Re: Shearwater/deck insta

Posted by LeeG on May 30, 2006

in a typical 7'-8' ceiling garage tilt the kayak on it's side with one end to the ceiling and the other to the floor. The idea is to let gravity run slightly thickened epoxy to the ends along the seam.

Assuming the hatches are all cut out you can work through the hatches.

With a syringe or very slow pouring dixie cup run slightly thickened epoxy down the sheer seam so that it flows to the ends. You're doing two things at once, making a slight fillet and end-pour. 2 1/2 oz per side might do it. It may take awhile to let it flow without making a puddle in one place. With a flashlight you should be able to see a small angled endpour develop at the end. It's probably covering 3" of the end on one side.

Measure out a length of seam tape (I've used 1 1/2" wide 6oz or 9oz tape) that goes from a few inches from the ends to a foot or so from the hatch. Maybe 40"?

When the epoxy is firmed up wet out the tape and put an inch on the end of a 36" cheap wood yardstick with the rest hanging down. It should stick enough for you to pull the tape back underneath so you can hold it with one or two hands. The tape is bowed under the yardstick and stetched between the end of the yardstick and your hand. Reach in through the hatch to the end and push the yardstick while holding the tape so that the small amount sitting on the top of the yardstick pulls off and falls onto the seam. Hopefully no stray ends on the tape are stuck to the yardstick and you can pull it right out.

If you have the hull sitting on it's side the tape will drape evenly on the center. If you totally screwup you can try with another piece of tape but I've done it this way on three kayaks and it's worked fine.

Reach back in with another yardstick/dowel with a 1" chip brush attached to the end and angled down to push the wet tape down onto the v'd seam and sides.

Put the other piece of tape to finish the job to the bulkhead. This won't require a stick and is all within arms reach.

After that side firms up turn the kayak over and work on the opposite side.

You will have a v shaped end-pour with the v oriented vertically with the kayak sitting normally bottom side down. That addresses the dificulty of getting tape to the ends.

In Response to: Shearwater/deck install by Al Freeman on May 30, 2006

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