Gore-Tex plug
Having vents in bulkheads seems common. I have hear of some sealing up the vent holes and adding GoreTex plugs in. GoreTex allows vapor to breath (so venting the hatch), but doesn’t allow water through. I know that Pelican boxes use these. And found some info on them being used on surf boards (http://www.surfinggreen.com.au/store/bio-plastic-goretex-vented-leash-plug/). But couldn’t find any details on them for kayaks in a quick search (but do recall seeing something on it in the past) - sorry.
I’ve had two…
…Eddyline built boats (Fathom & RockPool) with the vent holes. Neither kayak had or has an issue with water ingressing via those vent holes.
My Fathom day hatch rarely had more than a few drops of water in it after rolling practice. And now that I’ve caulked up the bulkhead, my RockPool day hatch stays just as dry, no matter how much I flip the thing over.
And slightly off topic, I just noticed that the RockPool North American website is missing in action. Hope RP hasn’t given up on NA. If I manage to nuke my Alaw, I happily replace it with another.
Pictures of leak
– Last Updated: Mar-24-12 4:38 PM EST –
Ok it appears for the front hatch there is a vent whole in the bulkhead. The rear hatch doesnt appear to have this same vent whole. Hence see much less water in rear hatch after roll class.
Now the question is what to do if anything? I would think maybe if i could get a peice of gortext cloth and glue it over the vent whole it would still allow hatch to breath but keep water from getting into front hatch. But will any glues stick to gortext cloth? Plus were to get a peice of gortext cloth?
Pictures below not sure if they will show in this forum.
http://www.dc9mm.x10.mx/vent.jpg
Close up of vent whole
http://www.dc9mm.x10.mx/ventclose.jpg
Reposted picture
Pics are not
working for me.
I’m telling ya…
…that the water is most likely from a faulty bulkhead seam or your hatch cover. Consider where the vent holes are located. Your kayak would have to be half full or more of water for it to reach the vent holes and even then, it’s gonna be a minuscular amount.
Also there should be a rear vent as well. But they are so small they can be hard to spot.
The links to your pics isn’t working for me. Anyhow, good luck.
Reposted pictures
– Last Updated: Mar-24-12 4:50 PM EST –
I reposted pictures to my other website space.
http://www.dc9mm.x10.mx/vent.jpg
http://www.dc9mm.x10.mx/ventclose.jpg
Working now. Its clear water comes in there.
I had about 2 gallons of water in front compartment and only place water was getting through was this vent whole. Back compartment had real real small amount ooze around cable for skeg which I will ad some sealer sunday once it drys out completly.
the rear hatch cover leaked a tiny bit when i flipped kayak upside down with about 2 gallons of water in rear hatch but i redid hatch and its leak free now.Just didnt have it snapped down right.
Bulkhead seals seem leak free. I didnt have hatches full for more thyan about 5 minutes but in that time nothing was getting through expect were slight amount on reear hatch around cable for skeg and front hatch was only from the vent whole. It really poured through the vent whole. I could here it when i flipped kayak upside down before i even stuck my head into main compartment to see were it was coming from. I had kayak up on saw horses when i did this.
Maybe
some duct tape?
Don’t know…
…what to tell you. But seems that perhaps that vent hole is just to darn large?
I spent a lot of time upside down today and I bet there’s maybe 20 mls of water in my front, virtually none in the day hatch, and maybe 20 mls in the rear.
tape
I could use duct tape but then the vent whole wont work at all. I see at local EMS sporting goods they have for 8 bucks a gortex repair kit. Iam going to go up there in the next few minutes and but it and then test it with a small compressor to see if it is actually a peice of gortex that will breath. If i can get air to pass though the repair patch I think i will glue that repair kit cloth over the whole. this way air should still be able to get through if pressure gets high or low in front hatch but keep water from going through whole. I will try and use glue around the whole so glue itself does not cover whole just the cloth repair patch cover whole. This assumes that the repair patch does actually breath which I will test before hand.
Here is link to repair kit iam talking about
http://www.ems.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3655828
Duck tape with
a pin hole in the duck tape.
installing Gore-Tex plugs
maybe the place where you have seen the installation of GTX plugs is this? http://gnarlydognews.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/shop-installing-vent-plug.html
Gotta love duct tape…
…pure simplicity 
KISS
Slap a square inch of duct tape over the vent holes when you’re going to practice rolling and pull it of when you’re done. Voila. If the holes are actually too big, plug them with Lexel and redrill new ones with the smallest bit you have. If it’s the hatch covers too, then that’s another beast.
Contact Eddyline of Dealer
My Nighthawk had a 3 year warranty, yours may also.
Lou
its a 2008 model
So its a 2008 model so its out of any warranty but it is the vent whole so not really a flaw. It took a close up picture of the whole plus one that shows whole bulkhead so you can judge the whole size. The whole is near the top of the bulk head in large picture kayak is upside down were you see water pouring through the whole. So kayak only needs a few inches of water in when upside down for water to get through. Taping will work for roll class but I didn’t really care about a little water getting in during class its more about water getting in when actually using kayak. What I did find out is surfboards are hollow and use a Gore-Tex vent plug, even found a video on youtube showing one while it vented air when it was on hot sand, they had a little water on Gore-Tex to see it bubble air through.
So what iam going to try is I have some Gore-Tex sample packs coming from online store and I will first try taping Gore-Tex over vent whole if it works ok I will glue Gore-Tex in place over whole. this way it will still vent but stop any water. Its probably over kill but why not make it better.
Pictures whole front bulkhead with water coming through, kayak upside down.
http://www.dc9mm.x10.mx/vent.jpg
Close up of whole. kayak is on its side at about 45 degree angle but you can see whole is at tip of birds head i guess that is the head.
http://www.dc9mm.x10.mx/ventc.jpg
Big Hole
That looks like a fairly large vent hole (much larger than needed for pressure equalization). I might consider filling that one and drilling a much smaller one through the bulkhead if the gore-tex doesn’t work. I’m used to seeing a single hole about the size of a pinhead for this purpose.
This one seems pretty much centered in the bulkhead and I usually see them fairly close to the top instead (though there is no reason it matters a heck of a lot as long as it’s off the floor so that water doesn’t slosh through).
I still think dry/float bags are the easiest solution. This wouldn’t be a big enough issue for me to start modifying my boat since I always put gear into dry bags and stuff the boat. If I don’t have enough gear, the float bag + filled dry bag fills up the forward compartment. Float/dry bags in back do the rest.
Rick