I have been there, done that. Only it was my friend who put a hole in my Artic tern... a "flap" about 2 inches square in the same location as you describe..... from a close encounter with an unseen rock while running the one & only rapid on that stretch of the Missouri River in MT..July 13, 2000.. "uh, Julie, is my cockpit supposed to be filling up with water?"

A liberal application of duct tape patched the hole-- enabling us to continue for 3 more days & 60 more miles until arriving at the take-out, while I mulled over the "patch or replace" question. When I got home, I fixed the hole by patching it. I removed the duct tape, let the wood dry out, sanded it using the ROS --taking the damaged area down to bare wood & "flattening out" the part that had been punched upwards-- let it dry some more-- then patched it from the inside, using epoxy thickened with wood flour and then applying a fiberglass patch over that. I put some weights directly over the flap to keep it from popping up (with a layer of clear plastic, of course to keep from epoxying plates from my barbell set to the cockpit of the boat. When the epoxy cured, I turned the boat over, sanded off the epoxy drip-throughs, and, for good measure, applied a fiberglass cloth patch over the area (of course, I did the surface prep-- sanding off varnish, etc.) and feathered the edges of the cloth. I decided to do this in hopes of the boat winning its next encounter with a rock.

The patch job isn't noticable when the boat is being used... and it doesn't leak. If I'd cut out the area & put in a new piece of wood, then the seam around the edges would be square instead of jagged...not a big deal, given the location of the (former) hole.

I consider it a battle-scar. Boats that get used will get banged up.... And yes, my friend and I are still friends. She, actually, was amazed that I was calm about the whole thing.... she: apologizing profusely. me: "eh, don't worry about it. no big deal. we'll just duct tape it back together & I'll fix it when we get home. Won't be much work at all."

So-- I vote for patching.

Julie Kanarr

: Lets just say a dumb guy decided to paddle his S&G up a too shallow creek in
: northern Maine. He then proceded to have to back it out of a too tight
: spot in the creek and managed to put a nice dime sized punch through type
: hole in the hull of his boat on the keel line just behind the cockpit due
: to a certain large unsen rock in the 6-8" deep fast moving water.

: The hole is "dime sized" as mentioned and slightly punched in. The
: wood is crushed and broken but the piece isn't totally broken away from
: the hull. NO leaks or anything actually which surprized me. maybe the wood
: swelled slightly to seal the new semi-hole. I did cover the hole with a
: ducttape patch for the long paddle home after I found the hole (maybe 3
: hours of water contact between getting the hole and finding out there was
: one).

: Is it better to just sand the area down and fill the hole with epoxy and
: reinforcent inside and out with glass (not too bad looking since the piece
: didn't get puched out per say) or is it probably better to cut a small
: piece of the hull out (maybe quarter or hald dollar sized) and then cut a
: new piece and reglass, etc.

: if I just fill and reglass, I have to definitely dry the area sufficiently to
: keep water from being sealed in the epoxy coated nowexposed internal wood
: fibers.

: appreciate any comments, thanks, Pete czerpak albany, NY