Vintage Wooden Gunwaled Dagger Ocoee Repair Questions

[Gonzo]

Dudes!

Some drunk-flower butted butt boater dropped my Ocoee off his truck racks & split the stern right end of my wooden gunwales. I've already dried it out in the house, backed-out the last several screws allowing it to straighten back out to make room for wood clamps, injected Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Glue Max into the crack & clamped it overnight.

Now that the clamps are off & the repair appears to be holding, I'm eager to finish up & catch some of that blessed water 'dem GDI boys have been getting up on the plateau. But before I can go, I've got a couple of other repairs to make.

First & foremost, the same stern end has a baseball sized dent in the royalex. Probably from one of those low-water FU rock ledges on the Ocoee. I've already tried pouring near boiling hot water into that end of the hull & working out the dent with an aluminum baseball bat. But that didn't work. I would'nt be concerned about the dent except for the fact that a similar dent eventually cracked open on my previous Ocoee & ultimately proved irrepairable. So I'd like to do whatever I can to fix this one before the hull gets any older & more brittle. At my age I don't need anymore snaggle-toothed leaky open boats.

Any suggestions?

Second, when I was initially outfitting this new boat, I hot-knifed my original Team Edge pedestal out of the old screwed-up hull & contact cemented it into my new one. The good news is it's got reinforced adjustable foot braces & still works just like Frankie intended. The bad news is, it's shrinking in height & sitting me lower & lower in the boat as it does. While that's great for my center of gravity; it's not so much for my knees, thighs & calfs cramping. I'd like to build the seat portion back up an inch or two but don't know what type of material &/or adhesives to use. Hypalon? Neoprene? Contact Cement?

Any suggestions?

Last, but not least, the "heavy-duty" NOC d-ring dog bones I used to anchor my double thigh straps onto the sides & in front of the pedestal are failing. By this I mean their attachment to the hull remains strong. The problem's with the reinforcing around the d-rings themselves which is already tearing after less than 80-100 days of use (less than 2 years old). WTF? This kinda large steaming pile of dog doo never happened with Frankie's outfitting!

I don't want to risk de-laminating the ABS by prying these pieces of large steaming pile of dog doo off the hull which is otherwise still in great shape. What type of adhesive should I use to slow down the tearing & should I try to stitch closed the tears before applying it?

Thanks for your suggestions & timely responses. I'm not much of a handiman (or boater for that matter); but I am jonesin' to get out on the water asap.

Teddy Bear anyone?

[Todhunter]

For building the seat back up, use minicell foam and weldwood contact cement. Build it up and shape it back down to size.

For the dent - have you tried using a heat gun to heat both the inside and outside before pushing on the dent? If it was summer, I'd recommend setting it outside on a really hot day for a few hours before working on it.

Hope there is still water up there in TN on Sunday...

[milkman]

For the Ocoee you thought was irreparable, see: http://youtu.be/reWFyNCs6tM

For a Phantom with a bashed-in bow, I pushed out the dent (not sure why that's not working for you), then glued a sheet of ABS on the inside of the bow with g/flex that because of the bend I put in the ABS sheet, applied a constant outward pressure to the bow. I then used g/flex to glue a RecRepair skid plate on the outside. This repair has been bomber.

[Cheeks]

Sounds like a total loss. I'll give you 200 bucks for it...

[Gonzo]

Thanks for the constructive posts Todhunter & Milkman. Chris - - not so much -- I guess that's why they call it the sucks?

Still looking for advice & suggestions on the d-ring repairs. I've got some 2 part Loctite Marine Epoxy but I'm still concerned about the heat of the curing reaction cooking &/or delaminating the chines & boof zone in front of the saddle.

D'em GDI boy's from Waldensridge seem to prefer Performix's Vnya Bond. So if you've got any real world experience with either & useful advice please holler back asap. More rain's coming to NE AL & NW GA tonight.

[Shep]

Epoxies that you would use for boat repair (including the grey marine epoxy) do not cure that hot unless you have way too much of them. I personally go for G-Flex over either Vyna-Bond or Marine Epoxy. YMMV.

Shep

[milkman]

Last, but not least, the "heavy-duty" NOC d-ring dog bones I used to anchor my double thigh straps onto the sides & in front of the pedestal are failing. By this I mean their attachment to the hull remains strong. The problem's with the reinforcing around the d-rings themselves which is already tearing after less than 80-100 days of use (less than 2 years old). WTF? This kinda large steaming pile of dog doo never happened with Frankie's outfitting!

I don't want to risk de-laminating the ABS by prying these pieces of large steaming pile of dog doo off the hull which is otherwise still in great shape. What type of adhesive should I use to slow down the tearing & should I try to stitch closed the tears before applying it?

I've had this problem as well before. The pad itself is well glued-in, so you don't want to mess with that. What I've done in this situation is cut out the D-ring (and in cases where it's held by fabric, the fabric and threads) using a razor blade. Then I've cleaned the pad really well with 99% rubbing alcohol and glued a new pad and D-ring onto it. Use vynabond to glue vinyl to vinyl. In boats where I've done this (glued pads to existing pads) the pads have held great.

By the way, one essential trick with vynabond is once you've laid a patch down in place, apply heat with a heat gun or hair dryer to get the glue to really form a strong bond. Heat it just until it's almost too hot to touch.

[Paddle Power]

I like Milkman's suggestion,

I've had this problem as well before. The pad itself is well glued-in, so you don't want to mess with that. What I've done in this situation is cut out the D-ring (and in cases where it's held by fabric, the fabric and threads) using a razor blade. Then I've cleaned the pad really well with 99% rubbing alcohol and glued a new pad and D-ring onto it. Use vynabond to glue vinyl to vinyl.