Outside Seam Chipping

On some places, this seam is starting to chip away. The boat is watertight and holds pressure. On no places has this cracking passed further than its "center". I guess that as with strip built boats this is not the only thing holding the deck to the hull, especially considering this material seems to be way more brittle than fiberglasss and resin.

Is this just to keep the classic ski looks? <- Wishfull thinking ?

I built my previous glass/wood kayak before this ski so I can take on the repair if its needed. The real questiong would be how serious of an issue is this so I can proceed acordingly. 

My gut tells me to do a very good masking job, cut a notch plastic tool in a way that I can run it through and spread epoxy paste in a tiddy fashion.

I´ll get some pictures and post them when I see the ski on lunchbreak. I wanted to get this post out asap because I always forget.

This thread might be helpful; looks like some seams are taped, some just butted and dressed. This was 8 years ago though...
www.surfski.info/forum/20-epic/15853-con...repair-question.html

My Nelo is seamless, but there is tape in the inside at the angle where the deck meets the hull.

Here are some pics,

Cockpit, left side





Cockpit right side (these are minimal, most likely just paddle banging) 



Bow



Stern (longest one, about 30cm missing) 



This is the other side of the bow and Stern, almost perfect but on the bow it is a little tiny bit lifted on the hull side, well glued on the deck side. 

I would get that repaired properly and  the gel coat fixed,. rather than tape patching it. The long hair line looks like a gel coat crack. The gelcoat is the water proofing membrane. the real issue is if moisture gets into the core of the composite it soaks it up, weakening it and making it soft and the damage eventually gets worse

The seam is where the two halves of the hulls are joined. They are made as a bottom hull and top deck which are then slotted on top of each other, the ridge is the lip. So a chipped lip reduces seal contact area, potentially increasing risk of seam splitting later, along with raw chipped edge posing water ingress into core risk

As it stands its probably not such a serious repair, but doing it now may prevent it becoming one.

This is very common in these skis.

Essentially there is nothing wrong with your ski at the seam, it is just gelcoat cracking, the seam is still just fine. The ski is joined with an internal flange not externally. It is very frustrating that the makers don't fix this problem! Quite simple to do when making the ski, harder to fix or remedy afterwards. It is just aesthetic but annoying non the less. 

The fix in manufacturing is quite simple but they seem to ignore the basics of how composites work! You cannot bond anything onto a shiny surface, anyone especially in a manufacturing environment they SHOULD KNOW THIS! A simple key (roughen the surface) will help stop this, but this seems TOO hard to do? Nobody complains, they just keep buying the same thing and expect it to go away miraculously, it will not. I bet if you got a sharp instrument you can remove all of it without much effort, it just falls off.

How I fix this problem? Well as I said before, I remove it all and do the job properly AGAIN! But this costs money, and the manufacture does not foot the bill. If they did they would fix it in a hurry. Essentially my bill would loose them so much money, not because I am expensive but because I live is a first world country and have to eat. So a $200.00 repair would cost them around R2000.00 after exchange rates are applied, that's a big chunk of change, multiply that by say 20 skis and you see the problem.

P.S. the crack above the seam however does require a repair.

Belacqua wrote: This thread might be helpful; looks like some seams are taped, some just butted and dressed. This was 8 years ago though...
www.surfski.info/forum/20-epic/15853-con...repair-question.html

My Nelo is seamless, but there is tape in the inside at the angle where the deck meets the hull.

Thanks, that thread has a lot of info but hopefully my ski never gets to that point  :O



 I bet if you got a sharp instrument you can remove all of it without much effort, it just falls off.

Yeah, this is exactly why I never treated it like as an urgent repair, there is no way this crumbly stuff has any structural function other than as waverider said an extra waterproof barrier between the real seam and the exterior. (Maybe it does and I´m just ignorant but the point is it just falls off)

On the front where it looks good but it is slightly lifted I know that if I slid my nail and twisted it softly, a piece would just come off.

Contact carbonlogy. It doesn't matter how old the ski is. It shouldn't happen.