Kayak Repair!

[Montanaro]

Ive notice water in my dry hatch the last couple trips out and had assumed it was my fabric cooler that had a bit of a leak and a lot of ice.  Today I went out without cooler and took on a pretty hefty amount of water.

 

Flipped yak over to find a large gouge in the keel likely from running ashore over a large chunk of gravel.  There is no visible hole just a 3/8 inch section of keel dug out and perhaps a fracture on either side in the groove.

 

How do I fix this? Links/advice/first hand knowledge welcome.  Would hate to buy a kit if I can buy supplies myself.

[Hawkeye21]

You can try doing some plastic welding.  There are plenty of videos on YouTube showing how to do it.  I've seen some pretty large gouges that people were able to fix this way.

 

Here's one video.  

 

[Montanaro]

I was thinking that melting and dripping polyethylene into the gouge would work best.  Just not sure if I should heat up the groove first.

[Turtle135]

I have the KC Welder tool. Take a look at this youtube video. I have repaired several kayaks with cracks in the nose and in the keel using the wire mesh. In my opinion, if you take your time and do it right the repaired area is stronger than the rest of the kayak. I have welding iron if you want to borrow it for the repair. If you want to go that route PM me and I will drop it in the mail to you.

 

p.s. - when you do a repair you do want to heat up the polyethylene on the kayak so that the existing poly mixes and blends with the repair poly.

 

 

 

[J Francho]

You need to verify that the gouge is the source of the leak.

[Montanaro]

Ive no other holes or damage!  But yes thats on my list of things to do.  The remaining layer of poly is very thin...a good submerged branch could puncture it

[Darren.]

While this may not help, when I moved my foot pedal

tracks in my Native ultimate I was left with holes from

the screw holes to fill.

 

I had some JB Weld putty on hand that when hand-mixed

turns into something as hard as a rock. I applied it to 

the holes, let it cure, sanded and that's it. Not a drop of

water comes through. Been using it for about 2 years since.

 

Granted, they're mostly out of the water. I'd use suggestions

above if on the bottom, most likely.

[J Francho]

What brand/model?  Is it roto-molded or heat/vacuum molded?

[Montanaro]

Feelfree rotomold

[J Francho]

I'm surprised you took a hit that gouged it that deep.  Those are usually pretty tough hulls.  You sure you don't have a leaky scupper?  That's more common, and harder to find.

[Montanaro]

Ill check but the groove in keel does give a bit like it may be cracked.

 

Going full speed onto shore and hitting a jagged piece of riprap gravel did a lot of damage...i didnt even notice at the moment though.  Groove is about 1.5 inch long maybe .5 wide and 3/8 inch deep.