Do folks in high temp areas have any problems with skin coated carbon boats accumlating too much thermal energy?
Not with a boat, but with a kayak paddle
I bought a custom-assembled kayak paddle with Double Dutch carbon blades. The blades were rather thick, not like a Werner, though they were tolerably light.
The paddle was sitting in the car, and the sun was hitting one of the blades. When I got back to the car, I noticed a raised “blister” in the laminate over the center of the paddle. I allowed it to cool. Then I drilled a series of small holes, injected West epoxy, and clamped the area flat. It has held.
I conferred with the paddle assembler. He and I believe that Double Dutch used some small amount of adhesive to get the layers of carbon fiber to lay down around the shaft end when resin was drawn through the mold. This non-epoxy created gas when the black carbon blade soaked up heat.
The assembler (Davey Hearn of Maximum Whitewater Performance) insisted on completely replacing the paddle, but one of the new blades blistered when I was careless. I was not willing to stick Davey with the fix again. I injected epoxy and kept the paddle. It is still working well.
I am careful now to always cover the blades of the paddle when it is in the car, and even when it is out laying on the bank, I put one blade under a bush and leave the other edge-up to the sun.
I doubt this would happen with a Werner paddle because there is much less mass to accumulate heat in their thin blades. Their foam core paddles are similarly immune to becoming a heat sink.
yes
but I just sat it in the pond and the water it absorbed more than compensated for it.
i has an earlier
epic mid tour that delaminated in several spots, didnt get soft so I never bothered fixing it.
paint it
Carbon fiber masts and most sailboat parts I’ve seen have been painted to protect them from the sun. Epoxy is not resistant to UV damage so at the very least I would varnish it. Stip built boats are often varnished to protect the epoxy and let the pretty wood work show through.
One of the reasons Placid BoatWorks
puts white gel coat on the bottoms of their “black carbon” canoes to the 3" water line is to keep them cooler on the rack.
Other reasons: Rocks in the Adirondacks. Looks cool. …
Mick
If you get it REALLY hot, it will
fly across the water on a slippery layer of steam.
Quite a few…
…unpainted, black, carbon fiber airplane props out there.
true
but you don’t see props made out of kayaks!
Props are air cooled.