[Paddlewise] Boat maintenance questions (and shag repair)

Brian asks:
>I've just purchased my first fibreglass kayak (a 10 year old VCP Pintail)
and I have a few maintenance questions: While the hull is sound, there are a
few deep chips/scratches in the
gel coat (deep enough to expose the underlying fibreglass) that I would like
to repair.<

Everyone has there own methodology for repairing normal hull wear, including
scratches and deeper gouges. Some methods are more precise than others. It
depends on how much work you want to put into the repairs, and how good you
want it to look.

Consider one of the repair products like Marine-Tex epoxy repair compound
which hardens very well. It is available in white. I usually scrape off the
excess with a razor blade flush with the surface just before it "goes off'"
or in more understandable terms, starts to harden. This avoids excessive
bumpy texturing.

Polyester-type, non-epoxy products can also be used, and generally
compounded/coloured to match hull colors and reach desired consistency. A
local VCP dealer may have some suggestions and product guidelines. Gelcoat
can be dripped into minor gouges and then sanded/flushed by sharp blade too.
As with all attempts at reviving a used hull, filling numerous tiny
scratches is far too time consuming a task for most kayakers, so usually it
is just the larger gouges that get filled. Any portion of the hull that
shows fibreglass under a deep gouge should be easy to fill, as is any defect
with a bit of a "valley" indent/ hallowed shape. Areas where exposure and
wear has resulted in wholesale wearing away of the gelcoat, such that the
damaged is _feathered_already (shows a gradual transition from glass to
gelcoat), nothing short of a full layover of tape and resin will do. Fillers
will not last long, in this situation, in my opinion.

Total restoration requires a professional re-spray of gelcoat, with
extensive polishing. You can cut costs by doing the filling yourself, and if
you have good polisher grinding tools, possibly do the buffing yourself
which cuts hundreds of dollars off the price. I'd only do the full
restoration if I was selling the kayak, as it only gets scratched up again
anyway.

(I usually paint my hull every few years, add glass and epoxy layers to the
inside of the hull. The paint keeps the outside repairs/fills more
homogeneous looking obviously, as fillers never really match aged gelcoat.
However, I have my own spray equipment. One of these days, my very aged VCP
Nordkapp with multiple complex hull damaged areas/repairs is going to hit a
rock in the surf and the entire original "outside skin" of the original
fibreglass/gelcoat moulded kayak is going to breakaway suddenly in a
multiplicity of pieces, leaving me with a homemade epoxy/glass inner shell
replica. It will be an instant light-weight epoxy version of the former
Nordkapp, slightly smaller. This is my evolutionary cloning design and
thinking behind all my Nordkapp repairs, thereby nullifying my need to buy a
Legend, Tempest, Quest or Romany).   :-)

Just make sure repairs are prepped properly, and don't overdo the use of
hardeners.

As far as the black hull-to-deck line, it is simply black gelcoat (black
gelcoat is actually weaker over time I think). Strip and reapply after
masking off; strip and apply sacrificial black electrician's tape every
season; learn fibreglass repairs and redo with real glass tape after
grinding down sufficiently, or mask, sand, fill, and paint with epoxy paint
for simple good looks. The gelcoat strip is not structural.

I was pleased to see on a resent survey of kayak manufacture's sites, that
Seaward is highlighting their strong hull-to-deck joints -- something some
of the Brit companies need to work on in my opinion. just my opinion.

Make your decklines with a bit of slack, obviously, so you can get your
hands under to grip the line. Go to a sailing shop and talk with the staff,
who can direct you toward the appropriate cordage, colors, diameters, and UV
resistance, etc. If doing a restoration, I'd thread a bigger diameter line
through the deck cleats. You may have to melt the leading point of the line
to a fine point (careful, melted synthetic line burns with a vengeance) in
order for it to thread through. Bungee cord. Go bigger if you can. Don't
pull too tight. Hatch covers? Replace if necessary. It's just part of the
price of kayaking and staying safe. Lubricant/protectors like 303 are a
preventative agent, not a repair product. No, spray-on plastic will not
work. I only use spray-on (or brush-on) for the ends of lines, and also I
paint on 20 layers on the end point of my Nordkapp ever two years, kind of
like the factory nose-caps one sees on WW kayaks. Some of us need to layer
our whole kayaks with this stuff, but then I guess there is always plastic,
Plastic, PLASTIC as Dane would say.

BTW, a good way to get rid of plastic kayak fuzz (shag repair on poly boat
hulls) is with a disposable razor blade. This is what some of my racing
friends do with their sea kayaks for multisport races to gain an extra edge.

Doug Lloyd
Victoria BC

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"Whatever can be said at all can be said clearly and whatever cannot be said
clearly should not be said at all."
Ludwig Wittgenstein
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