Well, I am not one to let dogs lay, as some will tell you. Busted out the Sander and started ‘cleaning’ up the seams and deck areas where I know the worst damage is on this ‘new to me’ piece of history I picked up on Friday.
Man, its a mess. Someone had tried to reseal the seam with what looks like 10oz fiberglass tape and epoxy. The problem is, the leaky side was inside, and that allowed the damage to ‘grow’ from there. The soft spots in the deck look like they were from impacts: like slamming into a rock or something while in water, and same problem, the damage was exposed fiberglass fibers on the inside and the damage grew along the glass. Gonna be lots of clean up of the deck, getting rid of the damaged glass and putting new in place (with no mold to hold things, I am going to have to get creative here.)
AND, I honestly feel that separating the deck and hull and completely replacing the seam tape, inside and out would be the best bet.
Not gonna happen today, obviously,,,, But at least I have a better understanding of what is going to be needed. (and sweat makes up a LARGE portion of that,,,)
I even put her down on the ground and got in again, just to feel that super-snug cockpit, did a lay back on the back deck to see how that felt and did torso twists to see how far I could shift comfortably.
The best kayak is one that fits you like your pants, this one does, even better than Blue Jean does: about the difference between a tight pair of levis to a comfortable pair of casual jeans. Both fit, but one is like a second skin.
I can even ‘gorilla knuckle’ the ground and lift myself AND the boat off the ground with nothing more than a slight flex of my knees to hold the boat steady.
Thats what she should look like, and I even found that white circle fore of the cockpit, underneath that house paint that someone tried to hide all the damage with. (the circle is for the race numbers to painted on,,,)(last owner was NOT the culprit on that, he wanted to do the same thing I am doing and had some life changes that intervened. He was stripping the deck before putting up for ‘come and get it’.)
Now, I am a realist: this boat may NEVER ever see water again. It depends on several factors, mostly involving me. Financially, she may be that proverbial hole in the water you throw money into, and if I start feeling like that is the case; Fini. I have better things to spend that much money on, than to revive an older much-abused boat. BUT, that’s not to say I would just scrap her. Scrap in my world is key to other projects. And that cockpit coming and seat could get cut out for some other project boat I get into or start. Nothing at all wrong with either and they are, essentially, one piece. The foot-pegs are solid ( I finally noted that, yes, I did have my feet on them the first time, I was just so distracted by the feel of a super-snug cockpit, I hadn’t noticed.) and I could figure something out with the rest. Dunno what, but I usually find some way of repurposing things, in some of the most outlandish of ways.
The other reason, I may get to a point where she has nothing left to teach me (fiberglass work-wise) and still have more than a year of repair to be sea-worthy again. I may at that point do the same thing I mentioned above. A long boat (and four meters is LONG in a whitewater boat. In comparison, the Pirouette was 3 meters and she was considered a long slalom boat.) in glass IS what I want, but I want something meant for OPEN waters, capable of tracking without need of outside influences like a rudder or skeg. Those are aids, but the above boat would need them just to paddle a line, not as an aid, but as a very large crutch.
But to learn IS why I picked her up, and that process has started. Clean up is always the worst, no matter what the project and I still have several square feet of deck and bad spots to find (and find them I will. I can already tell.)
Dio's Workshop 