Hi Everyone,

It's about time we uploaded a new video tutorial! - This time, it's a straight forward, easy-to-follow guide to making a light to medium structual repair to a damaged composite kayak, canoe or boat. There's no special equipment necessary we just use a top quality epoxy repair resin, carbon/kevlar reinforcement and release film stretched tight to make effective, neat repairs to the hull.

Even if you don't have a boat (let alone a damaged one) then you'll probably still find some of the techniques used here of interest for your own projects.

Here's a link to the Kayak Repair Tutorial in our Online Composites Learning Centre.

I'll embed the video below but don't forget, we shoot all these in full High Definition so for a better quality version, please view on YouTube or the Learning Centre and choose 'HD'.



Any questions or feedback welcome.

Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

Another cracking video! So who is into Kayaking and had a "Whoopsie" moment?

Thanks, reasonably conventional stuff but have quite a bit of experience of this kind of repair and so I like to think we've provided some better advice than is generally out there.

RE the boat; it's one of our customers, he's a keen water polo player and I think pretty hefty collisions are a daily occurence. He came in for some advice about how to do the repair and we said if he leant us the Kayak for a few days we'd do the repair and make a video at the same time.

Stay tuned for some more of our advanced composites vids. They're a little way off because it's another whole series but as ever, we hope it will be worth it!

Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

Hi

I am looking to buy a second hand boat with similar damage through out the underside of the hull. Is it possible to repair the breakthrough's just as you have done then cover the complete underside to give the impression of a new hull, using the method you have described?

The repair media would be black diolen, with an expoxy that hopefully cures a bit slower.

cheers

Hi Fubarvader,

Yes, you could certainly repair a whole hull in the way that we do the small patch in the video. You would have  alot more areas to pay attention to though so when doing the filming and squaeegying through you would indeed need a much slower resin/hardener. I would suggest our EL2 laminating resin using the SLOW hardener. This will give you at least 1-2hrs working time on the hull (once the resin has been spread out over the hull it will slow the reaction down considerably) whilst you get it wet through properly, filmed pulled tight and any air bubbles worked out of it.

The cure time on the EL2 using a slow hardener will then be very slow (like 24hrs) but I this is well worth it to ensure that the resin doesn't start curing on your whilst you're still working on the hull.

I hope this helps. Post some pics of the project because it sounds interesting.

Best regards, Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

Sorry to dissapoint, in the end i brought an undamaged boat. But thanks for the info i may need it in the future.

As a paddler I've learned that one by trial and epic error!  What would be REALLY useful would be a similar one for foam cored boats where you cant get down inside to adequately repair the inside skin.  I imagine you'd have to sand out the foam, refoam, and patch the outer skin??

I love the old revenge.  Top polo boat!

Interest video.

Is there not a design fault here  however ?. The repair may not be strong enough for this customers application.

Should the KAYAK not have been repaired using carbon/dyneema fabric to absorb the shocks or is there a compatibility problem with easy composites resins because of the dyneema content

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Regards,

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Maggie

Hi Maggie,

No, there is no 'design fault'. The Kayak itself is made from a carbon/Kevlar hybrid fabric. The repair is made from a matching carbon/kevlar hybrid. Kevlar, like Dyneema, is a high tenacity synthetic fibre. In fact, Kevlar (and other Aramid fibres) are much more common in canoe and kayak production than Dyneema. The repair we've made in this video is perfectly suited to the job and will provide the stiffness and impact resistance neccessary to keep this hull strong for years.

Dyneema (or more likely a UHMWPE fibre from another manufacturer) is a very interesting fibre with impressive elongation-to-break and abrasion resistant properties but, as you've alluded to, it is extremely difficult to bond to and generally needs to be used layered between reinforcement that is easier to bond to. There is no incompatibilty between our epoxy and UHMWPE fibre any more than there is with most epoxies and UHMWPE; this type of fibre is just very difficult for resin matrixes to bond to (you can completely forget polyester and most vinylesters).

One thing I can say for sure, this repair will be sound and virtualy all such repairs (and the majority of boat constructions in the first place) use glass, carbon, carbon/aramid, or diolen. Dyneema hulls exist but they need to be carefully designed to exploit the properties of the fibre whilst circumnavigating its dissadvantages.

I hope this clarifies the situation for you.

Best regards, Matt


Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

Great tutorial. I have just purchased a carbon/kevlar boat which has a couple of areas which might need the epoxy resin restoring.