At least I consider it badly damaged.
I opened the garage door this afternoon to complete the new boat rack and saw, to my great dismay, that the 400X had fallen about 4’ onto the concrete floor of the garage. It must have landed on the bow keel because that’s where all of the obvious damage was. I guess I should have finished the rack yesterday. Too late now. I thought it would be ok unless the rack was bumped.
The black seam accent strip at the hull / deck joint is cracked and split from the tip back for about 14". There is about 1/8" to 1/4" of movement at the seam when I push on hull just below the cracked seam stripe on the right side. Pushing on the left side in a similar manner shows no such movement. I looked inside the bow hatch to try to tell if the seam is completely separated and to look for signs of delamination on the inside. The seam didn’t appear to be split all the way through and I didn’t see any obvious delamination in the bow.
The other obvious damage is two sections of gel coat about two inches long and about 1/2" wide chipped off the bow keel line leaving the cloth exposed. More of the gel coat would probably flake off with a little assistance because there is some more cracking in those two areas. The hull still appears to be stiff in those two areas.
I have no expectations that I could repair this damage and will be seeking suggestions for professional repairs - preferably within an hour or two of Urbana, IL. I’ll also be calling QCC to get an estimate of what they would charge for me to ship it to them for factory repair.
Bummer. No more concern about that first bump or grind while paddling.
I’ll start another thread for repair advice.
I took some pictures of the damage, but don’t have web hosting for my pictures yet.
I could email pictures to anyone interested in helping.
I had been considering trading this brand new 400X for a demo 600X from QCC, but that’s no longer an option.
I just brought this boat home Saturday, still in the unopened crate. I bought it from the guy in Indianapolis that won it in the paddling.net sweepstakes.
Thanks in advance for suggestions on professional repair.
Happy new year 
Call me and I can walk you through
everything … don’t worry !
Yanoer, sorry to hear it.
QCC could fix it easily, likely, and thus a trade for a demo 16 might not only be the way to go, but it might actually be more fitting for your purposes. Email them the photos.
Onnopaddler is very kind to help you.
I’m sorry for your accident. Strong case for plastics.
Please please set up a free webhosting pics site tonight…takes five minutes. I use picasa with yahoo, but they all have them.
Ouch!
Oh, Yanoer! That hurts just to read about! I’m so sorry. Wish I could lend some advice but between you, Pat and QCC it should end up ok. Keep us posted on the repairs and when you finally get to put her in the water. Good luck to you and your boat- Toddy
ouch
and Happy New Year!
Take Pat up on his offer. i had a simnilar experience with a strong gust, a car rack, a brand new Tempest and 2 guys who were tired and wanting to get to a hot tub.
same kinda damage. split seam and gel-coat.
oilwell.
good luck and don’t beat yourself up too bad, it’s ONLY a boat.
steve
Really not a big problem.
In the beginning the hull and the deck were separate pieces that were then put together. You just separated a bit of that joint and it can be rejoined. The gelcoat is not a big problem either.
Don’t fret a lot over this.
Pat, you are an optimist.
I’ve never even seen a gel coat container, let alone seen it applied. It all seems mysterious to me.
If I do try to repair the seam and the gel coat and mess it up, would someone else be able to repair my flub up?
I would have to attempt the repairs in my cramped garage with only an electric space heater for climate control, but if that’s good enough for this type of work, I may be able to pull off a tolerable repair. Probably have to mail order the supplies. Probably none near here.
I’ll probably give you a call just to supply you with some daily amusement. When is a good time to call?
Testimony
First the moany, then the test.
It almost hurts my heart to imagine what you felt
Mine is not new but by gosh new to me and my heart sank today too. Gel coat and fiberglass repair is in my future and I will tag along with advise offered to you rather than opening a new thread.
It is better to own a composite and suffer a short-term agony than have to suffer a plastic kayak everyday.
just being a smarty pants
Call anytime … When you have time.
We are 5 hours behind East Coast time right now.
Some problems with incoming calls to house line ... better to call cell below.
(858 ) 405 - 0652
Might seem overwhelming right now, but no ting to fix.
Save your money for more paddles : )
Popped off gelcoat @ the keel line is an EZ one.
If you get a chance please have someone shine/hold a bright flashlight right against damage spots as you view from inside of boat. Do this with the all other lights O F F and let me know what you see.
Aloha
Forgot to add .... any repair guy worth his salt has seen tons of 'homemade' repairs and knows how to deal with them ..... usually it just means getting out the razor blade or chisel / putty knife and popping off the ill - prepared, uncured glob in one simple shot and starting over. I always tell people to try first ,,, if you don't make a mess, you probably did it right....... : 0
Yanoer…please call QCC
Before trying to repair it, please do call QCC. Again, they have the tools and can likely repair it in short order, and if you buy a new boat from them and pay some difference (difference you;d likely be spending to pay someone to fix the boat locally, or difference in value of boat once “repaired” by you)–QCC may well offer you some form of acceptable trade up or exchange to 600 plus some cash.
Postscript: I have just moved by c/K Nordakpp to the lowest rack on my garage wall.
Don’t forget shipping costs both ways
to QCC, since this wouldn’t be a warranty repair. That would probably be $300 to $400, unless they would arrange better prices through their connections. They don’t have any obligation to cut me any slack in this situation.
Wise move lowering the c/k boat to the lowest rack position, though your racks are probably better designed than this one I built last week for this boat and the Caspian Sea.
I will talk with QCC before I try any type of repair.
Pics? Did you get the free pic acct yet
That’s a shame
Linda Baron’s QCC was hit while on her car by a vehicle, and I think she took it to QCC headquarters to be fixed.
Gel coat repair very doable
Even fumble-fingers me managed a pretty decent job - replaced a section about an inch and a half long (after chipping it all out) that cracked off right down to the keel fiberglass and diolen layer after a drop. I figure I'll get around to the nice finish sanding by this coming spring, but I had three layers of gel coat in and the sanding smooth enough to be a go for paddling inside of at most 8 days. B Nystrom has some really good pics of how to do it up on webshots - look in the archives for a post from myself about gel coat repair sometime in the last several months. I think it was late spring so go back like a year.
It was very easy. Just get a mask too because once you mix a batch of the hardener into the gel, it's not nice to have your nose right over it. You get the container with the gel and the hardener and instructions from West Marine or similar.
I haven't dealt with a seam issue, but it sounds like there is plenty of help here. I know it's not a totally rare event.
As above, once you have composite boats at some point you'll need to do gelcoat repairs anyway. You might as well get some practice.
Ditto Patricks offer
think of it as painting your livingroom. You could hire someone or do it yourself. It’ll be an adventure with PLENTY of opportunities to break everything down into 1,2,3 steps. Honest,1-2-3.
1-decide to fix it
2-get info
3-do it
1-clean the damage
2-make a mess of the damage
3-clean the repair, done
1-get repair materials
2-experiment with repair materials
3-use materials on repair.
see? everything can be broken down into 1,2,3
Link to my repair pics and instructions
http://community.webshots.com/user/brian_nystrom-reg
There’s info on fiberglass and gelcoat repair.
Excellent photo/instruction series.
I’m especially grateful that you showed that successive patch layers should be smaller, a point not appreciated by many.
Of course, we whitewater types skip the gelcoat step, as we don’t have gelcoat to start with. I view visible patches as a form of theft insurance, and I like being able to see into a patch so I know it’s holding up under additional blows.
No question what to do
1. Call QCC and discuss (send images if needed).
2. Arrange a time and DRIVE it to QCC yourself! 1000x easier for them than anyone else - and much more cost effective (better value for you). By my standards for a trip like this you are CLOSE to them.
3. Work out a trade for a used or new 600, and you can probably make the return trip with that on the rack. QCC can resell the like new repaired 400 on their bargains page.
No offense to Pat and his generous offers of assistance, but doing anything other than dealing with this though QCC just complicates things and reduces your resell/upgrade options.
994.84 mile round trip to QCC from my
house according to Map Quest. That doesn’t seem very close to me to drive up there.
1000 miles / 20mpg x $3.00 = $150 for gas.
3 nights x $60 motel = $180 for motel.
4 days x 3 meals x $6 = $72 for food.
It would cost me abut as much for gas, food and motel as it would cost to ship it both ways.
I probably could make the drive each way in one day, but I hate long days of driving by myself.
If I did decide to drive up, I’d wait until late spring or early summer.
I really don’t have the money right now for either shipping or the drive to QCC.
I will call QCC in the next couple days to get their input and advice.
Thanks for your suggestions.
Professional repair options in IL?
If there is someone within a couple hours drive, they may be my most economical option.