I’m looking at bringing home a new to me Rebel Naja. It does not currently have a keel strip. Can I or should I be placing one on a carbon kayak? The KeelEazy site says “ KeelEazy Strips are easily applied to fiberglass, polyethylene, thermoformed ABS and metal surfaces”
No mention of carbon/kevlar.
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I have KeelEazy strips on several kayaks - one kevlar, the other supposedly carbon/kevlar.
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Thank you. I just wanted to make sure it stuck.
Please stay in touch. My wife and I have new Rebel kayaks too, and I’d love to compare impressions.
We have a Jara, a TOC and an Illaga.
On the 12th, (just 8 days ago) we were on the water in some very strong winds and found the TOC and the Illaga to resist weather cocking very well. The owner of the North American importer of Rebel, Jacqueline from New Brunswick (Vitamin Sea Paddle Shop) was with us and she was paddling my Jara. My wife Anna and I were in Greenland style kayaks both with 'ocean cockpits" and found then to be wonderfully responsive in wind and waves. The Naja is a smaller version of our kayaks, so I expect you will also find it to be a well handling kayak. Jacqueline told me one of her favorite kayaks is the Naja, and it’s the easiest one for her to roll, but I can’t see how she can gets into it because she’s 5 foot 10 inches tall and has long legs. But she does, — neven though she tells me it’s actually too small for her.
My wife Anna is the same size and weight as Jacqueline , and she in in love with her Illaga. I was told the Naja is a scaled down Illaga.
I fill up the TOC completely, even though my legs are short with a 28" inseam. Anna and Jacqueline are at 34-35" But my legs are thick so I have no extra room in the Ocean cockpit. It’s enough and not tight, — but in 100% filled it tight I am at about 95%.
Anyway, happy paddling and please give us feedback on your impressions with the Naja.
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That is so fantastic! I’m a Canadian living in Michigan. This is only my third year sea kayaking. My current kayak is a 2007 Valley AnaSacuta with ocean cockpit.
The gentleman I’m purchasing the Naja lives 5 hours away and he’s holding it for me until the water is warm enough to try it out. The ocean cockpit on the Naja is a bit smaller than on my AnaSacuta, so I want to make sure I can get in……and out. 
I was hoping the Naja would be able to take on shorter trips in the Great Lakes. I go to Qajaq training camps where I work on rolling and I think this Naja will be a blast.
I have no comment on Keeleazy on carbon/kevlar (but it’s a tape, so I don’t see a problem). I used the product about 8 years ago on three kayaks that I use regularly. On two the product didn’t hold up. The third kayak with more normal usage has been fine. Nothing against the product. It’s probably more about my kayak usage. One kayak I used for guiding; launching and landing from a sand beach multiple times a day. The edge of the adhesive collected sand which, over time, broke down the adhesive. The other kayak gets used for solo kayak camping. Dragging a loaded kayak on sandstone is too much for Keeleazy. For both I replaced Keeleazy with a gelcoat keel strip after 2 years.
Thanks for your observations. I appreciate them. The company recently responded and said keeleazy works on Kevlar. I’ve had it on my Valley for 3 years, but I baby that boat.
There should be no problem with it sticking. The material the hull is made of will have no contact with the tape - the tape will contact either the gelcoat, or epoxy that is part of the layup if the boat either has no gelcoat, or the gelcoat is scuffed off along the keel. I’ve had it stick very well to both.
If you have a problem, it’s usually the prep that causes it. I’ve been guilty of that. Wash the hull where you’re putting it really well, and then wash it with 90% rubbing alcohol. KeelEazy strips come with the alcohol.
Excellent! Thank you Wayne.
Keeleazy was very popular with our Club 5-6 years ago and both my wife and I used it on Kevlar hulls. After a few years the adhesive started to fail, the keel strips would shift, and sand and debris would stick to the keel strips and exposed adhesive. Failure was worse on my wife’s QCC 600 which has a nearly vertical bow. It failed on the bend. Attempts to rebond the Keeleasy failed and after the Keeleazy was removed the remaining adhesive was a pain to remove.
Almost no one in our Club uses this product anymore. Oddly enough, pretty much every scratch I’ve ever gotten on my hull has been on either side of the keel line so Keeleazy would not have helped.
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That’s a very interesting viewpoint. Thank you. Ive had Keeleazy on my valley for three years now with no problems. My new (used) Rebel is the kayak I’m wanting to put the Keeleazy on. Both have Greenland style hulls. Hopefully it will work well.
Thanks again for sharing your experience.
Pattivonn , I am not very familiar with some of the stick-on products that have been offered and used, but I have bought and re-sold over 3 DZ used kayaks in the last 5 years and I have bought a few of them very inexpensively because of light damage. I understand repairs of Carbon fiber are different then on those crafts you can use fiberglass cloth, so my idea that follows may or may not be of value. That said;
On wood, Thermo-formed and most fiberglass hulls you can simply use a standard fiberglass cloth and resin. Some say it looks ugly, but then want to apply a glue on keel strip? I don’t see how a glue-on is not uglier then a good 8 or 10 inch wide keel strip of glass.
If you have not done such applications in the past feel free to contact me one on one and I can talk you through it. It’s actually quite easy. And if cosmetics are important it is also easy to sand and buff it up and make it look very nice. And the best thing about a glass strip is that over time when it gets beat up it’s also easy to make it look brand new over and over again. It will add about 1 pound of weight to a kayak if that kayak is over 16.5’ long.
4 years ago I bought a P&H kayak that was over 18 feet long. It had some damage at the prow and along on edge of the sheer line. Because of the damage I got it for $300. I spent about 8 hours total on it with glass and auto paint and when it was done it was beautiful and the damage was gone to a point you could not tell it was ever there. , In addition to making the repairs I did a keel strip. it was actually very easy to do and I bet I didn’t have $75 in all the materials combined. It was too long for the shed I had, so in about 2 weeks more I sold it. But by $300 buy was sold for $900 and I could have some it 2 times because there were 2 men who wanted it after I sent out the pics of the kayak after the work was done.
Anyway… If the composition of your kayak will allow it, I’d suggest glass
For whatever it’s worth, I used KeelEazy on the bow of my Kevlar CD Prana. Not the entire length of the boat, just the bow. No problems with it adhering and it provided good protection.