Hello everyone. I’m looking for advice about repairing an old boat, probably from the 80s.
There is a crack, which spans almost half the length of the hull, along the seam between the top half and the bottom half of the hull. The crack does not seem to be impacting the structural soundness of the boat, but is leaking quite a lot of water. On the inside of the hull, the seam is reinforced with a strip of fiberglass about 2" wide.
How would you go about repairing this crack? I’ve already tried giving it a light coat with polyester resin, albeit without tipping the kayak on its side to help the resin to get in the crack with gravity, but the crack is still leaking.
Should I try to seal it again with resin while tipping the boat on its side? Or should I use gelcoat? Should the crack be sealed by adding resin from the inside? I’m quite good with DIY but I’m not very experienced with kayak repairs.
Any tip is very appreciated.
(The following pictures show the crack, the inside of the seam, and the whole boat)
The crack is definitely impacting the structural soundness of the boat.
Your boat was made in 2 halves and it is coming apart.
Clean out the crack with a small grinder. Rough the surface around the crack.
Use marine epoxy mixed with microballoons (thickener). Make the consistency of peanut butter.
Lay the boat on its side. Push the thickened epoxy into the crack and smooth it out.
Add a layer of fiberglass cloth wetted out with plain epoxy.
You can buy cloth in strips of tape form. You need about 3 inches.
You need to inspect the inside of the boat with a strong light.
It is not easy but you may need to do the same thing on the inside as far as you can reach.
That is a major failure. I would repair the inside as well to the extent possible. After repairing the outside, lay the boat on its side and using unthickened epoxy pour the epoxy into the seam and tilting the boat allow the epoxy to run to one end of the boat. After it is no longer runny repeat for the other end. After it is thickened brush on more epoxy and add fiberglass tape along the seam where you can reach it.
My first boat is a 14 foot kevlar 3-piece kit - deck, hull, and cockpit. Can’t remember all the details from back in 1975 but knowing how it was put together might help.
There is a 2 inch fiberglass strip centered on the seam on the inside, then a 3-inch. IIRC I taped the whole seam on the outside then did each side seam-side down. IIRC I wetted the fiberglass first, stuck it in, then squeegeed. Taped a small cup to a stick to pour at the ends to get rid of dry spots. Stunk to high heaven when my head was in there. The ugly seam on the outside is still covered with a decorative stripe of tape. Getting the decorative tape on straight was the diciest part of it.
You will need to roughen up anything shiny first. If the original was epoxy I don’t know if your polyester will stick.
