Drill those bulkheads
My Boreal Ellesmere came from the factory with drilled
bulkheads and has been bone dry inside the hatches for the nine years I’ve owned it. My Valley boat was not drilled from the factory and the hatches were bulging so I drilled the B-heads.End of problem.
Several years ago I was building a CLC Okeume plywood
kayak and was in E-mail correspondence with another guy from down that way who had built several so we were just exchanging comments and advice.
Mind you I don’t know this guy and I wasn’t there but
he claimed he built a plywood kayak and didn’t install a hatch or drill the bulkhead in the front compartment thus creating a perfectly sealed cavity.
He paddled the kayak on a hot day with cold water and
after a while heard a sound like a gunshot. After checking he noticed a 2 inch crack in the front deck ahead of the cockpit where the pressure finally escaped.
This is second hand info from someone I never met but
I can believe that it happened as it makes sense…the pressure has to go somewhere.