Re: [Paddlewise] black hulls

I wrote:
>>>>>That might depend on whether you found highly visible scratches in your
gelcoat to be ugly or beautiful.<<<<<,

jwd wrote:
>>>>>>Man, I would hate to spend time with you in an art museum :-)<<<<<

Why James, do you have something against Jackson Pollock? ;-)

I lean towards Melissa on this one, and that was my point, there are two or
more ways of looking at gelcoat scratches and to some they might be
beautiful. Melissa elaborated that view perfectly.
I used to be a professional freestyle skier. I don't ski nearly as often as
I used to but on average I still break about one pair of skis each year. I
mourn the ones I really liked, but there is no way that I could ski like I
like to ski and not at least scratch up the skis as well as risk breaking
them (and me--more than ever now that I'm 56). Some paddle in such a way
that they rarely put a scratch on their beloved kayak. They launch from
piers or wade in shallow water on entering or exiting the kayaks. Even then
they discover that their Yakima Mako saddles puts some scuffs on their
gelcoat (even though they cleaned all the sand of the kayak-or never let it
touch the sand in the first place) and are furious with Yakima for putting
out such a product (I had a customer like that today, glad I didn't sell him
the rack, just the kayak that got scuffed). If however you decide to paddle
in the surf you had better be ready for at least some serious scratches if
not do a few major repairs. Doug of course being our extreme example here
and he has had the same kayak for something like 20 years (well at least
partly the same-it does somehow keep gaining weight).
Every few weeks I get someone who asks me how the fix the scratches they got
in their gelcoat. I would like to help them, but I know of no good way for
them to do this that either won't make it look worse, have some other
serious downside like prohibitive cost, an ungodly amount of time consumed,
or the addition of several pounds of added weight (or all of the above). I
assure them that even deep gouges aren't doing any real harm and that no
disaster will befall them if they don't fix them as long as they are not
leaking water or somehow disturbing the water seriously as the kayak slides
through it (as a major chip in the gelcoat at the bow waterline might do). I
show them how to put electrical tape on the bottom edge of their paddle
blades so as to not scuff the gelcoat on the deck if they bump it with the
paddle blade.
While I think I'm pretty anal-compulsive myself, given all the "collecting"
of kayak data and stolen kayak data I do, I see that there are folks out
there even more compulsive than I. A few weeks ago I bought a sweat shirt at
a garage sale for the slogan (as I don't normally wear sweat shirts). It
said "Does anal compulsive have a hyphen?" I prefer to take good care of my
toys. My father used to open all the doors in his 1960 VW bus whenever it
was in his garage (so the door seals could uncompress and relax and would do
their job for a lot longer). As he also waxed it every six months, that car
still looked nearly new into the 1990's (although it had nearly 300,000
miles on it). A cop once tried to give him a ticket for having too old of
license plate style on what was obvious to him a newer car. However, even my
dad scratched up his skis. My mother was an impeccable housekeeper. So I had
a pretty compulsive upbringing. Regarding gelcoat though, I think adopting
Melissa's attitude will probably pay health benefits in the long run, if
just in lowered blood pressure. Quite frankly, after reading the rant
Melissa received from jwd I wasn't sure at first if it was tongue in cheek
or Sp*ns*nman had returned under an assumed name.

Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.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/
***************************************************************************