JEM Watercraft

I built the hot air perow a couple of years ago, it was my second boat. I listened to a lot of folks about building lighter and that running tape on the seams was all you needed.
I built a 15 ft long 34 inch wide boat that came in at 42 lbs. I was happy with it and used it for a while until I built the T-V and it became my favorite.
My son in law ( waterbuggy) started using it on the Brazos and the other places we fish. He hung up on a rock a couple trips ago and we noticed it had a crack inside.

Today I cleaned the boat up and inspected it I found three cracks all on the inside ,nothing leaking just the wood fractured. Inspected the outside of the hull no damage that I can find.
I took a dremel tool ran down the center of the cracks ,going about 2/3 of the way through the ply ,fileed that with resin then wet the inside down and put a layer of cloth down. she is ready to paddle again.
There were no cracks anywhere the cloth had been applied inside.
Every fracture I have seen in a wood boat was inside,and in most cases where just a saturation coat and no cloth was applied.
So if you are thinking about building a boat with just tape on the seams BEWARE it is not worth the few lbs you save.
Ron

tx river rat wrote:I built the hot air perow a couple of years ago, it was my second boat. I listened to a lot of folks about building lighter and that running tape on the seams was all you needed.
I built a 15 ft long 34 inch wide boat that came in at 42 lbs. I was happy with it and used it for a while until I built the T-V and it became my favorite.
My son in law ( waterbuggy) started using it on the Brazos and the other places we fish. He hung up on a rock a couple trips ago and we noticed it had a crack inside.

Today I cleaned the boat up and inspected it I found three cracks all on the inside ,nothing leaking just the wood fractured. Inspected the outside of the hull no damage that I can find.
I took a dremel tool ran down the center of the cracks ,going about 2/3 of the way through the ply ,fileed that with resin then wet the inside down and put a layer of cloth down. she is ready to paddle again.
There were no cracks anywhere the cloth had been applied inside.
Every fracture I have seen in a wood boat was inside,and in most cases where just a saturation coat and no cloth was applied.
So if you are thinking about building a boat with just tape on the seams BEWARE it is not worth the few lbs you save.
Ron

Thanks for the info Ron!