I have a fiberglass boat that has some damage on it, but I’d like to take it out on the water. The very tip of the kayak’s stern is pretty banged up. It’s lost all its gelcoat, and there’s a significant crack (maybe 1 inch deep) that extends into the kayak’s body. Clearly, I need to have this fixed, but I’d really like to take it out for a spin (calm water)…is this going to further damage it? Should I just wait until the problem is fixed? If I do get it on the lake, is it just going to fill up with water?
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
two words
Duct Tape.
Enjoy your paddle.
Andrew
I was going to say the same as…
Joe Mess.
Put some duct tape on it and sit in it in a couple of feet of water and see what happens.
The second option, which is what I would do is put a fiberglass patch, using two part epoxy over the crack.
If you take your time, and do it right, you have a permanent fix.
Mix up a good amount of the epoxy and spread it over the rest of the boo-boos, then duct tape a sheet or sheets of stiff but flexible plastic film, (similar to photo negatives) over the wet epoxy. The next day take the duct tape off, and the film will peel right off leaving a nice smooth finish with very little sanding.
Cheers,
JackL
And all along I thought we had another
accident-prone paddler here! HAHA!I was going to give you some advice to help you but I don’t think duct tape would look too pretty on your nose! HAHA!BTW you also call that a bow…
Reminds Me of One of My Surfing Trips!
The title reminded me of a winter kayak surfing trip a couple years ago!
5 Minute Epoxy
is a nice quick fix if the Duct tape doesn’t work. Ahhh for the good ol’ days when we used to tape a tennis ball on the nose of a rotomolded WW yak after we’d bang em up too much 