Seat looks like it might be a Redfish seat.
The Kayak seems structurally sound everywhere, except by the skeg. The skeg box has damage that allows water to slowly leak in. Also the fiberglass is visible on the keel just behind the skeg, probably caused by dragging. The idea of simply sanding down the blisters on the gelcoat, provided they are not to deep is a tempting solution, since it would mean less time working on the boat and more time on the water. Looks like its time for some exploratory sanding (after cleaning the area with acetone).
I’ve built and repaired boats in our living room. May as well get some use out of that mostly dead space, if you have one.
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Small scratches will be filled and bonded with primekote. I did a boat 12+ years ago it still shines. It’s so much more durable than marine paint. It’s very hard and durable. It’s very hard even to sand off. It all about end result and time and money you want to put in.
Not sure if I worded it right, but I would do an area of the blisters that have cracked and see what’s up. The ones that haven’t might as well be left alone for now. Adding a keel strip behind the skeg is an easy fix for exposed glass. I have a full length one on my #1 kayak, which allows me to drag the boat, and run it up onto a beach without any consequences.
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Always nice to see an old Explorer in worse shape than mine. But she’s got a lot of miles left in her, fix it up! Personally I wouldn’t mess with any of the cosmetics, that boat has great character. It already weighs too much so what’s a couple more pounds…
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You might be able to stop the slow leak at the skeg box with some epoxy putty, applied on the inside, if you can reach the leak, or from the outside. As long as the surface is free of dust, the putty will adhere well, but don’t get it also on the skeg. Warning: Mask up before sanding any of this stuff.
These gentlemen have shared their experience providing you with some great info to fix your boat up. $50 are you kidding. That’s an amazing deal for such a great craft.
Let me add a few more helpful tips. Get West epoxy. It is the most common one and really the only brand most people use. You can get the slow or fast hardening hardener. The fast will give you maybe 10 minutes to mix and apply it. It will get very hot and smoke in the container as it hardens but it will not melt plastic. Without thickener it will have the consistency of honey and run. You will need thickener, I think West calls it something like micro-balloon. It is finally chopped fiberglass, and makes working with this stuff much easier. Make it the thickness of peanut butter and apply it all over that craft. Caution, any unevenness will have to be sanded smooth.
Second, the bottomkote primer is what boaters call barrier coat. The manufacturer (Interlux) recommends four+ coats to achieve a layer that is water impentrable. You do not need all that but you can add more than one layer to fill in the scratches. So, sand the bottom to prep it but not to get rid of the scratches. I was, as I think most folks are, impressed by the hard coat that is achieved.
I had bought some topside paint called Brightside with silicone in it that worked great. I am unsure if this is available. Happy paddling.
Kayaks are not left in the water unlike many boats. Barrier coating is not what you need to worry about. Putting thickened epoxy all over the hull you could be sanding for a long time and miss a season. 
West is the best system because if you need a little more it’s just one pump from each container. You never waste any epoxy.
They make different thickening agents for different purposes. You can make fairing compound to structural adhesives
Some is very difficult to sand and the wetter you apply it the harder it gets to sand.
It will melt some containers with the right conditions and containers. Thin plastic measuring mixing cups melt.
I’ve used it doing auto body it’s just great no Bondo which is not waterproof and can fail.
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I sanded a small area to see how deep the broken blisters go. They go deep; deep enough that they are still there (but smaller) after I removed enough material in the test area (2x3 in) that it is noticeably lower if you run your finger across the boat, or look at it from certain angles. I then focused in on a single blister and sanded that half inch area around it until I Noticed a different colored material beginning to show.
I did like likewise to another area on the deck. It too goes down to the epoxy resin (or polyester resin, I don’t know).
If you zoom in on the last image you can see some separation of the gel-coat from the underlying material.
@Wayne_Smith
Sorry if my pun confused you, I understood what you said and am glad your advice let me get a better idea of what condition the boat is in.
It is incumbent on the OP to show us the final result once this splendid project is finished.
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After a test paddle to see if it is a good fit (I believe it will) and to see if it gives me any “surprises” I will document my restoration, much like I did for my Dagger Vesper. It may be a while before my free time aligns with a good window of weather for the project though
Blistering was common in the early days of fiberglass boat construction.
It probably poses no structural problems for a sea kayak, but it is hard to eliminate from an aesthetic perspective. Deal with it as best you can. Sometimes a boat just needs to look good from 20 feet, not close up.
I should have said West System rather than just West for the epoxy brand. If you have not checked out the West System and interlux websites they provide a wealth of info for your project. They call what I referred to as thickener fillers. They have a number of guides for picking and mixing them. Most of the primers from Interlux, if not all, are the Interprotect products. From my experience, they have excellent adhering to the new resin and original the fiberglass. They help in hiding/filling imperfections/damage.
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Whether you got the name right or not, it’s still some of the worst advice I’ve seen on this forum. There is absolutely no good reason to slather epoxy over the entire boat, nor is there anything to be gained by doing so. You’re setting up the OP for an immense amount of unnecessary work sanding epoxy, which is not fun, particularly once you add a thickener and have to deal with the resulting uneven surface.
As it is, he’s going to have to sand the boat to even out the surface, but at least gelcoat sands easily. At that point, it makes more sense to hit it with high-build primer, smooth it and paint it. That will produce a nice finish that’s easy to repair when the inevitable damage happens in the future.
BTW, there are several manufacturers of marine-grade epoxy that are very popular with boat builders, such as System Three and Raka, just to name two. West Systems makes good products and they’re readily available at West Marine, but their prices are quite high compared to their competitors who make equally good products.
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I can buy West Systems products at prices so much cheaper than they are at West Marine it’s unbelievable. West Marine is a rip off on everything.
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I am surprised that someone thought that I meant to cover the entire boat with epoxy resin from what I wrote. It was a light-hearted exaggeration. Do you interpret everything literally?
Well I guess some people you
just
don’t
know.
We’ve seen almost anything people can do to boats and attempts to fix them.
As a group , I think we try to prevent the mistakes we’ve made and seen.
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“Make it the thickness of peanut butter and apply it all over that craft.”
Yes I took your suggestions as it reads. How else would someone interpret it?
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And just for good measure, Micro-Balloons are not chopped fiberglass, they’re tiny, hollow glass spheres that make pretty smooth mixture that’s relatively easy to sand. You can also get glass micro-fibers, but they make a for a lumpy mixture that’s hard to get smooth and hard to sand.
You’ll only make the mistake of confusing these once. 
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