The coaming lip on my Romany angles downward to a degree that makes it difficult to get the skirt on.
How much heat does one need to apply to soften the fiberglas enough to raise it level?
HDT on some ester resins is
170 … regular ambient epoxies < 150
High performance post cured epoxies 198+++
That said, you are going to ruin a pita to replace part.
You might consider file / sanding a little off the perimeter instead … even .125 all the way around makes a big difference.
Hacker That I AM
"That said, you are going to ruin a pita to replace part." 
Not had any sucess at all using heat to reshape glass/epoxy stuff.
I agree that judicious sanding is better. I have some ww boats with coamings that are very short lipped up front. Seems to hold fine once the skirt is popped into place.
sing
Sanding
I like the idea of sanding/filing. The overhang is pretty deep so I should be able to sand it back a bit and increase the clearance - it is the back that is the problem.
This weekend at Woods Hole practicing assisted rescues in conditions, it took so long and my rescuer to get the skirt on the rear coaming that the cockpit had completely refilled with water…
I’ve got three different neoprene skirts. The one I used this weekend goes on the easiest! BTW all three can be quickly put on my Aquanaut’s coaming while in the cockpit - so it is not the skirts.
If I use sand paper, what grit(s) and surface are best?
Try a different skirt. I laid up a
cockpit rim on a kayak, and because the rim was formed over Tygon tubing, the rim curves over and down rather than just straight out like commercial rims. The first skirt I tried was very difficult to get on. After several years of difficulty, I tried a carefully chosen Snapdragon skirt, also a shock-cord skirt, and I found that it held onto the rear and front of the rim while I got the sides seated.
One thing to look for in a skirt that works is that the neoprene should be just a bit slack or tent-formed, when the skirt is on. The earlier skirt, an early Prijon shock cord skirt, lay drum tight across the cockpit once it was on. This excessive tightness was what tended to make the sides of the skirt not want to drop over and below the rim. (Once the old Prijon skirt was seated, however, that down-curved rim held it securely.)
I do not think that heating the rim is going to create anything but a wavy mess, and I do not think that sanding or cutting the rim down will accomplish anything except to make the skirt pop off too easily under wave force.
Another thing…contact the manufacturer about your problem. I don’t know about Romany, but the Necky people have always been super-helpful.
Agreed…
When I built the rim on my stripper I ended up taking that exact amount off and was astonished at the difference it made.
Easy enough to make a compass-style scribe to mark the rim for reference.
Holmes
contact the manufacturer about your prob
I had fairly extensive email exchange with NDK. It is not an uncommon problem from them. Their suggestion was a skirt with smaller bungee. I have been informed that this is an issue which has been addressed in more recent production.
As noted, I have three different neoprene skirts (all bungeed). The coaming angles downward so severely in the back that it is very tight clearance to get any of the the skirts on.
I am going to try sanding.
Depends On How Much I Am Taking Off
I usually go with a 40-60 grit with foam backing if I want to take something of quick. If I really want to take something of fast, I’ll use a rasp. Make sure you go with the edge of the coaming, or you can risk cracking it.
Tape around areas that you want to protect from scratching. Finish with 150 git and then epoxy. 150 grit leaves enough micro scratches for the epoxy to adhere well too but not so much that it takes coats of epoxy to get smooth.
sing
Tape everything up first.
A rasp works faster, follow up with 120 / 150 then 320 to make it nice and smooth.
Another thing g2d made another good point … even if you did succeed in heating the thing up, never going to get it straight unless yo are an octopus.
Plus you will probably also exceed the HDT of the deck / coaming bonding adhesive ( thickend resin or even bondo on some major’s boats ).
Thank you.
I will mark and tape first. I will do the sanding out of doors. I will use a mask and goggles.
I will start with a rasp and then graduated grit sand paper.
If the space from edge of coaming to deck of boat is too tight to use a rasp, would Dragon Skin be a worthwhite alternative?
Epoxy Resin is not thermoplastic.
If you heat it it may soften but the heat process will damage the polymerisation in the material. This will lead to a weakened structure.
Polyethylene is a different product entirely and can be softened by heating without causing a similar problem.
Thank you, Pat (onno), Sing etc…
– Last Updated: Jun-19-06 9:01 AM EST –
Did the coaming work today. Strarted with 60 grit and worked to finer. Took about 3/16" off - a bit more or less here and there. It seems to have done the trick. My skirts now catch on the rear coaming as they should.
BTW, as it is an NDK boat the edge of the coaming was rougher before I used the coarsest sand paper ;-)