Leaking kayak.......

After almost 3 years of top shelf service, my Prowler 15 is now on the verge of doom. I've been paddling this particular kayak almost every weekend - consistently over the years and have put on some serious mileage. Now, she is leaking bad. Just paddling at Lexington yesterday, I had 5 cups of water in the hull - not a good thing. I was doing a search of a thread that had ways of dealing with pin hole leaks - how find and fix 'em and I could not find it. Any help on this issue would be greatly appeciated. I love this kayak - it has served me well.

I think everybody said that you have to fill it with water to find your leaks. but be careful because
the weight of the water can damage the kayak, it has to be well supported and not yanked around
while full of water.

note that if you flotation foam it, not only will it not sink, but it can't really leak either. no room for the water.  .

my SPTW is fairly leaky too, but more like a couple cups, not 5 and that is part of the reason I wanted to do the
foam thing.

Joel-if its a bigger leak, or a crack, you can "weld" it back together.  If its a pinhole leak, a little goop, or the even more powerful 3M 5200 will probably do it.  Wearing out a plastic boat is cool!

it's hard to imagine wearing a hole in one of these things especially in only 3 yrs.

Its been done in well under that amount of time.  3 Mooch years is equal to about 20 years of average use..my bradda likes to fish!

I spent most of the day looking at deep cuts on the bottom of the yak and found MANY  I recall someone saying something about laying newspapers on the ground and laying the yak on top of it and fill the yak with water. I may just do that. In the mean time, I'll take Sean's advise and goop all the potential cuts that I see on the bottom.

Adding floatation foam will be the last thing I would do - the extra weight of the foam is not what I want but it might just save "old yellow" 

Hoping to get this fixed before Salmon season - not too crazy about taking a leaking kayak out. The leak will only get worse when you're out in the open water for 6-7  hours.

I believe most of the damage was done when I was launching out of Oyster Point and Coyote Point. The launch ramp there are full of Barnacles - I'll make sure I'll slide the yak off the wooden dock next time 

Goop it from the inside. Inspect the heck out of scuppers as well...good luck!

Brainstorming Alert! Reading this questiion over breakfast: Mission Foods tortilla warmer looks like it's made of the same material as my Prowler.  It might be a good way to test fixit materials. Tho how to find the leak?  Can you run a shop vac backwards, stuff rags around the nozzle in  some hole and hold a candle near likely holes to see if the flame flickers, or put soapy water on the spots like you would an innnertube?   

As mentioned earlier these boats can be welded.  I repair scrapes and scratches by heating a wooden handled putty knife with a torch and just smoothing the plastic back into the grooves.  It works quite well without burning.  Anytime I drill a hole, I save the bits of plastic just for this purpose.

Ocean kayaks web site has a linear polyethelene  patch kit for $10.00, and welding rod.   
good luck..

Craig

The day we got hammered out in San Pablo I had almost a gallon of water in my hull!

Still trying to figure that one out. I think the culprit may be my rod holders. Gonna goop 'em up and see if that helps.

5 cups of water ain't that bad!

Ah heck.  I've had duct tape on my scupper hole leak for many months now.  I consider the leak fixed!!!   

-Allen

Joel, if you wanna bring Ol' Yellow to my place, we can find the leak, fix it and repair any other deep scratches.

just give me the time and day Chuck! THanks!

You should open up a "Kayak Repair Shop" 

Ah heck.  I've had duct tape on my scupper hole leak for many months now.  I consider the leak fixed!!!   

-Allen

 

Oh yeah!  duct tape and bailing wire!

I've been fixing gashes and holes in my boats with a hot glue gun for few years now.  Hot glue is basically the same stuff as the boats.  The high temperature stuff works better, but the low temp stuff works OK too.  If the repair is large, I heat up the edges of the boo-boo with a soldering iron, propane torch, or heat gun (not too much!!), then squirt the stuff in.  If the stuff didn't go in quite right, just reheat it with a heat gun or hair drier and push the goop around with a screwdriver or putty knife or something.  The nice things about hot glue is that its really fast and easy to work with. Most of the time I just make the edge of the wound pliable with the little hot metal nozzle of the glue gun for a minute or two, then squirt the stuff in.  In a few minutes, when the glue has cooled some but is still soft, I trim off the waste with a razor blade.  You're good to go after that.

I put my very old SP up on 3 saw horses and fill it up with water to check for leaks. always worked for me.