canoe needs help

southside stray · Post by **southside stray** » Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:37 pm

I have an Esquif NITRO. Usually I leave the air bags in but took them out two months ago to carry it on a long trip. Then I saw that where I stuff my spare paddle between the air bag and hull I had cut a gouge in the inside vinyl and it was delaminating. It was dry at the time so I made up some ABS/acetone mix and applied it. 16 river trips later I am getting ready to load my boat when I saw the ABS peeled completely off. The gouge is about 5" long and the delaminated section is around it and about 18" long and 2" wide. It is kind of on the stern chine. What a terrible thing to do to my nice boat! Anybody know how I should go about fixing it?

greybear · Post by **greybear** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 12:01 am

G-flex might work, clean out the patch repair and let it dry completely. If you can inject the area of damage with the g-flex, not the thicked kind just the regular. Try and press all the air out of the area and try clamp or place weight on the repair. Once dried use the g-flex and apply a piece of dynel, maybe a smaller piece first then a larger piece. Once dry sand to a smooth finish. So far I have used it on my Viper 12 and it seems to hold good so far. Sweet compsites has both the g-flex and dynel.
Greybear