I had a similar cracked rib in my qajaq. I took the approach of ignoring it, which seemed to work fine. It did start to abrade the skin, but not seriously. A few years later I took the skin off and cut the rib out, amongst some other small design changes. I'm almost ready to re-skin.

If you can cut the rib out without too much hassle, go for it.

: The other day I was walking by my kayak and noticed a bump in the
: skin near the stem. As i looked closer it became obvious that i
: had a broken rib. So rib #1 is broken and rib #2 is almost
: broken. (see pic Rib#1 is partly obscured by a flotation bag -
: aka wine bag :)). Rib#1 is pushing against the skin which is 12
: oz Nylon and i am not worried about it breaking through but i
: suppose over time it may begin to fray the material.

: Should i go through the process of fixing this rib or just ride it
: out? the only way i would be able to fix this is to remove the
: skin - don't really want to get into doing that.