My boat has a soft spot beside the dayhatch the size of a dinner plate that needs to be fixed. I’m assuming this will entail cutting out the area, beveling underneath & putting in new gelcoat, matt & resin. I’m not going to do it myself. Can anyone speculate how long it would take a professional to do this? Also, does anyone know who in SE Michigan would be willing to? I called the repair person at one of the local kayak shops and he didn’t seem very enthusiastic about it- maybe it’s not something he does a lot of.
Can be simpler
Just epoxy more glass on the inside of the soft spot, and leave the outside alone, especially if the gelcoat hasn’t cracked.
Was it from an impact?
If it were me, and I wasn’t going to do it myself, I’d try a boatyard first. Kayak shops can be very good, but they don’t do that stuff every day. Boatyards do. It might cost you less, too.
yep
flip her upside down, scratch it up and put a couple new layers INside. take you an hour.
steve
repair
Or just go to your local corvette restorer and he can do it while he has the stuff out and mixed up.
Boatyard caveat
– Last Updated: Oct-20-07 10:52 AM EST –
Most boatyards are experienced at repairing hulls that are many times thicker than a kayak and I've seen some horribly botched repairs from boatyards. They tend to use cheap materials, (polyester resin and heavy fiberglass matt, polyester-based fillers with chopped glass in them and other such products that really aren't suitable for kayak repairs.
If you're going to have a kayak repaired professionally, I strongly suggest that you find someone experienced in repairing thin-skinned craft.
As for the time of repair, it depends on the materials used and how much other work the repairer has to do. I've done sizeable repairs in 24 hours or less, from removal of the damaged material to final gelcoat polishing, but I could concentrate on it exclusively.
doing some repair now
and I am spending more time getting ready to work and then cleaning up afterwardsprobobly 3-1-2. In otherwords for every 10 minutes of productive repair I spend 50 minutes in getting ready…When I do repair at my house I can get it down to 3 to 1. Actual time I estimate to repair the BigBlueMinn2 is probobly going to be about 85 minutes…
not hard at all to build up
I wanted a footpump in my Nordkapp, the bulkhead did flex a bit, enough for me to know it needed an extra 2 or 3 layers…so i did what flatpick was talking about and added a few stiffening layers…easy job and now no flex when the footpump is actuated
Just remember the respirator.
and…
latex gloves.
put on 3 pair at a time. If one pair gets trashed you just pull 'em off and keep working.
steve
Or
use nitrile (blue) gloves and only use ! pair 
That is a good idea Steve.
I’ll remember that for the next time.
Thanks
JackL
yep
when your hands get all goopy with resin and f/g strands you just whip off the outside pair and you’re all set with clean hands!
steve