Has anyone reinforced the keel of their yaK?

I see a lot of suggestions, but has anyone done it?? The scratches on the underside of my yak are bothering the heck out of me. Eventually in the future it'll lead to holes so I'm trying to do some preventive measures now.

you should come over and look at the keel of my 1.0 prowler - takes a lot of lot of abuse to put a hole there apparently

well, why wait for it to happen right?

FM1 put a hole in his keel...amzing patch with a plastic fork and a lighter. I think someone added a strip of alum. but found it was 'sticky' when dragging the boat. Just use wheels:)

I was going to try a strip of Gorilla Tape on mine.  Replaceable and cheap.  We will see how it holds up.

I tried this http://www.recrepair.com/index.html after reading from other posts.  Unfortunately it did not work for me.

After I heated it, formed it then applied it.  The glue did not stick and the whole thing just fell off after I let it sit overnight.   Then I tried putting marine goop on top of the glue and it still wouldn't stick. I bought a small pack at Aquan for $10.

I actually bought the same thing from aquan. It doesn't seem it'll hold, but I haven't taken it out on the water yet. I do have wheels but occassional docking on the concrete ramp seems unavoidable.

PM el dorado, he abuses the hell out of his and uses something from his job to reinforce/patch it, cameron

I also have been thinking about this. Not as a fix but a preventative step. I need to find a piece of kayak material from Claveys. I am sure they have some laying around. With a heat gun you could soften the piece of plastic and slowly form it over your keel heating the piece you are going to glue on separately. After forming the piece I would trim and sand smooth all edges , tapering the edges to flush with the keel. This would prevent a grabbing of the glued piece. Two pieces of kayak plastic will bond together using heat. All surfaces must be free of contaminants and prepped with an alcohol based cleaner. There are also special made bonding agents specifically for certain kinds of plastic. Goop is not one of them. Its not a bad sealer but in time will delaminate. I am going to try this in the next week or so. I am sure it will work and will let you know exactly how it goes.

They are called skid plates. I used to put them on my whitewater canoes. I was living in oakland at the time and would get them at the canoe shop in jacklondon square. They are made from kevlar and we would glue them on with barge cement.

  I put 4 layers of fiberglass, using standard resin, on the skeg  portion,( rearmost 6" of keel). Roughed the surface with heavy duty sandpaper.

  A few strips on the bow  as well.

   Holds well and has lasted 3 years. Pretty good protection for metal launch ramp at harbor.

   Color of kayak shows thru and doesn't add drag.


  As an experiment, I put some on less rigid part of bottom and it didn't last at all. Peeled right off.

Just the resin itself?? you didnt add cloth for extra strenght?? I might try that.

I think t he new OK Ultra 4.8 comes with a skidplate-type thing over the keel. Need to inspect it in the shop to see what it's made of...then copy it & make one myself.
http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,28330.0.html

I think t he new OK Ultra 4.8 comes with a skidplate-type thing over the keel.

My OK Prowler Trident 13 has one of the 'skidplate' do-dads. This boat was a factory replacement for my original 2010 defective unit and dont' remember if my original one had it or not.

Just the resin itself?? you didnt add cloth for extra strenght?? I might try that.

He said 4 layers of fiberglass.........that means cloth.  I don't think regular surfboard type cloth and polyester resin will adhere real well to polyethylene yaks.  Maybe one of the the newer epoxy resins would work better.... not only the materials as a problem, but also the flex as described somewhere above......

The Ultra does have a skid plate on the tail end of the keel.  Great addition, and real handy when I tilt the yak up to get on top of my van. 

It's replaceable, so I don't have to be quite as careful as with the Trident or my old Prowler.  I wore a hole in my 1st Prowler with the tilt technique, patched it with Marine Goop, was usually good for a few months or so.

Allen