How To Repair A Thin Spot On A Kayak

Repair, storage & maintenance

This fiberglass sea kayak was snapped most in ii but repaired well-nigh as good as new. Flick courtesy of Murty Campbell of Stornoway Canoe Club.

Salt, h2o, abrasion, sunlight, waves and rocks are tough on kayaking equipment. It's made to last just information technology needs some bones care.

Repairs & repair kits

A small-scale repair kit is convenient and avoids the problems identified at Travelling Light. If you are being assessed as a kayak coach, or going on an advanced trip, you will need a big repair kit.

Small repair kit

Just a coil of repair tape carried in a drybag. A good-quality cloth-reinforced tape, ii" wide and with waterproof adhesive may be chosen duct tape or cloth record. Gorilla Tape is a expert brand, highly recommended. Gaffers tape, gaffa tape or gaff tape looks similar and it's ofttimes waterproof, simply it'due south much weaker because y'all're supposed to exist able to tear bits off with your fingers. Yous'll probably need to use your teeth for Gorilla Tape.

Duct record is plenty to make most repairs to a cleaved kayak, a broken paddle or a broken arm. And before anybody tells us that is irresponsible advice, in 1995 the BCU'southward Canoeing Handbook defined a minimum repair kit as "a roll of skillful quality 5 cm broad... tape and a knife".

Big repair kit

The following is suitable for a multi-day camping trip by a medium-sized grouping in fiberglass kayaks, some of them fitted with a skeg, rudder or pump.

• Big roll of waterproof duct tape 2 inches wide.
• Instant patch kit. See Instant Patch For Whatsoever Kayak.
• Kit for field repair to FRP kayak. See Emergency Repair To An FRP Kayak (Fiberglass, Carbon, Kevlar).
• Multi-function tool such as a Leatherman. Or a pair of short taper-nosed stainless steel pliers with wire-cutter; screwdriver with a selection of evidently, cantankerous-head and Allen key $.25; and a sharp awl.
• Potent craft knife such as a Stanley knife, with three strong replaceable blades.
• Mini hacksaw and three blades.
• One-half a sheet of 120 grit annoying paper. If you employ silicon carbide "wet & dry" annoying newspaper, information technology won't disintegrate in clammy conditions.
• Cigarette lighter.
• A slice of cotton wool rag to wipe surfaces dry earlier repair.
• 30 mL ii-tube pack of epoxy adhesive such as Araldite. Not a 10-minute rapid epoxy considering it is seldom waterproof. Non a pack which has already been used. Once the metal seal on the nozzle has been broken, the contents deteriorate quite fast.
• Small-scale tube of sealant, preferably Sikaflex polyurethane marine sealant.
• If you have a built-in pump, suitable spare parts. Also some stainless steel hose clips in case the outlet hose has to exist re-attached to the hull fitting.
• Galvanized steel Fifty-brackets with pre-drilled holes. Ii 50 mm, two 25 mm.
• Ten self-tapping screws uniform with the brackets.
• 10 feet of braided 1/8" polyester or nylon cord (e.thousand. paracord or rock climber's accompaniment cord).
• 5 feet of 3/16" shock cord
• Two ordinary needles and two sailmaker's needles. These are large, strong and have a triangular cross-department which easily penetrates thick materials such every bit elastic daze-cord. If y'all accept room, have a sailmaker'south leather "palm" in case you lot need to sew the elastic back onto a sprayskirt.
• A reel of very strong synthetic thread, not too large to fit into eye of a sailmaker'southward needle. For example, Marlow polyester whipping twine, number 8, waxed. From a marine supply shop. See Retail Outlets.
• Two ordinary needles.
• A reel of ordinary stiff polyester thread for repairs to habiliment.
• Tube of neoprene cement for wetsuits and sprayskirts. See Wetsuit Cloth.
• Tube of Aquaseal for waterproof clothing. Tin can also be used to repair inflatable buoyancy bags.
• Coil of tent repair tape.
• Tent pole repair sleeve.

Everything on the table in the photo below fits into the large blue spiral-superlative cylinder. It includes everything listed above apart from the field repair kit for fiberglass kayaks. It as well includes a large offset assistance kit (lesser left) and an orange plastic survival pocketbook. The small objects all fit into the 2 smaller cylinders which nest inside the big ane.

You can become some not bad waterproof boxes in any supermarket, for instance the Curver product range.

On a group trip to a wilderness area, you may also desire to take:
• Hand drill and bits
• Popular-riveter and thirty contrasted rivets. See Metals & Salt Water.

Instant patch for any kayak

If a kayaker hits a rock and punctures the hull of his/ her kayak, or loses a hatch cover, it is very useful to be able to put a watertight patch over the hole while the kayak is wet. If necessary you can do this at sea, by putting the damaged kayak upside-downwards on top of another kayak every bit in this illustration. In a cool climate, get the kayaker onto the raft too.

You can put an instant patch on a wet kayak using the following materials, all of which are available from a building supplies or habitation improvement store:

1. A 15-pes roll of waterproof duct tape. Information technology won't stick to a moisture kayak, just it will stick to itself if you wrap it all the manner circular the kayak.

ii. Galvanized wire, five anxiety. Ideally, wire which is thin enough to be bent, tied and shortened with your fingers.

three. Repair bandage that will stick to a moisture surface:

a) Ane messy but effective solution is Denso tape. Denso makes a big range of tapes for sealing joints in glass roofs and preventing corrosion in outdoor pipework. The 1 nosotros're thinking of is sold as Sylglas in the UK. It'south a ii-inch broad cotton bandage saturated with non-setting mastic. One version has a layer of aluminum foil on one side to go far easier to utilize.

Information technology sticks to all kayaks, whatever they're made of. It sticks almost every bit well to wet surfaces equally to dry ones and will stay in identify for several days if necessary. The mastic is extremely sticky. Y'all can get it off your fingers using a rag soaked in white spirit, merely try not to get information technology on your clothes.

In the photo above, the basic bandage has been cutting into twelve 20-inch lengths and pressed between 2 sheets of thick polythene. This prevents the mastic spreading over your other equipment and makes the bandage easier to use outdoors.

It'southward not ideal for patching polyethylene kayaks because the mastic gets into every little scratch and as soon equally you lot effort to weld the split, the mastic melts and flows straight into the split.

b) You may adopt bituminous bandage made for flashing, roof repairs and waterproofing hush-hush structures. Products include Bituthene and Miradri in N America, and Black Jack and Aquaband in the Great britain. They are less floppy and gooey than Sylglas and very good in hot atmospheric condition, merely on a common cold 24-hour interval they hardly seem sticky. The instructions usually say "not for use in temperatures below forty°F (5°C)".

four. Plastic reinforcement sheet.
To repair a big hole in the hull of a kayak you may need some semi-rigid plastic sheet to cover the pigsty and back up the repair tape. Ane style to get it is to cut upwardly an old 1-gallon container of antifreeze / coolant, washer fluid or milk.

During cess for ocean kayaking qualifications, some assessors love to take a large oval hatch off a kayak at sea, and tell the candidate to brand an effective replacement there and then. That could mean making a semi-rigid roofing 18 inches long and 11 inches wide. It also means having a patch kit someplace yous can reach it without taking off your sprayskirt or a hatch cover. Yous could go along it in a deck handbag or a fanny pack (nylon purse on an adjustable waist belt).

Repairs to polyethylene kayaks

Yous can't actually brand a permanent repair to a polyethylene kayak on the beach because it needs welding. Simply in that location is one affair yous can do. If a separate appears in the hull of a polyethylene kayak, it will carry on getting longer ("propagating") every time the hull flexes. You can cease it by making a small round pigsty through the end of the split with a 3/32" drill or a piece of hot wire.

Emergency repair to an FRP kayak (fiberglass, carbon, kevlar)

Yous can make permanent repairs to an FRP kayak on the beach.

To repair moderately serious damage you will need 250 mL resin with catalyst; iii feet x 1 pes of fiberglass reinforcement such as 450 gm CSM; polythene sheet and adhesive tape; half a canvass of 120 grit silicon carbide "wet & dry out" abrasive newspaper; minor sharp pair of scissors; mixing pot; 2 disposable brushes; protective gloves; bulwark cream and manus cleanser. If you plan to break your kayak in half and stick it back together, multiply these quantities past x.

You lot will have to get the damaged area dry, and keep its temperature at 55 degrees fahrenheit (12°C) or more until the resin gets hard. With a quick-setting resin at lxx°F (20°C) this might exist x minutes; with a slow-setting resin at marginal temperatures information technology may take 24 hours.

If you are taking an FRP kayak on an avant-garde expedition, you will probably accept a repair kit containing resin, goad, and enough fiberglass reinforcement to laminate two layers over a large pigsty or carve up. For some technical data, encounter Fiber-Reinforced Plastic (FRP) and the related page How To Add Accessories To A Kayak.

Probably your kayak consists of glassfiber reinforcement in a matrix of polyester resin. Epoxy resin volition stick to it better than polyester resin, but epoxy is more hazardous and expensive. We have never had a problem using ordinary polyester resin to repair an FRP kayak as long as the surface was make clean and dry. In the unlikely event that your kayak was made of epoxy resin, y'all will demand epoxy to repair information technology.

You can easily buy polyester resin and CSM (chopped strand mat) at an auto accompaniment store or from an internet supplier equally at Retail Outlets, or y'all tin go to a marine supply store and pay three times the toll. The car accessory stuff has always worked well for usa. On the Internet or from a chandler you may get a marine-grade resin and amend reinforcements such as woven rovings. For a hull repair, 300 gm/m2 woven rovings would be better than 450 gm/m2 CSM. A chandler may besides have close-weave fiberglass tape in 1-inch or ii-inch widths. Glass tape is nice for making a neat repair to a carve up seam or gouged chine.

You lot volition want a bit of abrasive paper to get the surface of the kayak clean and slightly rough, sharp scissors, a mixing container, and ideally several disposable brushes so that you can get the reinforcement properly wetted-out with resin.

To keep yourself clean and avoid dermatitis yous desire protective gloves. Those thin clinical latex gloves dissolve too rapidly in contact with polyester resin and rough surfaces. Nitrile gloves are best only ordinary Rite Aid or Vileda household latex gloves usually last enough to do a repair. Ideally you should also have barrier foam and hand cleanser intended specifically for apply with polyester resin.

For larger holes yous will need some polypropylene or polythene sheet and sticky tape to brand a temporary patch over the hole. The temporary plastic patch supports the FRP patch in the correct shape until it is difficult.

For a squeamish, neat permanent repair it is best to record your temporary plastic patch to the outside of the hole, and piece of work from the inside of the kayak to laminate your FRP patch. In other words, attain in through the cockpit or a hatch to employ the resin and cloth. Of form, y'all won't be able to practice this if the pigsty is in an inaccessible place such as underneath a permanently-fixed seat. If yous are stuck on an uninhabited island, information technology is better to brand an untidy FRP repair on the outside of the hull than rely on a Denso tape patch to get yous home. And when you do get dwelling house, you can easily get the untidy patch off with an electric sander and do an artistic job including a sleeky layer of waterproof gelcoat on the outside, perfectly colour-matched to the kayak.

The ideal temperature for working with polyester resin is 70°F (about twenty°C) which is a comfortable room temperature. Too hot and the resin sets earlier you're set up and may crack, as well cold and it may never get fully hard. In cool weather you can pre-warm the resin earlier you mix information technology, for case past putting the container inside your article of clothing. A patch should eventually set hard despite an air temperature as depression equally 42°F (6°C) as long every bit you tin can keep the boat in straight sunday and out of the air current. Yet at marginal temperatures it is worth trying to heat up the patch until it sets, and then for 24 hours afterwards if you can manage it.

Having practical local heat to cleaved kayaks with everything from a Trangia camp stove to hot rocks, nosotros tin offer the following tips. Covering the patch with bit of blackness plastic will double the power of sunshine. You may exist able to proceed the patch warm until information technology is more-or-less difficult by heating a pan of water on a camp stove and putting the pan into light contact with the patch, or pouring warm (non hot) water into a plastic bag or hydration organisation float and resting that on the patch. In an emergency in winter it is possible to go a kayak warm and dry out past making a burn down of driftwood. Try to avoid anything that will crusade soot to build upward on the surface you're repairing, for example a candle or a Trangia flame. If yous get really, really desperate, a traditional remedy is to pigment denatured alcohol / methylated spirits or acetone onto the kayak and prepare burn down to it ... not recommended.

The patch should feel hard inside 10 to 40 minutes depending on the temperature, only information technology carries on curing for a month. You tin use your kayak equally presently as the patch is hard, but it would exist better to keep information technology warm and dry for a day.

If you lot carry liquid resin in one terminate of your kayak, make sure your food and beverage are at the other terminate. Otherwise everything from porridge to curry will gustation of resin. Try to conduct goad in the class of a paste in a small plastic tube with a screw top, not a liquid in a small bottle. Bottles of liquid catalyst e'er leak, and the goad is corrosive and irritant. Unfortunately the paste catalyst tends to have a blue, red or xanthous pigment.

Storing your kayak

You don't generally need to rinse a kayak after utilize but if yours has aluminum components or a rubber diaphragm in a congenital-in pump, you might consider it. Adaptable footrests which run in an aluminum track eventually seize up solid if they are left salty. Footrest tracks fabricated entirely of non-corroding materials such equally nylon sometimes get jammed with table salt deposits. Salt is highly soluble, so you should be able to clear information technology abroad quite easily with fresh water.

A kayak should ideally be stored with the hatch covers removed, in a absurd, dark, dry place, on a padded rack which supports information technology in at least two places.

If you have an quondam, slightly battered fiberglass kayak and you do a lot of kayaking, it can live all yr round on the roof of your motorcar. It's adept if it has a cover to protect it from weather and sun only unlike a polyethylene kayak, fiberglass can take a lot of UV light without deteriorating.

Wooden kayaks shouldn't be stored in straight sunlight, anyplace water tin can collect within, or anyplace really hot and dry out. Take off the hatch covers then there isn't a moist micro-climate inside the watertight compartments. A wooden or plastic composite paddle may warp if stored horizontally for long periods and only supported past the ends. See Protecting Your Wood Kayak.

Maintenance for kayak hulls

The hull of a fiberglass or polyethylene kayak is not affected by water or salt and needs no routine maintenance.

It is possible to restore the proficient looks of a very old, battered fiberglass kayak and requite it some other ten years of life by patching all holes with fiberglass, or polyester autobody filler if the harm is only a small gouge, sanding it smooth with wet-and-dry abrasive newspaper, and and then sanding it even smoother and painting it. For the best and lightest results, y'all could use a 2-part polyurethane yacht paint. This very sad translucent pink kayak is now a sleeky dark green with co-ordinating deck rigging.

Wooden kayaks and paddles should be coated both sides with something suitable. Y'all could use Danish oil, paint or varnish. These coatings demand to be refreshed every two or 3 years. Some like to requite new wooden boats or paddles a complete coating of epoxy resin. See Protecting Your Wood Kayak.

A peel-on-frame kayak will need a new pare from time to time. If it is used often only advisedly stored, the skin may last five years. A skin may last twenty years if it is fabricated and waterproofed with space-age materials and stored well.

Metals & salt water

Salt chop-chop corrodes all metals used in boat structure, except for marine-quality stainless steel, bronze and monel metal. It gets into cameras and "waterproof" radios and turns them into a lump of corrosion.

Stainless? Marine-grade stainless steel generally means type 316 austenitic (non-magnetic) steel. Try holding a compass over the object. If the compass needle does non deflect, the object should be highly resistant to corrosion but even type 316 stainless steel will corrode eventually. It's good practice to rinse ALL your equipment in fresh water and let it dry out after use on the body of water, but in practise corrosion of marine stainless steel is not a problem unless yous leave a small object such as a pocketknife in a wet salty pocket for months at a time. Before long-term storage, wipe on a thin layer of oil.

Aluminum is light, strong and used in boats probably more than whatsoever other metal. It is much softer than stainless steel and so if you over-tighten a steel screw in an aluminum component information technology is quite likely that the screw thread will strip out.

In the small dimensions and quantities required to make ladders, small gunkhole spars and kayaking equipment, aluminum is almost interchangeable with forest, and with plastic composites (fiberglass and carbon fiber). The deciding factor is non commonly weight or strength just aesthetics and manufacturing economy. Most all yacht and racing dinghy masts are now made of aluminum with but a few fabricated of wood or composite, merely windsurfer masts are made of plastic blended. Good kayak paddles can be fabricated of any of the 3.

Billets of aluminum tin can be extruded through a metal dice to produce bar, rod or tube in any length. [2017: Thank you lot to Edwin S for a correction and for the post-obit comment: The metallic flows and deforms just does non begin melting. This extrusion process also impacts the heat treatment and hot/common cold working that impart strength.]

Aluminum products tin be heat-treated (tempered) for increased hardness and strength. They are produced in a broad range of alloys each with a different emphasis on forcefulness, hardness and resistance to corrosion. For marine use, aluminum is alloyed mainly with manganese, magnesium and silicon. Alloys usually used for boat spars include 6061 (HE20 in the UK), 6063 (HE9) and 6082 (HE30). They are piece of cake to extrude and have good resistance to corrosion past sea water.

Aluminum is particularly subject to metal fatigue after simply a small amount of flexing. For a kayaker, this means that a paddle shaft made from thin-wall aluminum tube may snap in one-half without warning when y'all try to ringlet in a difficult identify. Nonetheless a paddle shaft with thick walls can take 25 years of hard apply, and aluminum can resist impact and crushing forces which would shatter a fiberglass shaft.

Aluminum is an splendid conductor of heat and so it feels cold to the bear upon. When it is used for paddle shafts, the manufacturer often puts on a sleeve of PVC (vinyl) to make them less slippery and warmer.

Aluminum tin can corrode very fast, especially alloys selected for loftier tensile strength rather than resistance to sea h2o. A rock-climbing carabiner will seize up solid after just a few uses on the bounding main, unless information technology is washed in fresh water every time.

Aluminum surfaces exposed to air naturally form a very thin skin of aluminum oxide which is resistant to corrosion (passivation). A PVC sleeve on a paddle shaft may lead to rapid corrosion by trapping a layer of salty water next to the aluminum, which starts turning to mush until the sleeve blisters. A quick culling is to wrap duct tape round the paddle shaft where your easily will grip information technology.

Tubular components for marine use are usually anodized (electrolytic passivation) to increment the thickness of the oxide surface. Anodizing tin exist grey, blackness or golden and can be colored glossy cherry-red, blue, etc with a dye sealant.

Brass. Does brass take any place in a ocean kayak? It's heavy, it'southward weak and it corrodes in sea water. Fifty-fifty when new, brass screws often snap when you lot put them in. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, and if a contumely object is exposed to table salt water for a long period, the zinc will disappear so that the metal looks solid just is in fact a weak honeycomb.

Galvanic activeness. If ii different metals are used next to each other, for case an aluminum rivet used in a stainless-steel component, then in the presence of salt water or common salt spray there will exist a weak electric electric current running between them. This galvanic action causes rapid corrosion of the least "noble" of the ii metals. A fresh-water racing kayak has an aluminum rudder blade on a stainless steel pivot. Use it on table salt water and galvanic activity will presently enlarge the hole in the rudder bract then that it has to be replaced with a plastic or stainless 1. Salt-proof models are available. See Rudder. Galvanic corrosion is even worse if there is an electric current from built-in lighting or electronic systems.

If a metal fitting is fixed to a wooden object which is damp and salty, both the metal and wood may be damaged by galvanic activity. For example, screws made of marine stainless steel and used in oak, or screws fabricated of brass and used in mahogany.

Monel metallic is a nickel-copper blend and highly resistant to galvanic action although if used next to steel in a marine surroundings, the steel will exist damaged. Screws and rivets made of monel metal are sold for yacht repairs, but they are very expensive.

Practical solutions. Kayak fittings are usually attached with stainless steel bolts, nuts and screws, or aluminum rivets.

This is a close-upwardly of a pop rivet. To use, you drill a hole through 2 objects to be joined together, slip the head of a rivet through the hole, and use a riveting tool to pull the long stalk. This squeezes the caput until it bulges out. The two objects are defenseless between the flange and the bulge, and the stem then snaps off and is thrown away.

The caput has to exist soft so it is usually made of aluminum. If aluminum is in contact with a dissimilar metallic, or is fifty-fifty near a dissimilar metal, in the presence of salt water it will quickly corrode because of galvanic activity. The stem of a popular rivet is usually made of a different blend to the head. The all-time answer is to buy extremely expensive rivets, made for yachtsmen out of monel metal. The usual answer is to requite the kayak the occasional wash with fresh h2o, and supplant corroded rivets every v or 6 years.

Storing kayak clothing, etc

After every trip, utilise fresh h2o to rinse your clothing, tow-belt and helmet, and your hatch covers if they are made of rubber. Accept special intendance to get salt off metal rivets, zippers and clips, especially if they are fabricated of aluminum, because otherwise they may corrode.

Only put everything in the bath and give it a practiced spray, clasp and rinse. Don't use detergent or a force per unit area washer. Don't apply a hose except briefly to rinse off loose sand. An outdoor pursuits eye will have a plastic butt full of fresh water for this purpose, drained in one case a calendar week so that accumulated salt and sand can be dumped.

If you utilise wetsuit boots, yous will occasionally need to clean the insides with soap. Just put in a bar of ordinary hand lather, squish it around a fleck, rinse and dry out advisedly.

Moisture equipment gets very evil-smelling if left in an unventilated infinite at high temperatures, whether in your vehicle or in the drying-room at an outdoor pursuits heart. Before your equipment dries, bacteria volition rejoice, flourish, spread and die.

When your equipment is dry, shop it in a cool, dark, dry out place. Things made of plastic cream, such equally wetsuits and PFDs, should ideally be hung up and so that the foam is non creased or compressed. For wetsuits, utilise a fatty plastic clothes hanger, not a thin one made of wire. For drysuits with latex rubber seals, consider dusting the seals with talcum powder or applying Seal Saver or 303 Protectant before storage.

Get to next page for:
• Transporting Your Kayak
• Knots For Kayakers

Source: https://www.kayarchy.com/html/01equipment/027repairing.htm

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