​Canoe mini-repair kit

[Guest]

I made a bunch of mini canoe repair “kits” a few years ago, but somehow missed giving them to the most suspicious characters on that distribution list. Un-recipient DougD recently arrived at a long, rough trailer-shuttle put in to find that two seat bolts were missing on his canoe. And the flange washers, nuts and seat drops. Not much of a seat there eh Doug?

Another friend, on that same trip, busted a gunwale and put it back together with a beefy cable ties.

Time to make a few more minimalist repair “kits”.

4 inch long pieces of 1 inch x ¾ inch varnished ash “seat drop” with a drilled center hole.



I re-drilled the drops to 17/64’s, just in case there is ¼ inch hardware involved, and to leave a little busted boat fitment slop, and room for a cable tie. Too long a drop can always be rough sawn shorter, even with a Swiss Army knife saw blade (watch your fingers).

Through each drilled drop:
3/16 x 5 inch long machine screw
Flange washer
Washer
Lock washer
Cap nut





That should cover any length seat drop or piece of hardware that could rattle out.

Three feet of 2 inch Gorilla tape wrapped around the drops. Three feet of 1 inch gorilla tape wrapped around the drops. Add additional Gorilla tape yer own dang self as desired.



A beefy cable tie in each repair unit. Shoulda been two per hanger, I need to add more slop in the drilled holes next batch and find my 100lb cable ties.



A mere 2 oz of insurance each.



That is an acceptable weight in the new unit of measure.



Well crap, now that they are all wrapped in duct tape I thought more about the busted gunwale issue.

Those 4 inch long wood pieces need to have two (three, five?) holes drilled through the seat drops in the other orientation, so the wood could be used as a stringer beneath a broken gunwale.

I’m not peeling that duct tape off now. Maybe the next batch, with gunwale splicing holes sized to accommodate 3mm cord or 100 lb cable ties.

I need to mail a couple or three of those to DougD for further distribution. As soon as I come up with some fake company label for the back of the package.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I now carry some epoxy putty to fix hull punctures.

When an alligator punctured and sunk my outrigger canoe in the middle of a lake in Florida, I tried to repair the punctures on a mid-lake duck hunting platform with emergency duct tape I had wrapped, years before, around my amas. Half the tape got twisted and stuck to itself as I was trying to apply it with my wet and trembling fingers. (I was standing in terror in chest deep in gator-filled waters.) The wet tape that I did apply simply WOULD NOT STICK to the wet gelcoated hull. I had never tested it, wet on wet. Maybe Gorilla tape would be different. I recommend testing it, but even so, it's adhesiveness may degrade with age.

The next day I bought some epoxy putty. Which reminds me, I should probably replace it due to age.

I had my SRT's hung solo seat collapse in the middle of the Sparkleberry Swamp in South Carolina. I had failed to tighten the wing nuts I use for quick seat removal, and two fell off and somehow got lost. Fortunately, I had some extra wing nuts, regular nuts and washers in a plastic bag stuffed inside my tubular aluminum foot brace.

 

[Guest]

I now carry some epoxy putty to fix hull punctures.


I tried to repair the punctures on a mid-lake duck hunting platform with emergency duct tape I had wrapped, years before, around my amas. Half the tape got twisted and stuck to itself as I was trying to apply it with my wet and trembling fingers. (I was standing in terror in chest deep in gator-filled waters.) The wet tape that I did apply simply WOULD NOT STICK to the wet gelcoated hull. I had never tested it, wet on wet. Maybe Gorilla tape would be different. I recommend testing it, but even so, it's adhesiveness may degrade with age.

I have some of that 2-part epoxy that comes loaded in a large double syringe in the spares and repairs kit, but I have high quality duct tape in a number of places.

A friend cracked the bottom of a glass boat on a badly executed speedbump log maneuver. We pulled his boat ashore, dried it off, let it sit in the sun for a few minutes and patched it with Nashua 357 duct tape. A couple years later I discovered that he was still paddling the boat with that fix.

Gorilla tape is pretty good and available everywhere. Nashua 357 used to be seriously bomber; thick vinyl-impregnated cloth that was near impossible to tear by hand, with a very high temperature rating, but the last roll I bought was nothing like the old 357.

Ten or 15 years ago a roll of Nashua 357 was close to $30 and hard to find. The hardware/Big Box version available now is $12. I bought a roll of that thinking “Score!”. It is not even close to the same stuff. Much thinner cloth and vinyl coating, not nearly as tenacious.

I expect there is a reason/story behind why Nashua would now make crap 357 tape. Probably the availability of Gorilla tape at the same $12 cost. Or something like Walmart’s price-point demands and off-shoring production; see the now-crap quality of most Rubbermaid products.

Fortunately, I had some extra wing nuts, regular nuts and washers in a plastic bag stuffed inside my tubular aluminum foot brace.

I like that idea, and have tubular foot braces in most of our canoes. A drilled dowel spare seat drop would fit nicely.

I have had to in-transit replace a machine screw holding one end of a strap yoke in place. I heard that machine screw ping off the car roof, followed by a lot of whapptyflappty as the webbing strap flailed around disconnected on one side.

I used a full mini repair kit on a friend’s canoe when he arrived at the put in to find one seat hanger missing in his solo canoe. Trip over, or so he thought. His amazement at my producing a hanger and hardware was reason enough to carry one. (I just stuck one in the truck tool kit as well, one commonality of that need seems to be in-transit or at-launch arrival discoveries)

And I’ve used parts of those mini repair kits for all sorts of other things; machine screws for chair repair, zip tie for missing zipper pulls on clothing or tents, nuts, bolts and washers for sundry repairs and duct tape in all manner of red neck applications.

“High quality duct tape in a number of places”. Some easily ready at hand, like wrapped around a water bottle, some put away protected.

The stuff that lives out, wrapped around a water bottle (or ama) gets wet, chewed up, abused and degraded. It is nice to have that stuff seconds from hand for a quick who-cares fix, but when I really need a duct tape fix I’ll unpack the protected stuff.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Admittedly, my outrigger puncture and repair was under unusual "field" circumstances, but the essence of the duct tape failure was wet tape failing to stick to a wet hull.

You like tests, Mike, and you probably have a variety of tapes. I suggest just seeing if your Gorilla tape and whatever else you have, when wetted, will stick to wetted composite hulls.

The idea with the epoxy putty, or probably any plumber repair putty, would be to just glom it onto the hull for an instant fix of a small puncture. It doesn't even matter whether it hardens right away or not, as long as it sticks in the holes while paddling. Not having anything to plug the hull holes, I had to paddle from the duck stand to the put-in with my stern ever filling with water and weighing a ton. I just made it with the nose of my 22 foot hull sticking up in the air about 30 degrees.

 

[wgiles]

Anyone ever try Flextape (as seen on TV).

 

[boatstall]

Anyone ever try Flextape (as seen on TV).

Apparently you could cut a too heavy to portage canoe in half lengthways, and make 2 trips, each with a half on the portage, and then tape it back together with the Flextape.
But when you paddle off in your now taped down the keel canoe, you have to yell "WhooHooo". Correction. Just saw the commercial again. Its not WhooHooo, To be authentic to the commercial you need to yell "Yee Doggie".

But it does sound like it will work in a wet application, even underwater. If there is truth in advertising. Has to be true. It was on TV.

 

[wgiles]

I've seen Flextape in stores, but never looked closely at it. I suspect that it is a synthetic rubber tape similar to membrane roofing. It might be useful for patching holes, but I worry about getting it off to make more permanent repairs.

I've had problems with the adhesive on Gorilla tape drying out over a period of several months. This was probably a result of the application, a pickup truck vent window, but may be a good reason to replace the tape periodically. The best performing tape in this application was Scotch Transparent Duct Tape.

 

[Guest]

Admittedly, my outrigger puncture and repair was under unusual "field" circumstances, but the essence of the duct tape failure was wet tape failing to stick to a wet hull.

You like tests, Mike, and you probably have a variety of tapes. I suggest just seeing if your Gorilla tape and whatever else you have, when wetted, will stick to wetted composite hulls.

I think if typical duct tapes are going to work the surface needs to be dry. There are specialty tapes (and putty) that purportedly work on wet surfaces, but so far finding time and place to dry out the hull hasn’t been an issue. Plus I can buy a roll of Gorilla tape in any big box or hardware store.

There are quite a few duct tape tests and comparative reviews on-line. This was one of the most user friendly:

http://www.bladeforums.com/threads/duct-tape-comparison.443954/

One criterion not included in that review is how well the various tapes fare in high heat. Cheap duct tape on a sunny 100f day becomes a slidey gooey mess. The old (not current) Nashua 357 has the best I’ve ever found in high heat.

BTW, DougD discovered that duct tape is less adhesive if used in sub-freezing temperatures, and that was using Gorilla tape.

 

[dougd]

I might have said the F word more then once while applying G tape in chill temps. It's a good thing there are fools like me out there willing to try out stuff and advertising it for the rest of you to learn off of! ;-)