interior adhesive eyelets - source?

[cougarmeat]

On an earlier boat, I learned my lesson - sort of; some things I have to "learn" more than once. I wanted to stabilize the moveable foam seat in my kayak by putting a Velcro® patch on the bottom of the seat and the hull. But I had too much "stick" area on the patch so the two pieces of Velcro® stuck together more than the hull piece would stick to the hull. I finally cut it back to the right size so the bottom piece stays on the hull, but I can still lift the seat off to move it a little. I may have had to sand the hull a little or add spray-on adhesive; it was long ago.

Two current projects are to 1) repeat that Velcro® "anchor" on the foam seat of another kayak and also add some eyelets to the underside of the deck. I repeated my mistake with part 1) the two pieces of Velcro® stick to each other stronger than sticking to the bottom of the boat. I've cut the area down quite a bit but still can't get that bottom piece to stick. Any suggestions for making that bond more "adhesiable"?

For the second project, I've seen patches with D-rings people have added to their boat. There are already eyelets on the top of the deck, I've seen one place where instead of just putting nuts on the screws under the deck, another eyelet was added (to the same screws) under the deck. But it wasn't done to every eyelet. In order to add something like that, I'd probably have to mess with the waterproofing/sealer used on the nuts. I'd prefer to leave that alone (don't fix what's not broken) and add two or four D-rings that are on patches. They won't be holding anything heavy - just a thin plastic shelf that holds maybe a GPS or iPad Mini. Perhaps a pump and paddle float - but not all four!

I'm guessing the prep I'd have to do to make those patches stick on the fiberglass would be the same as I'll have to do with the Velcro®?

Suggestions please.

 

[JohnAbercrombie]

The best stick-on gear loops I've seen were made by Sea to Summit (?). A friend installed some and they worked really well , but when she/we searched online for more , they were no longer available. If you find some, please let me know!

It's not a big deal to swap deck machine screws for longer versions (if necessary) and add a 'P-clip' to the underside...if the nuts are exposed under the deck, not covered with a blob of thickened resin and cloth. (Looking at YOU, NDK/SKUK and others....)

 

[mick_allen]

I have always been concerned that seat bottom velcro adherence gets compromised by seawater, crud, and continual micro seat movements, as well as having to forcefully lift it up to move. So for one foam seat, where the foam touches the kayak sides I used 4" wide velcro maybe 5-6 in long, cut it in half lengthwise, glued one half cut horiz on the seat and the other half cut put up the kayak side and then overlayed the uncut 4" wide opposite layer over the top and bent into a 90deg angle. I think about 6"long. Worked fine especially as the velcro overlay could be removed by peeling up so that the force on the adhesive was small. Oh yeah, the adhesive used was aquaseal or shoegoo.

Having it semi-easy to remove allowed using the seat as a campseat occasionally as well - without compromising the seat adherence.
So an option.

 

[cougarmeat]

Thank you Mick. The "stick" isn't so much to allow moving the seat as it is to keep it in place once I decide where I want it - without a permanent commitment to its location. Once I got it to work on my Mariner Express - it's been just fine. The seat stays put but I can play with the setting if I want. The trick is - for a short guy like me - to put the seat back as far as possible for entry/exit leg clearance while still being able to lock the thighs against the hull during a brace/roll. A big part of the solution was to minimize the surface area of the piece on the bottom of the hull so it grabbed, but not too much.

I see what you mean by putting it on the "dry" sides instead of the bottom of the boat where it is subject to more "environmental stress".

 

[Kayak Jim]

I used Velcro to secure the nylon fabric covered foam seat to the bottom of my stitch n' glue boat- two pieces about 2"X2" and two about 2"X3" and regularly pull the seat for drying with no issue lifting the adhesive. It's been 20+ years although that boat has had fairly light use and much of it in the fresh water of the Great Lakes. I used a marine contact cement branded Perception, doubt it's still around but suspect Vinyl-Tec 2000 is similar. Used the same stuff for the d-ring patches in my poly Prijon and that's one tough gluing application.