I am very excited about this kayak. It is VERY solid I got it from the original builder, A meticulous man who takes very good care of his things, (only gave up this and one like it because an injury)
This is the worst of two spot on the deck where the coating is delamitting.
What is the proper treatment?
From what I can see it looks like a light sanding to get rid of the varnish and to smooth it down and a coat of epoxy followed by 3 - 5 coats of varnish would take care of it.
Back when the Cape Charles was current, CLC kayaks did not have glassed decks. Since then, CLC has moved to glassed decks just because of this kind of wear and damage. It’s possible to have an unglassed deck that lasts a good long time, but that requires sanding, re-coating and re-varnishing on a fairly regular basis. Glassing the deck drastically reduces the need for maintenance, as well as increasing the strength and durability of the deck. If this was my boat I’d take the opportunity while fixing the delamination to put a layer of 4 oz glass over the entire deck.
Laszlo
THanks. As it happens, the builder used TWO layers of glass on the hull bringing the weight up to 50 lb (instead of the designers target 38 lb.
So i would not be inclined to add material to the deck if it can be avoided. But that explains why subsequent designs were heavier than the the Cape Charles.
I’m thinking i’ll just do the minimalist repair you described and see how it goes. I am hoping to find a damaged project boat i can learn on. After that i might be a bit less timid.
hi herfordnc,
while Laszlo highlights how glassing the deck can make it more durable, i would highlight for any cored boat like this (basically these are wood cored boats), ensuring you are putting them away clean and dry is the most important thing you can do for longevity.
one should pay particular attention to any inside space and ensure it is dried after any paddle…. and store with hatches loose…so it can breath/completely dry out such that you had to sponge water out of the hull. i would also, and will explain further, store the boat right side up and level after any paddle.
i happen to have a 27 year old chesapeake 14 - not a hint of any water intrusion (recent pic below) ….which is what i clearly see in your Cape Charles where the bronze nail has discolored.
anyway, why do you want to to store right side up? due to the nature of the construction, it is very likely you have little openings into the wood underneath the deck.
the reason this construction often gets little holes under the deck that are open for water intrusion is you bend the deck on and then drive nails into a piece of wood in the shear (the shear clamp). so unless you do a perfect job of carving your shear clamp and applying epoxy prior to setting the nails, you will often get little gaps/cracks between the shear clamp and the deck where water can pool if the boat is stored anything other than right side up, and the nail holes through the deck provide those little opportunities for water intrusion….( a mirror inspection looking carefully at the full length of the shear clamp deck interface is a good idea to see these spaces). also, the bottom of these decks were not glassed and, typically, simply painted with a brush coat of epoxy….which unless incredibly thorough, will have some small gaps and pin holes. i would also highlight that the wood core is hydrophylic (attacts water - kind of like a paper towel) so it’s also a good idea to dry out the boat for any water that gets in there before lifting and turning the boat over which puts water into contact with the inside of the deck and shear clamps.
by storing the boat level and right side up (until you are sure it is totally dry), the water will pool by the bulkheads and bottom where it is easy to see and sponge/wipe dry. also, most builders are relatively generous with epoxy when they build the hull so if there is any surface that is likely to be fully waterproof, its likely down the centerline of the hull and the bottom of the bulkheads.
when you store (or even drain a boat) upside down or on a non level surface, water can pool in the ends or run across the bottom of the deck ….looking for those little holes that typically exist on these builds. By storing right side up and level, you encourage any water inside the boat to drain into the hull centerline where you can see it and where, as mentioned above, you likely have the most protection.
one last thing on storage, never leave a wet towel or mud on your hull or anything that can hold moisture against the surface…which could be another potential reason that particular nail showed water intrusion….
all that said, you do not have to ‘baby’ these boats… but i can’t overemphasize the importance of a clean dry inside and outside as the key to a long life for a wood cored boat.
anyway, apologies for the long screed …it looks like a great boat.
h
ps - the more modern stitch and glue designs typicall have fully glassed interiors. the deck, for example, on a shearwater, is fully glassed on the inside prior to attaching it to the hull. the hull and deck can be fully inspected for waterproofness prior to assembly and no nails are used that could create unseen openning after your inspection work. the tortured deck installation of these earlier designs are beautiful but they don’t typically make it easy to ensure total waterproofness of the inside of the hull…particularly with the nails punching through the deck and shearclamp interfaces.
Great info. THanks.
I’m not sure how moisture got to those few spots. The previous owner built it in 1993 and used it until recently. I think he stored it under cover but outside. He certainly knows what he’s doing (looking at his current boat projects) not sure what went wrong here.
I’ll probably do a minimalist repair at first and learn as i go. I have my eye on a CLC 17 restoration project where I’ll figure out the tricky bits.
Followup; On closer inspection, the damaged area is only on the sides of the cockpit coaming. Going forward the damage ends but there are tiny cracks in the varnish which decrease going forward until the deck flattens out.
So it looks like the coating broke down based on the curve or the strain on the plywood?
Does this make sense?
Hi Dave,
it makes sense. fwiw, varnish does break down over time and needs to be kept fresh. so if you are starting to see cracks in your varnish, its time to refinish.
it will tend to break down quicker if there is flexing going on and if there is more sun exposure or abrasion going on….all of which is more likely around the coaming then out towards the ends.
the question is do you simply need to refinish the varnish or do you need to sand down into the epoxy layer and put another fill coat of epoxy on…..then revarnish.
once you have sanded the varnish back you can evaluate that. i know you said the boat was double glassed but it was not clear if you confirmed if the deck was glassed. as part of sorting this out you can answer that question as, if you do not have glass on the deck, redoing the varnish on the deck is something i would potentially do after glassing the deck.
in the yellow boat i showed in another picture, when i refinished the boat around its 10 year anniversary, i did glass the deck as when i first built it, it was not showing that as a step.
h
I need to take this slowly- If the builder/previous owner was satisfied varnishing every few years, i’m gonna’ stick to that at least this time.
I need to get smart on that process first; tools and technique? Do i need to do the whole deck? Etc.
Watch Nick YouTube videos on varnishing!
