Hi everyone! I’m brand new to kayaking, I bought a Pakboats Puffin Saranac from Craigslist, and managed to rip the gunwale channel from the reinforced end my first time putting it together (see the attached picture). The collapsible rod got stuck inside the channel and while trying to separate a section of the rod to get it out, it poked through the fabric.
It’s in a really awful spot because the rod can’t be secured anymore. I’m still waiting to hear back from Pakboats on their repair suggestions, but wanted to get some other opinions too.
I’m thinking about trimming the frayed bits, holding the edges as close to the tear as I can, and using brute force t-Rex tape to secure it. Do you think this will be an adequate fix? Or is there a better way to go about this?
Thankfully the reinforced rubber bit is recessed and will take most of the tension on the end of the gunwale rod, so I think I mainly need to keep it from slipping out. I’m still nervous if taping it will be enough though.
I have a couple of old Pakcanoes but don’t have any experience with their kayaks so I basically don’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to repairing a Puffin Saranac. With that in mind however, my suggestion would be to try to glue some internal reinforcement before taping over the outside. Rather than trimming the frayed stuff sticking out, I’d get a strip of some type of heavy duty fabric, apply glue and with a finger or stick try to push it into the channel on the right in the picture, making sure to keep the channel propped open (possibly with some teflon tubing or something that wouldn’t get glued itself) while the glue dries. Then I’d try to apply glue to the left portion of the fabric strip and poke it into the channel on the left. To get fabric pushed against the inside of the channel and not glue it to itself I’d insert a long rod (not the gunnel itself) into the gunnel sleeve. This approach could end up just making a mess though rather than fixing anything so you may want to completely ignore my suggestion. 
