First of all just want to say hi, new to the community and my first post, I’m Stevie from Scotland.
So I’ve bought my first kayak, well first non inflatable anyways been a long time since I was out in a kayak, anyways she’s a bit rough, was told she’s water tight but I wouldn’t think it, I noticed the a part of the seam the splits the kayaks upper and bottom half has split, I’m thinking of sanding all of the kayak and fibre glassing the seam all the way round the painting the kayak with a marine paint, would this be correct procedure? I’ve read that you can’t paint fibre glass kayaks but this has clearly been painted as it’s full of runs. I’ll be using it in lochs if that makes a difference?
Some additional photos, like of the cockpit interior and the full hull side profile (to see if it has rocker) as well as length and width measures would be helpful in ID. There were many folks in the 70’s and 80’s who built their own glass boats from molds (hence the wonky side seams sometimes).
I’m betting it doesn’t have bulkheads so you would need to fill the bow and stern with inflation bags to prevent it sinking if swamped in a capsize. I would not take it too far out in a loch yet, especially a cold one, until I was sure I could keep it upright and wet exit it successfully. May have difficulty getting a spray skirt on that narrow coaming lip. My instinct is somebody built it for short racing sprints rather than open water touring.
Have you posted your query on the Song of the Paddle forum? Might be more folk on your side of the Pond who would recognize it.
There is a guy in the UK who know a lot about older kayaks. He founded Mega Surfkayaks and sold the company and retired, but he is still involved with the sport. His name is Malcom Pearcy, I tried to link his facebook page but the permissions would not work. Look him up and drop him a note with pictures from different angles. It does look like a down river racer to me.
Also if you are on Orkney please post up some trip reports sometime. Several years ago I got to spend a week exploring the coastline and ancient ruins there, was a fantastic trip.
