I have a Klepper Aerius II hanging in the rafters. The skin is all rot, coming apart at the seams. Has anyone tried shrinkwrap as a hull material? I ain’t paying $1200 for a new skin.
why so extravagant?
I’m thinking wax paper.
Ask on
foldingkayaks.org. Probably Tom Yost will chime in and offer suggestions on making a skin.
Skins occasionally show up on ebay, but you have a better chance finding a used Klepper on Craig’s List under $1000. I put a Wayland skin on an old A2 frame and that ran about $1000 with delivery.
Shrinkwrapping a klepper
We have been in the shrink-wrapping business for about 15 years. This would be a really poor way to cover a kayak for anything more than a test run of a new design. Real shrink wrap, properly applied will support a man lying on it, but it has no tolerance for the type of use a kayak gets.
A better way to do it is to skin it with nylon and waterproof it with either a poluurethane varnish or the 2-part “Goop” used by a lot of skin on frame builders. It will cost you about $100 to do this and it will be virtually bulletproof. Techniques for covering a kayak in this way can be found on qujaqusa.org
The process looks difficult, but is really pretty straightforward.
cheapness counts
I think I’ll wait for a cheap new skin to land in my lap. Meanwhile I’ll keep the frame hanging in the rafters. I like the way the light plays through the skeletal remains of a good boat.