Rec’Repair Skid Plates
http://www.recrepair.com/skid_plates.html
Randomly ran into this website. Wonder if it could be used on a kayak? My WS Tempest 170 Poly is real thin up front (bow?) - way too much light filters through - from being dragged (not by me, it is a former outfitter rental boat). Might extend the useful life of my kayak.
Anybody khow anything about them?
They don’t say what they mean by
"composite." Usually that means a mixture of a resin and some other substance, almost always fibers, often cloth fiber such as FG.
But in this case, they could not be certain that a resin/cloth mixture could mold to the contours of the various boats whose customers they want to serve.
So, we don’t know.
Back in the 70s and 80s, if we had a Royalex canoe that needed skid plates, we did not have the Kevlar felt and urethane resin option. So we would buy a sheet of Kydex, a tough form of vinyl, and we would heat it in an oven until it was flexible. Then we would mold it closely over the end of the boat, and allow it to cool.
We would then clean the surface of the boat thorougly, mix up a batch of epoxy resin, and epoxy the formed skid plate to the boat. Many of these Kydex patches lasted a long time, and they often performed better than the early versions of Kevlar felt and resin.
It looks like this company is offering a similar approach. My only additional concern is that if you want to apply it over a polyethelene boat, you follow their instructions very closely. Polyethelene is notoriously reluctant to accept glues of any sort.
I tried them
– Last Updated: Mar-03-09 12:45 AM EST –
I bought a pair and tried to put them on my goldenglass Sommersong. They were not as easy to put on as the video indicate, it takes more heat than my heat gun could produce and perhaps more patience than I have. While they are on and I think will work ok, (the waters where I float that boat are still pretty solid around here)I am not real happy with the way the job turned out and would think twice before I try another set.
Bob
How much of a raised edge do they
have? Are you satisfied that the functional contour of the boat is preserved?
That’s the part
I am not satisfied with. The edge transition is too rough. There is about a quarter of an inch raise. I might be able to sand them dowm. If they make too much noise or if they slow the boat down too much I will find a way to take them off and replace. I will let you know more in a day or two.
I’ve used Rec’Repair a lot
And I’m not surprised you had trouble installing skid plates on a Summersong. Rec’Repair is best suited for plastic boat applications. It’s ideal because of the larger radius’ of plastic boats. Bending plastic to conform to the sharp entry lines of a Summersong would be extremely difficult, not to mention esthetically unappealing. I look at Rec’Repair as a solution to someone who has abused their boat to the point of failure. Yes it can be sanded, and yes it is thick, but what did you expect, a thin layer of plastic that maintained original waterlines and added stem protecting? That’s called duct tape.