> Kelly

> If you want to make the keel areas more durable it is not necessary to sew
> on any more canvas. Laminate or glue it on. This eliminates puckering from
> sewing pieces that shrink differently, and it eliminates needle holes and
> thereasd that might wick water into the interior.

> The process is pretty simple and straight- forward: After you put on a
> couple coats of the waterproofing material (whether it is roof coating or
> oilbased paint or whatever) your hull is basically sealed. Anything you
> put on after this will simply serve as additional protection.

> Put on a fresh coat of your paint or sealant along the area you want to
> reinforce. While this is still wet, lay on a precut strip of canvas, and
> roll along it, or pat it gently so that it seats nicely. If you don't have
> a single strip long enough to cover, you can use shorter pieces. Jsut be
> sure that anywhere you join or overlap the canvas you lay down a fresh
> layer of paoint ot bed th is canvas in. The canvas should soak up a bit of
> the waterproofing. Now put on a coat of your paint or roofing material to
> seal this canvas. When it all cures the extra layer will be permanently
> bonded in place.

> I was using the snow wite elastomeric roof coating and simply put on a
> fresh coat of this on the bow. Then I draped a precut piece of canvas
> over, and gently poked it into place. I then covered this with more roof
> coating. In effect, I glued on the canvas and then sealed it. After a few
> days I put on a few more coats over the entire hull. The reinforcing
> material is firmly fixed in place.

> You dont have to do this now, by the way. You might want to paddle the
> boat for a few weeks and look at scratch marks to see where you should
> reinforce. If you do this, wash the boat well before applying more paint
> to it, so you can first remove any dirt from your paddling adventures.

> You may want to take a few square feet of canvas and cover them with your
> waterproofing paint or compound. Let them dry and cure at the same time as
> the rest of the boat. Take these with on trips for use as patching
> material. Ou can apply this to your boat with rubber cement or contact
> cement. It looks a lot neater that patching with duct tape. To hold the
> patch in place, coat the area areound the damage with rubbercement or
> contact cement. Do the same for the 'insde' of the patch. Let both dry.
> When they are completely dry, position the patch over the damaged area and
> press it into position. You should be able to use the boat immediately.

> Hope this helps.

> Paul G, Jacobson

> Hope this helps.

> Paul G. Jacobson

Paul,

As always, thanks for such a detailed reply! I think one would be able to take all of your ideas posted so far, add a front and back cover and call it a manual!!

The problem I have, though, is that the material I can get locally is only 90 cm wide. The sheer to sheer distance on the hull is about 88-89 cm at the widest point, with the deck around 75cm. So, I cannot use a single width of canvas to cover both hull and deck, stitching it together along the centre of the deck as suggested in the instructions for this kayak (Alaska Recovery-Sea Kayaker mag.) This leaves me with the two ideas I had. 1)Use the two widths to cover the hull and deck 'seperately', stitching along the sheer on both sides. Or 2), sew the two widths of canvas together first to create one 180 cm. width (minus overlap for the seam) and use this to cover the whole thing and sew along deck centre.

It would be in doing this second method that I thought I could make the overlap for the seam an inch wide, serving as an extra thick area along the keel. My concern in doing this would be the problem you addressed with needle holes and thread wicking water. Is this still a problem after sealing the canvas with paint or regular outdoor varnish?

I really like your idea of making patch material...just hope I never really need to use it!

Kelly