JEM Watercraft

After a little over a year of hard use and lots of enjoyable paddling, it is time to fix some of the problems I created during my first build. Not sealing the wood with epoxy completely and using Gorilla Glue to make the splices caused some problems that only time made came to light.

This is my Laker when first completed.


After a year or so of use, she is looking a little worse for the wear


She doesn't look too bad until you take a closer look





The first spot is from saltwater intrusion through some gaps in the epoxy.
The second and third shots are where the bulkhead behind the seat is. It is a sealed bulkhead. I can only assume that moisture seeped in and caused the mildew. Because there is no ventilation, the moisture could not get out. Since I stored my Laker on the top of my truck for most of it's life, the Florida sun took quite tole on the epoxy.

The epoxy on the bottom will need to be sanded and I will put a good coat of graphite over it.



The dark spot along the center splice is from the gorilla glue used for the splice.


Concrete boat ramps are not kayak friendly.


The epoxy is showing how much the sun has cooked it. Notice the bright shiney surface is gone and it looks like it has been sanded. More signs of sun damage.

The sides will be sanded down and as much of the mildew cleaned up as possible. the sides will then be painted white. I am also putting a hatch in the back for storage and ventilation. Will post pics as I get more done.

Did you coat that boat with spar varnish?
Ron

No varnish on the bottom. The deck and sides did have varnish on them. Looking back, since the kayak spent most of the time with the bottom up on my truck, I should have put a good coat on the bottom as well. The top deck and sides are not breaking down like the bottom. The mildew is under the epoxy and came from not sealing the inside as well as i should have. Bubbles in the fibreglass when doing the inside and the water getting into them caused much of that problem. When doing the inside, I said to myself, 'Nobody will see it, so that is good enough'. WRONG....things like that always come back to bite you in the butt. I have learned and did better on the second one, the Buccaneer for my grandson.

Sometimes the damage can be undone with a runny epoxy mix to soak into the bad spots. Smiths Penetrating Epoxy is designed to do just that for marine repairs.
I located some at Jamestown Distributes and used it for some repair work on the wood here at the house.
From your pictures it looks like you will have some major repair work , I sure wish it is not as bad as the pictures make it.

If you do not want to get any then the epoxy you used to make the boat should work if it is thinned out with some acetone so it would soak into the bad areas. Getting it into the damaged wood will be a lot of fun.

Here in Florida it is best to keep a wood boat under some cover and not out in the weather when it is not being used.

Chuck.

It is not as bad as it looks in the pictures. Just surface stuff. A little sanding will get most of it cleaned up. I will try your suggestion of the acetone mix. I will check around to see if anyone carries the penetrating epoxy you mentioned, maybe West Marine over here.