I seem to recall reading here sometime in the past that some have drilled a small hole in their bulkheads to aid in relieving pressure that sometimes builds up, particularily while transporting to and from put-in/take-out. What's the experience with leakage from cockpit into "dry" compartment? What size hole was drilled? Where was hole positioned--top-center; middle-center; etc? I paddle British boats and am concerned with "popping" a hatch cover, or worse--blowing a bulkhead. On my Romany I have a lot of cracks in the gel coat on the deck and the hull where the bulkheads are. Might this be from pressure build up inside, or just quality issues? Finally, if leakage is a problem, I would cover the hole (small hole) with a piece of Gore-tex on the wet side to allow pressue to pass, but not water (electronics manufacturers use this technique--seems to make sense here too). Appreciate any thoughts PaddleWisers have on this.. Regards. John Browning Milwaukee, WI--warm air, cold water changing to cold air and warm water in a few months *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
On 20 Jul 2003 at 10:55, Seakayakerjb_at_aol.com wrote: > What's the experience with leakage from cockpit into "dry" > compartment? Minimal leakage. If I'm doing lots of rolling and rescue practice, the rear compartment gets maybe a tablespoon of water in it. The forward compartment gets less. With normal paddling, things stay bone dry. > What size hole was drilled? The smallest bit in the set - 1/16 inch. > Where was hole positioned--top-center; middle-center; etc? As close to the geometric centre of the bulkhead as I could guess by eye. That way, the hole is furthest from the water regardless of the orientation of the kayak. > Finally, if leakage is a problem, I would cover the hole (small hole) > with a piece of Gore-tex on the wet side to allow pressue to pass, but > not water (electronics manufacturers use this technique--seems to > make sense here too). I thought of that, but have never got around to it. Leakage hasn't been enough to worry me. I've never been able to figure out if the GoreTex would breath fast enough to handle pressure changes. The electronics devices (like my GPS) don't have a lot of volume to deal with compared to a kayak. Taking a hot kayak and dropping it into cold water used to cause the hatch covers to suck in very noticibly before I drilled the holes. That's several cubic inches of air in a short time. You could also use a bit of tightly woven cotton and rely on the cotton swelling when wet to reduce water intrusion. If the compartment heats, the cotton will breath easily. If it cools, the wet cotton will likely allow a bit of water to be sucked in, but nothing serious. Mike *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Michael Daly wrote: > You could also use a bit of tightly woven cotton and rely on the > cotton swelling when wet to reduce water intrusion. If the > compartment heats, the cotton will breath easily. If it cools, the > wet cotton will likely allow a bit of water to be sucked in, but > nothing serious. Hmmmmm. Of course. So a bit of cloth tape, like hockey tape, would do the job just fine. You could even put a pair of smaller holes (like 3/64 or so) to minimize water flow while allowing air to equalize easily. GaryJ +--------------------------------+ | /"\ | | \ / | | X ASCII RIBBON CAMPAIGN | | / \ AGAINST HTML MAIL & NEWS | +--------------------------------+ *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Jeff, I too paddle a British designed boat, mine is a CD Gulfstream. The boat came from the factory with holes drilled in all of the bulkheads. The holes are about 2/3 of the way up from the bottom of the bulkhead and are about 1/16". I normally have absolutely no leakage into the dry compartments. Occasionally on a "wet play day", where we are doing numerous rescues, wet exits, etc I'll pick up a couple of teaspoons to several oz of water in my day hatch and front hatch. The rear hatch stays dry because the day hatch is still pretty much dry and there isn't much water to transfer around. Otherwise, the boat stays completely dry. Steve Holtzman Southern CA. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
>Finally, if leakage is a problem, I would cover the hole (small hole) with a >piece of Gore-tex on the wet side to allow pressue to pass, but not water >(electronics manufacturers use this technique--seems to make sense here too). Lettman uses this technigue in the flotation tanks in their FRP canoes. Haven't tried those myself and haven't heard others about it, so I cannot tell you how (good) it works, but I think for bulkheads in a kayak it could work well enough. Dirk Barends *************************************************************************** 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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