT be melted down and their materials re-used.

So in the end the way I see it, every single Cross-Linked kayak you see out there nowadays , ALL of those crosslink boats you see floating on the rivers, can not be repaired and once they break will end up in landfill and there they will stay for thousands of years.

That is the bottom line... the real question is... should manufacturers even be making kayaks out of such a un-environmentally friendly material?

yappa wrote:
Exactly!

In my opinion we should definitely be looking at different materials, starting with looking at different sources to obtain the monomer from like plants. But if it came down to it, I prefer linear as it will last undoubtedly longer due to the ability to repair it.