Bought a well used Prodigy 12’. I like it quite a bit, but realized the previous owner fit a replacement skid plate that doesn’t fit very well. It sticks out about a 1/2" below the V of the hull. I am going to try to make a replacement and wondered if anyone has made one from wood and if so how it went. Thinking oak or cedar with spar varnish. Photo shows the incorrect one which appears to be for Wilderness Systems boats.
Have you looked at keel guard tape. @Craig_S recently applied it to his kayaks. Don’t know how it holds up.
High density plastic would hold up better. Wood that thin and narrow would crack along the screw holes.
The correct size is 1/2" x 1 1/8" x 6, think 1/2" is too thin? I may have a scrap of plastic though, I need to check my shed.
You can find other sources, that was just a good price and looked adequate. The plate doesn’t have to protrude so far below the keel, and you could double the thickness, letting it overlap further in front of the present plate.
I had a piece of HDPE scrap that was big enough so I was able to make one to fit, thanks for the suggestions too!
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It’s holding up pretty damn good.
I was shocked, after this last race some Id10T pulled my layup boat up onto the rocky shore (dragged it.) I yelled stop! but he didn’t listen.
The 4" wide keel guard took the brunt of it so no damage to the gelcoat. It didn’t even gouge the keelguard, it just marked it a might. no worse than if you drug a rock over a piece of hard plastic. no gouge, or scratch that can be felt.
My wife and some friends have used keel guard tape but over time have had trouble with it. After a couple of years or so the adhesive began to fail. It begins to come loose and picks up sand and other debris. On hot days it would shift exposing more of the adhesive. The remaining adhesive is a royal pain to remove.
As it comes loose my wife just cuts off the loose pieces planning on eventually removing it completely .
On my boat I just had it on the bow and stern. It eventually came off and I chose not to replace it. Oddly enough, all of the scratches on my hull over 25 years that I have repaired have been off to the side of the keel where keel guard would not have helped. The fact that my boat was Canadian built in 1999 or a bit earlier where they used thicker gelcoat along the keel might have helped.
What brand did you use, Craig?
A no name from Amazon.
it was the only one I could find in one roll that was long enough to go end to end on the boat.
just make sure that the hull is clean, I alcohol wiped the hull down twice until the paper towel stayed white. then made sure it was absolutely dry.
i did need to trim it for the stern curve as that was a tighter bend, but getting the bits trimmed off was a pain as it sticks to the boat like a MF’er