Hi Eric,

I'll take a stab at this and I'm sure you'll get other suggestions from people with more knowledge than me.

The plastic in kayaks is hard to glue to so I think you would be best to use closed cell foam for your bulkheads, cut them a little larger than the spot they are to fit and force them in. I would suggest a bead of calk or sealant in the boat before you push them in then seal the inside and outside of the bulkhead. Do a search for the type of sealant people are using when installing foam bulkheads. I believe they are having success with a black 3M product that is quite messy if your not careful but the results are good.

For hatches I would suggest VP type hatches or Kajaksport pre-made hatches. I think you would have trouble adhering hatchlips to the plastic of your boat to use the piece you cut out as a hatch. I would also be concerned as to whether the cutout piece would be stiff enough to get a good seal if you did mechanically bond a lip inside a cutout.

Don't order the parts tonight someone might come up with better ideas. Paul Jacobson and Mick Allen love brainstorming on things like this.

Good luck!

Ken

: hi all

: this may not be the best forum to ask these questions but it is the one i
: know

: i'm in the mountains of japan and last year i decided to get onto the water
: however i could, so i bought the cheapest plastic kayak i could, from
: yahoo auctions, for the rocky rivers and built a stitch and glue cheap
: canoe, from free plans from bataeu.com, for the lakes

: the kayak is an old dagger response and while a well made comfortable craft
: it is a bear to keep in any sort of straight line, to be expected as it
: was designed as a whitewater kayak.

: i decided i wanted something a little longer than the 3.5mtr of the dagger
: with a vee shapped hull so again searched the auctions and have just
: bought a quality kayaks venturer

: http://www.sportsexpress.co.nz/enter.html?target=p_174.html&lang=en-us

: it has no bulkheads so i would like to add some, and then some hatches, will
: also have to relocate the rudder slides as my long legs push them off the
: rails

: so my question is what materials would make the best bulkheads and how best
: to seal them to the polyplastic hull, then how would i best waterproof my
: jigsaw cut hatches and fill the holes left when i move the rudder rails

: eric e

: would be easier to just buy a new one i know but appart from japans habit of
: having too many hands in the supply chain who simply add 100% each time
: for their part i like fixing things