mat pretty much covered it all. this last year we had a yoke break and had to replace it with quite a bit of rope run back and forth with a bit of foam taped around it. the actual contact on my shoulders was more comfortable than a rigid yoke, however the hull flexed considerably and the canoe bounced a ton. the vision was pretty bad as the sag/flex put your head way up in there. on some larger steps the canoe would bounce on your head.