I have been having a problem with my NDK seats breaking. Not sure if my current repair will hold. If not then I am just going to replace the whole seat.
I am happy with the NDK Glass seat and not looking to replace with foam, etc.
If I “glass in” a new NDK seat, does that means just using Epoxy resin (with thickener and hardner) and basically gluing it to the cockpit rim? Never was quite sure exactly what “glassing in” a new seat meant.
Also, any suggestions on how to pull out the old one cleanly? I can easily cut the seat out with a Dremel but am not sure how easy it will be to remove the original “weld” under the cockpit. Should this be easy to pull off with just a pair of pliers and then chip away anything remaining with a putty knife/ Dremel tool, etc?
NDK Seat Breakage/Repair
This is not uncommon with NDK boats. I broke my Explorer seat out twice, simply rolling and hip snapping up. Their bonding methods are crude at best.
The seat should be hooked with a lip that fits over a corresponding lip under the cockpit. Glass/epoxy is then used to theoretically bond one surface to another. The problem is the seat lip and cockpit lip are never parallel, hence you have huge voids. When the seat flexes, snap.
Don’t worry about destroying the glass on the old seat-it’s trash anyway, but try to keep the cockpit lip as intact as possible to provide a hook for the new one to rest against. The first time around, I used minimal epoxy at just the contact points; the second time, the other extreme and just flooded the whole area, filling in all voids. No problems after that.
It’s a shame that such excellent hull designs are compromised by such shoddy workmanship. While my boat was dry, and the slider skeg actually worked without issue, I tried not to look too closely at the gaps in the bulkheads, or the filler that appeared to be troweled on. Good luck with the repair.
ndk seats uncomfortable
The seat in my GP has to go. After paddling
the avocet with new style seat, GP seat feels
so uncomfortable. I’am thinking of installing
valley seat or P&H seat which looks comfy. To
bad we weren’t closer I’d swap you boats, the
fiberglass seat in mine is really solid.
endless story
bloody hell, another broken NDK seat issue? why is this so incredibly common?
i ordered a Romany recently, foam seat, no skeg. gawd, i’m hoping this resolves these big problem areas and my boat comes in clean.
Why?
Because Nigel Dennis doesn’t care enough about his customers to build a quality product. As you said, it’s an endless story. Great designs, garbage construction by hungover 19-year olds who’s main concern is getting to the pub at the end of the day - or so I was told by someone who visited their factory.
Nigel’s answer
Well, this is the second NDK boat I have had this happen to.
When I was at a sypmosium recently in NC one of the girls had her seat break exactly like mine. I explained to her that mine had the same exact thing happen. Turns out Nigel Dennis was sitting right behind me when we were talking about this.
He said (as someone else has explained) that if the seat flexes that it will break like this. He also said that they new foam they are using under the seats provides better support and less flex. Unfortunately I think that my Explorer has this new foam (dark colored vs. light according to him) and it still broke.
He said that they will send you a new seat to glass in if this happens. He seemed to be adament about this.
I have emailed them requesting that they send me a new seat for both boats hence my question about how they are glassed in.
In the meantime I am using my GP with a repair and am finishing a repair on the Explorer.
The GP broke again after my first repair, but is holding well with the current. I used glass epoxy and glued the seat back in place where it broke and then used 3 layers of glass matting to reinforce. I then sprayed that canned foam insulation under the seat for support. Seems to work, but it will probably trap water which is not good for the fiberglass and which is why I would rather have a new seat installed.
I acually like their seats. I don’t find them too uncomfortable. I also like the height at which they hang. Worry that if I put a new seat in of a different design that it will be either too high or low and affect fit and handling.
Matt