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/ ***************************************************************************
Me too. The same sort of thing is often said about Bibles. The ones with marked up tattered pages and bindings held together with tape actually get read. The scratches disappear when they are wet. Bob ----- Original Message ----- From: "Matt Broze" <mkayaks_at_oz.net> > I wrote: > >>>>>That might depend on whether you found highly visible scratches in your > gelcoat to be ugly or beautiful.<<<<<, > > 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. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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