# kayak repair



## Ture (Apr 12, 2004)

Hey Paul,
I cracked my Embudo last year and here is how I fixed it:

1) the day it happened I was on the Encampment River and still had several miles to the takeout. We used a lighter to warm up the plastic on the outside and applied the duct tape. It held for the rest of the day in several miles of class III/IV water. Amazing. I keep several feet of duct tape wrapped around the center of my paddle shaft for just such emergencies.

2) for a permanent patch when I got home I got a piece of that roofing tape. It is supersticky tar on one side and aluminum foil on the other. I drilled the ends of the crack so it won't propagate, scuffed it with sandpaper, cleaned it up with alcholol, and got a heat gun (a hair dryer will do) and heated up the plastic and the patch. I put the patch on the inside of the boat. On the outside I put duct tape. The duct tape will sometimes last for an entire run like Black Rock on Clear Creek and sometimes not, but it doesn't leak with the patch on the inside anyways.

This is important, use contact cement to glue a piece of outfitting foam on top of your patch (on the inside of the boat) so that the seat doesn't tear up the patch when it flexes on it. The roofing tape is susceptible to tearing if the seat is cranking on it all day long.

I used my Embudo for probably about 10 or 15 days on IV/IV+/V- creeks with this patch and it is bomber.


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## peterB (Nov 21, 2003)

Depends on the make of the kayak. If they are linear plasitc:

Perception, Dagger, Liguid logic, Recent Wave sport then 
cut small sliver from the cockpick rim with a pocket knife
Tape some alluminum foil to the inside of the boat if you can
Heat area with heat gun until it is just barely shiney, not molten.
Heat plastic slivers at the same time by holding in front of heat gun as you heat the boat. 
When both are shiney touch them together and lay sliver along the hole.
Push gently with finger covered in aluminum foil. 


Repeated over heating will weaken the boat but it is not to hard. Practice a little on the cockpit rim to figure out temperature first. 
the Heat gun needs a nozzle that focuses the heat. there are specific nozzles for plastic welding but you could just about do it with your crack pipe torch.

Crosslink boats - Duck tape repeatedly because you can not permenately fix.

Crosslink - Jackson, old Wave sport - up to EZ I think, Riot but Now they use linear.

Prijon I think you can weld but not sure. Pyranha I think is a form of linear as well. 

Peter


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## KT (Feb 23, 2004)

On the welding tip - something I picked up from Johnny St. John @ Hog Island Boatworks - before you weld - melt metal screen into the plastic on both sides of crack - weld over top - inside and out.


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## IkayakNboard (May 12, 2005)

Yeah, it totally depends on the boat. I put a hole in my dagger many years ago, and Hobie had some folks at Dagger send me strips of their plastic, in the same color of my boat, along with instructions on how to repair. All you need is a lighter and the plastic. Crosslink and HTP will require a different solution, like the one described by Ture. Contact the mfgr, they can probably help out more.


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