Fiberglass Kayak Repair

 When things go bad but not to bad, sometimes there is hope. This kayak was left on a dock unintentionally and the wind came up and blew it into the water. The lake then proceeded to rub it lovingly on the shoreline rocks for awhile until the owner was able to pull it out.

The damage ranged from scraping through the gelcoat to holes punched in the fiberglass and the seam between hull and deck popped loose.

After being involved with water in one form or another for most of my life, it still amazes me how much power the waves have and how unforgiving they can be.

The first step of course is to take off all of the hardware and really asses just how much damage there is. in our case here, we didn't find the split seam until the straps were off and we flipped it over to check out the hull.

Next step was to give it a good sanding with 50grit paper to cut the dirt, rough up the gelcoat and see what we had from that point. It was at this point that the rear hatch cover split separated as the adhesive holding it together gave out. All of the cracks had to be ground out to make room for a good bond with fiberglass reinforced epoxy, used as a filling agent, and any loose pieces removed or reattached with epoxy. Unable to reglue the interior of the seam break, rivets were used to reattach the hull to the deck and the joint reinforced with
the fiberglass/epoxy mix.

Final fairing was completed with a fairing compound/bondo mix and sanded to final shape. I am a big fan of duralux marine paint and used Cruser Blue on the deck and white on the hull. The cockpit coaming will be painted black with the same paint.

The fittings were cleaned and polished up with a good bit of armor all, perimeter rope replaced and new bungees attached. New toggles and a couple of buckles that couldn't be saved replaced and this boat is ready to go back on the water!