Think Evo - Over Stern Rudder

And the other one on the other side...

Kocho- both pictures look as if the circled areas are incompletely infused with epoxy (a mfg. issue no ? )

The core material in this boat is Lantor LRC. It is a low resin consumption material that allows you to infuse while keeping the weight down to a minimum. The hexagonal structure you see is a network of channels that promotes resin flow through the fabric, and when these are dark it shows that you have full flow through the region.
If there is delaminated material present, it is more likely that boat was at some point in time flexed enough to damage to structure.
Best regards,
Daryl Remmler
Think Kayak Inc.

Daryl, the flexing causing delamination would make sense if the core mat is weak. And I don't say "weak" in a bad sense - it may just be the nature of it to be light. So, quite possible.

I feel with my fingertips that the fabric there has epoxy on it, so it is not unsaturate.

I don't feel any particular softness in that area from the outside nor do I see external damage there.

However, the the two areas are kind of against each other in a symmetric location. This IMO supports the theory that the boat may have been pinched there from both sides at some point in time. I would not think it impossible that the front supports on a long V-rack might have caused that - that rack has got to have ben pretty long and the boat strapped pretty hard on it to cause it... I use Mako Saddles on a custom 60" extension on my rack (both fore and aft). The damage area is about 2 feet forward from where my rack supports the ski ...

Daryl,
interesting fact: I bought 5 montsh ago the Think Legend from ARC and guess what, the boat flexes as hell that I'm expecting that it will break within the next miles to come. You can also observe that there are several stress cracks on the right side (outside) of the boat in the vicinity of the seat. I would love to paddle a Think longer but stress crackst that cause flexing for a boat that costs $2400 and is only paddled on the river for 5 month really confuses me.
So do you have an advice for me too?

Wiede,

It doesn't surprise me you're having issues. I purchased the Think Evo II that Kocho eventually aquired. I paid full price for a first quality, unblemished boat and what I received was a heavy, leaky ski with a really bad finish. I have yet to see a good quality Think ski in the the U.S. I'm glad that Daryl eventually returned my money but overall it was not a good customer experience. I wasted a lot of time dealing with his firm.

It seems to me that Mr. Remmler's market is primarily in Canada and Australia. The examples of Think skis I've seen in the Eastern United States have been exceedingly bad.

Good luck to you. I hope things work out.

Hi Michael,
I have just replied to your email sent directly to me.
I would like to get the boat inspected, so we can assess what is happening.
Best regards,
Daryl

Daryl,
I appreciate your email. I will get it inspected within the next days.
Thanks,
Michael