: So my wife and I were kayaking in the Ross Lake Wilderness area of
: Washington State last week and I had a small accident on the
: trip (an incredible trip that I highly recommend). I was
: distracted while close shore, fully underway, and fully loaded
: (the kayaks probably had eighty pounds of gear in them). I
: looked forward just in time to watch as the stern nailed, and I
: mean really nailed, a partially exposed but mostly submerged
: rock. The long and short was the boat did fine, but a portion of
: the keel was scraped through to the wood.

: It was a small area of exposure, about an inch, and I sealed it
: with air mattress cement. Remarkably the sealant worked very
: well and it held up all the way to the end of the trip.

: So now it is time to make a real repair and I'm taking this
: opportunity to add a layer of glass tape along the keel line. To
: this point the bottom has been just a layer of 6oz cloth.

: My question to you all here is, what applicator do you all like to
: use for this type of work? I've done repairs before and found
: dripping to be an issue as I use a slow hardener.

: Thoughts?

Although it adds weight, might consider a conventional keel strip, though many accidents don't actually hit the keel rather just off to one side, rocks arn't always in convient spots ;)

I like the graphite/epoxy bottom though it too adds weight, it is very damage resistant so might be worth the weight gain, doing it means you can just treat the boat like a poly boat, dragging it anywhere you want.

Bill H.