I am in the process of replacing the foam bulkheads in my kayak with plywood ones. The kayak is a Kevlar Eddyline Wind Dancer. The front one is being replace because I am installing a foot pump. The rear one is being replaced with two plywood ones. One in the original position and a second one just forward of the rear hatch. First, this will give me a day hatch/compartment. Second, the kayak has developed two 5" cracks in the gel coat where the deck curves down to the sides centered on the leading edge of the rear hatch. This has occurred because the rear deck buckels in when I slide up on the rear deck to perform a paddle float rescue. When I slide up on the rear deck it makes some rather bad sounding noises and you can see the rear hatch twisting in its deck opening. The foam bulkheads do not add any support to the rear deck. I am using 6mm okoume marine plywood, fiberglass, and epoxy to build the new bulkheads. With two ridged bulkheads supporting the deck right under the spot where I slide up on should solve the problem. Right now I am looking for any tips as how to remove the foam bulkheads without destroying them. Also, should I put in a 1/4" to 3/8" strip of foam of some type around the perimeter of the bulkhead to eliminate a hard point between the bulkhead and the hull? I read about that technique in the book "The Boat Repair Manual" by Buchanan as a way to keep cracks off the hull in composite boat construction. Not sure if this applies to kayaks. Thanks for your support. Jan Mason td376_at_mail.anonymizer.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sun Jul 14 2002 - 11:06:51 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:54 PDT