So it's Wednesday evening--time for my weekly paddle with my friend Geoff. We had just gotten down to the beach area, and Geoff spotted a parking space going down the hill close to the parking lot (which is always full with tourists). We start unloading the boats. Geoff has a Seda Viking and I have "the Other Woman", my Artic Tern. It looks beautiful as usual as I undid the straps on the Yakima mounts. Geoff has Mako saddles up front and Hully rollers in back. As I was unlocking the wheels to lift off the boat, the guy who just pulled into the spot behind us decided there was probably somewhere safer to park his yuppiemobile, and he began to pull out. To give him some room to turn, I stepped back from the boat to the curb. That's when I hear a passerby shout "Your kayak!". I turned just in time to see the boat accelerating off the roof and plow the bow into the pavement. It bounced, and the rear end comes down hard on the window and hood of my friend's car, then slammed down onto the pavement. The whole boat bounced again, and landed on the port sheer panel, which it proceded to slide on for 25 or 30 feet, rocking for and aft like a cradle. I couldn't even seem to move (not that I could've grabbed it anyway).

Final assessment--serious seam abrasion on the keel and bottom edge of the sheer panel, with some glass weave showing at a few of the impact spots; a cracked windshield and dented hood on my friend's car, and serious feelings of having horribly mistreated my baby. The car is just money (a $250 deductible), but the boat is my real concern. There's really no wood damage that I can see, but I want to make sure it's structurally sound and that the wood remains well encapsulated so that no wood rot starts. Should I just paint some epoxy resin into/onto the damaged areas and then revarnish it, or do you think some reinforcing tape is in order? I'd like to keep the lines as clean as possible, but I don't want to risk structural problems or leakage. What do you think?

Mark "the klutz" Woodhead