Hi all
I’ve had my whiskey 16 for about a year now and am very surprised by how it’s falling apart. I have a few questions on some repair stuff that I couldnt figure out.
My hatch ring gave way of course on a 5km crossing in 50km/hr winds filling up the front compartment. I did a quick fix with ducttape which worked for the three days we were out in rural newfoundland.
I applied bathroom cocking used to go around bathtubs and now that seems to have just ripped apart after opening the hatch a few times.
What should I use?
gelcoat… The thing is cracking right apart. being in the rural towns I took some green gelcoat and that white powder stuff and some hardner and made a few repairs myself. I tried to mix it with paint…however it didnt adhere so I applied it with just the three ingredients and did a bang up job…problem is IT’S GREEN! im not picky or anything but how do you make the gelcoat to somewhat match the kayak?
I am overall very upset with the kayak falling to pieces as its one of my favorite boats to paddle. It seems any little bump (i.e into a wooden chair light tap) gel coat is comng off this thing.
This is my first non poly boat. however I do own a boreal ellesmere as well and have had no issue.
Thanks in advance…im gonna take the ellesmere down to try some hand rolls…im sur ethiscommunity will help me out!
What you should have used
to reafix the hatch ring is 3M 5200 Marine adhesive and sealant.
Unfortunately, now that you’ve contaminated the surface with silicone bathtub caulk nothing will ever stick to it again.
Before you try with the right stuff you need to clean the area with a solvent specifically made to remove silicone residue. You should be able to find it at a real automotive supply store, the kind the sells paint to autobody shops. Or just go to an autobody shop and slip the guy a $10 and ask him to wipe the area (and the ring) with silicone remover. It’s nasty stuff by the way, it might actually melt the ring.
I keep hearing that silicone will
render a surface un-stickable forever. I’d like to see an official study on a website, if one is available. I don’t know any reason why a silicone based substance should be able to dig into a resin to a degree unmatched by other materials.
Have you tried to get some help
from your dealer or the manufacturer? They don’t need this kind of publicity.
Is NASA good enough?
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20030064092_2003070856.pdf
or
http://www.globalspec.com/reference/5512/Failure-Analysis-of-Die-Bond-Adhesion-Failures-Caused-by-Silicone-Contamination
What’s the point? Whiskey dulls the
pain. But you weren’t talking to me, so hands off the bottle.
OK, but I don’t see from the article why
thorough sanding and cleaning with solvent of a typical Kevlar boat interior would not suffice to reduce silicone level below that necessary to affect epoxy bonding. Neither article is suggesting that silicone sinks deep into the laminate.
I accept that many people may have had serious problems getting surfaces clean enough, especially in hard-to-access areas like bulkhead joints inside kayaks. But I don’t think bonding problems after silicone use are inevitable, any more than Royalex softening after Vynabond use is inevitable. It depends on how you go about it.
Now, if you find NASA articles showing that silicone substances deeply permeate composite laminates, that would be another matter.
Cleaning with solvent
Isn’t that exactly what I recommended?
A thorough cleaning will fix the issue…
…but it’s better to avoid it in the first place by never using silicone sealer on one’s boat. IIRC, hexane is the recommended cleaner, but I’ve had reasonable luck with lacquer thinner used repeatedly with a fresh paper towel for each cleaning pass.
One thing that’s very important is that you clean FIRST before you do any sanding. If there is silicone residue on the surface, sanding will drive it into the material. If for some reason you feel you must remove material before cleaning, use a scraper, not sandpaper.
Point 65 Kayaks Sweden…equals…
…built 100% in China. A friend of mine paddled a BRAND NEW on at a symposium last fall and it was falling apart as well. Try E-mailing richardohman@point65.se and tell him you want a new boat, or your money back…contact Nigel Foster at Nigelkayaks.com and tell him the same…if they choose to somehow make it right, come back on this forum and give the deserved praise…if not, I thouroughly applaud any effort made to cost them business
cheers
for the contact info. I emailed richard, ill get back to you guys.
i agree
nice just do it! being made in china does not have to be bad. i gues it depends. ive been a writer, designer, and showcaster/teacher in the flyfishing buisness for over 15 years. we had the exact same developments years ago as i see in the kayak buissness now. its amazingly similar. American quality stuff makes it..some british makes it by relying on the tradiditions and sticking to em. Big sweedish and danish BRANDNAMES that make their stuff i china and elsewhere..to begin with "china" was crap...but it changed..its still possible to get crap of course. but if you(the company) pay and watch out theyll make anything..
i just åpaddled a tahe greenland HV looked nice but i didnt like the feel of the design...
Ive
been looking into it and some of the whiskey 16’s did have quality control problems.
Having said that Richard responded right away and I sent him all the required info and a bunch of photo’s.
Now it’s a wait and see thing!
I hope they do you right…
…fifteen years and twenty or so different boats, I’ve had it go both ways…in the very worst example of non existent customer service I ever encountered, I ended up fixing it myself, just because I loved the boat that much. I currently paddle that very boat 95% of the time while six others gather dust…but I will forevermore recommend against buying anything from that particular company.