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Help, broken hull 18 years 3 weeks ago #14633

  • gange
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Hi,
Few days ago during our Easter holidays on Soca river, a friend of mine had broken his Rainbow Rave.

He really ha a very bad luck, the passage was very easy but looks like he hit a sharp rock underwater.

Now he have a S shaped cut on the right side, about 15cm length.

Any suggestion for repair it?

I was taking some shots while the accident happened, you can find it at the following address,
www.alpikayak.it/sections/10_Foto/17_Pas...aggio_della_Rave.jpg

Ciao
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Re:Help, broken hull 18 years 3 weeks ago #14634

Go on www.kayakoutfitting.com they've got a section on welding a cracked boat, hope thats helpful

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Re:Help, broken hull 18 years 2 weeks ago #14736

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It could be worth giving Rainbow a call and see if they can repair your friends shell? if they cant they will probaly know a plastic welder who can. If not the web link above gives good advice

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Re:Help, broken hull 18 years 2 weeks ago #14741

That's unreal. What's under water there? The rocks look very forgiving...

Perhaps a piece of steel or something man made :ask:

Get hold of Rainbow, if that fails, take it to a professional welder. A friend of mine has a Big EZ. While he was driving at about 120km/h the boat came off the car and the pick-up truck behind him drove over it (at night). The car went clean over it and didn't stop. Maybe he thought he had just killed someone... In any case. The boat was severly crushed, so much so, that the boat had to be 'popped' out using a hydraulic car jack! The boat was taken to a professional and all the cracks welded up and the boat is good to go. The boat was black and maroon and the filler plastic used in the welding was yellow so now it's quite a unique boat and almost, as good as new... :grin: Don't dispair. Boats can be fixed, even if it doesn't look great.

I know another dude that bought a second hand Big EZ, the guy before him had punched a big hole right through the bottom, there was a big patch welded into the bottom. Worked for a number of years and I believe the boat is still going strong. :clap:

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Re:Help, broken hull 18 years 2 weeks ago #14745

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you are right, it was so incredible, i just passed in the same place few minutes before without any problem.

For sure he's going to ask Rainbow for a new shell.
Unfortunately it was a used boat, even if the original owner used just few times and the plastic was almost new.
So buying a new shell will cost few less than the price he paid for the entire boat.
Meanwhile i found an italian factory that produces polyethilene glues.
I trying to find out as many solution as possible, in order to suggest him the best one.

Ciao

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Re:Help, broken hull 18 years 2 weeks ago #14746

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Re:Help, broken hull 18 years 2 days ago #15064

dont go with glues, ive done alot of work with polymers, and for fixing cracks you really want to stay away from the glues, theyre crap..
you really need to find someone with a plastic welder, or even invest in one yourself, its the only way i would ever fix my boat..

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Re:Help, broken hull 18 years 2 days ago #15065

As far as I know it's useless to glue polythelene - weld it.
Actually I've just broken the nose of my boat - Prijon Performance - First time in my life - just a drop - just a hit (not very strong - feet did not hurt) - just a crack along the factory weld line. I guess it's because of the boat type - it's made up of two parts that are welded together. I think american brands are made from a whole piece of polythelene. So, it happens!

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Re:Help, broken hull 18 years 1 day ago #15082

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Well, i think any kind of boat can potentially broke.
Prijon is one of the few brand that use injection instead of rotomolding, at least as far as i know.
So their plastic should be quite robust.
My friend's boat cracked in a very stupid passage, no drop, just a stupid sharp rock (?) and the cut is in a place where no welds are present.
For his personal case i think that it has been only bad luck :(

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Re:Help, broken hull 18 years 1 day ago #15085

Well, yeah - that's sort of a bad luck indeed - S-shape cut - that'll tricky to weld it there unless there some really tricky welder! Once I tried to weld a car bottom protection shield that was cracked from one side (about 10cm) - I used a hot air blower and a welder(just a simple one for welding wires and stuff at home) - eventually got the sides of the crack together by adding some extra polyethelene and melting it and by constantly blowing(softening) the stuff with the fan - took me about 1 hour. Planning to do smth similar with my cracked Prijon Performance - maybe it'll make sense to don a protection cap on to the bow after welding it - don't know yet!
:)

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Re:Help, broken hull 17 years 11 months ago #15287

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Looks like Rainbow, the kayak manufacturer, has some kind of machine to weld Poliethilene, they will try to repair it

Ciao

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