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New (to me) Winter Project

Kevlar would provide better abrasion resistance but in my experience tends to get fuzzy if you try to sand it. Assuming that the grit on my heels acts like slow motion sandpaper, I'd rather have something that's easier to work with long term.
 
John's post moments before mine does a better job of explaining it, perhaps.

Although another option would be to embrace the fuzz and go for a kevlar felt, which when saturated with resin cures to a texture similar to anti-slip take you sometimes see on stairs.
 
Assuming that the grit on my heels acts like slow motion sandpaper, I'd rather have something that's easier to work with long term.
One advantage (of many) of a full footboard is that there's less heel motion than with standard footpegs at the sides of the hull.
Or, at least it's easier to control/minimize heel motion with a full footboard.
But even tiny movements can act like a slow grinder, as you say.
In one boat I had a footboard that rested on the hull- the edge of it ground through a double layer of 6 oz glass in short order. Luckily ( :) ) it was a wood-core composite, so no risk of sinking! But I fixed it with a hefty reinforcing layer and added a split hose to the footboard, whcih seems to have solved the problem.
 
Thanks for this info. The reason I asked is that I have used Kevlar cloth for this very purpose and it seems to have held up well.

I saw the underside of a rally car recently and it had massive skid plates made from Kevlar. Fully 1cm thick and wrapping around vulnerable parts; it was gorgeous! The cost of the vehicle was over $250,000 so a bit more than our kayaks!
 
I headed out to a nearby lake for a test paddle this morning.
The difference in stability is phenomenal.

Primary stability has shot up dramatically. When discussing it after the first paddle I mused that primary stability was 1/10 and secondary was about a 4.
That was with a loose seat scooted way forward so I could reach those awful pedals.
Now that the seat is in the vicinity of where the designers intended and the pedals have been brought towards the seat I would say initial stability is about a 5½/10 and secondary is a 6.
I imagine with some connection between knees and deck that this would only improve.

Who could have predicted that having the seat loose would have had such a negative effect?;)

The only time that it's feeling a bit dodgy as far as stability is concerned is when getting into it. But this should improve with practice.

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Whereas when I paddled it last time I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures, this time it was no problem. Even was able to lean out and take some crappy shots from the side.

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So next step is probably disassembling everything and taking it into the shop.
The pedals worked a treat, so I'll be replacing the plywood with something a bit more waterproof.

Oh, I also tried a few re-entries. No connection with the knees yet, so I doubt my marginal roll would have been worth attempting. However I did find that with a paddle slipped under the rear deck lines it was pretty simple to hop back in. I didn't bother with a paddle float, just using the blade as a sort of hands free brace. This makes me feel quite a bit more confident about taking it out on more adventurous paddles.
 
Very interesting.
Is the seat lower than before?
I was surprised to find (years ago) that even a cm difference in seat height was detectable as a change in 'feel' - and I wasn't very skilled at all.
 
The foam originally under the seat:
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There were 4 layers of foam at the front, and I think 5 at the back. Each layer was about just under half an inch thick.
Now it's got around a quarter inch under the front, perhaps a half inch under the seat proper.
So I'd guess it's lower by about 1.75" or so.
 
I hadn't heard of those, but I can certainly see they would be effective for that purpose.

My Necky has a little inflatable pad under the seat, it has a noticeable effect on the feel of the boat. It inflates maybe half an inch or so.

I forgot about the pad that was affixed to the top of the seat. So I removed maybe another ⅜".
 
Took the boat into the shop for a bit of glassing before the start of my shift.

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Started by removing the hardware and sanding the areas around the holes, as well as the area near were there was heel wear.

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Each area got two layers of 6 oz S glass. Not a huge amount of care went into selection of weight. There was a suitable scrap piece available. A layer of release fabric overtop and I called it good. I had a few drips, but I wiped them up. Been a while since I did any glassing.

I also filled in the ding on the leading edge of the bow when the resin was starting to get a bit thicker. Slapped a piece of packing tape on to hold it in place. There are some voids in the resin from the original layup that I only noticed when I was sanding the area on my lunch break. I may fill those later if they bother me enough.

I also did the same treatment on the stern most section of the hull where there was a small patch rubbed through one layer of cloth. Looked like the damage done by dragging through sand. 2 small patches of S glass and a layer of release fabric to get everything nice and smooth.

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I've peeled off the release fabric and things are looking good. Didn't get pictures yet as the day got pretty busy.

Also mixed up resin thickened with Aerosil and uses that to fill the large holes now that they're backed with glass. That should be a suitably strong fill. As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to out a sticker over it once I get the hull cleaned up, so not too concerned about a perfect match. If that doesn't work we have some carbon/kevlar material that would be a pretty close match. But I know two different weaves would drive me nuts.
 
At work we've got a blue gelcoat that's close enough for me to live with. I used it to fill the damages area on the deck. Notably the very bow..
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The section where the little deck line retaining 'bead' had cracked the gelcoat on deck,as well as the hole the previous owner had drilled into the deck in an attempt to rig shock cord to keep the pedals upright.

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Knowing that I'd never get a perfect match (I didn't have any glitter around) I am pretty happy with how they came out. Definitely not perfect, but hey, neither am I.

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I also filled the ding at the front of the bow with a bit of clear resin. This I am very happy with. I can't remember where the chip was.







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Here's a shot showing the patch of the largest holes. This has 2 layers of 6 oz S glass behind it, with Aerosil thickened resin to fill the hole.

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I'm currently working on the next iteration of the foot pedals. Should hopefully have some photos soon.
 
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Front side and backside of the pedals. I'm curious to see how this holds up. The foam is fairly stiff, plus the kevlar on either side. Fairly susceptible to crushing, as evidenced by the fasteners smooshing things a little. But very resistant to bending.

Anyways, I slapped on some neoprene foam on the face. I'll slip a little foam under the foot pedals too. Thinking I'll just pin it in place with the pedals, then if I need to replace it or repair underneath it's not a big hassle.

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While I was at it I smeared some sealant around the rear foam bulkhead. Whatever was used as a fillet is still nice and hard, but the foam pulled away a bit. I put a little lexel to fill the small gap.

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I also added the strings to prevent losing hatches, inspired by a post on the forum earlier today.

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So that takes care of most of the things on the "to-do" list. I'm waiting on a spring for the rudder, and will probably paint the main body of it at some point.
The hatches have been replaced with Sealect covers.

I'm thinking of gathering up all the receipts and seeing what I spent on this little renovation. Biggest cost was probably all the stainless washers, bolts, and nuts. Little things get pricey.
 
So unless I'm forgetting something (which I probably am) total cost was about $300 to replace hatches, make a seat hanger from scratch, remove and rebuild the foot controls (including buying some cut-off wheels), build a mounting system for aforementioned foot controls, restore the rudder to working order, replace rudder lines (both deployment and steering), and do a bit of light glassing/gel fills.

Not included is my own labour, but if we view this as fun time (which it is) and compare the cost to other things I could do for amusement, this is basically free.
 
Sounds good! And looks good! :thumbsup:
BTW, I like to have both 'regular' and 'tandem' (longer) SmartTrack blades. The blades come with the spring, and I found it almost as cheap to buy the blade+spring as to get the spring alone.
 
Another little bit of work, though not directly related to the boat.
The Snapdragon skirt that came with the boat had a small hole where the very pointy front of the cockpit coaming was working through.

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I wanted to prevent that from growing, so tore off the bottom of the deck bag that was thrown in with the boat. It was already falling apart, so I wasn't going to use it.

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I used some Velcro brand fabric adhesive to slap on the patch.

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We'll see how that holds up. Hopefully it doesn't impede removing the skirt. Ideally I don't have to sew anything. But I have plenty of material left over if I need to try again.

I've also been giving more thought to the thigh braces. I think I'll use minicell foam, and try to keep them fairly minimal. Just enough to hook the knees into if it gets lumpy.
 
I have used it for glueing fabric, which is generally what it's marketed for. The material from the deck bag had a fabric side, which makes me fairly optimistic.

Regrettably it seems they've discontinued production of this glue.
 
As a quick and dirty means of testing out different thigh hooks I picked up some pieces of foam typically used for outfitting canoes.

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They come with a nice curve carved in already, as well as peel and stick adhesive that's good enough for a few paddles while not being too difficult to remove when I want to adjust them.

I trimmed away most of the foam and adjusted things until I got a shape that might work.

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Obviously they're a little thicker than perhaps needed, but they feel decent. For the final setup is likely wrap the foam down the outside of the hull too, for a bit of padding in that orientation.

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My knees fit between the foam for 'knee up' paddling, and it's easy to swap to a position that uses the braces.
I will likely trim the inner edges of the foam back a bit, but figured I would take it out for a paddle and see if that provides any other revelations first.
 
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