Re: [Paddlewise] Abused kayak

Hank wrote;


>
>I was using Epoxies back in the early 1970s to build whitewater canoes and
>kayaks.  Was lots tougher than polyester, but polyester repairs would
work,
>even on epoxy.  The epoxy adheres better, though, so I'd recommend it.
>Some are better than others.

OH dear. Now I have to admit to being older than Hank.

I built my first epoxy boat in 1961. Designed for the Little America's Cup
it was a 24' Styrofoam cored catamaran for Bill Cox. A lovely boat but the
rig was too heavy and it finished second (I think) in the trials. In those
days epoxies had some rather potent amino acids as curing agents.
Apparently the body confuses the amino acids in the body with those of the
epoxy and workers developed strong allergic reactions. (I am not sure this
explanation is completely valid as no one took time to explain it in detail
to the expendable shop workers).

To make along story short, some workers developed severe allergic
reactions. Others developed more serious complications. In my case, a love
of boats. I also developed a minor skin problem under my school class ring.
The ring fell off one day along with a lot of skin.

Later (1970) I worked for a company building Ferro-cement boats. We used
epoxy for everything. Because some epoxies cure in the presence of water we
could bond new concrete to old by smearing on epoxy before applying the
concrete. Great stuff that epoxy. Wish I could find it again but the fellow
that formulated it has passed on to the great chemical plant in the sky.

Epoxies these days have improved a lot and I suspect they have less
toxicity than polyesters.

Some epoxies will cure in the presence of wet polyester. At C&C Yachts we
built a rather clever  rudder using a stainless steel frame. To get the
polyester shell to bond to the stainless we first coated the steel with
epoxy and then applied the polyester while the epoxy was still wet.
Everything cured together and it stuck as if we had used nothing but epoxy.



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