Chris

: Mike your approach to a replaceable wear strip is wonderful. Especially with
: the use of Apitong for a wooden boat (keeps it in the family so to speak)

Thanks, got the apitong idea from Mike Borean of the KBBB, he lives here in San Diego and has a wood-working biz on the side. We bumped into each other at the local hardwood warehouse and he suggested the apitong. I really like the stuff though I understand one gets sensitized to it over time. Now your process to position the rubstrip attachment points is truly brilliant. I never thought of going fropm the inside then grinding away the hull till the attachemnt strip is exposed. That is the easiest and best way to do it, and aesthetically the mose pleasing result. Brilliant!

: I've done somethnig similar to a glass boat I had been using a lot for long
: river trips. I first tried the ram cap idea such as those seen on
: whitewater kayaks and some canoes. Works pretty good for the most part.

Ram cap, so it's got a name. I learn something every day.

: The cap itself was molded directly from the bow of the boat. I put on a
: layer of release tape first and then just cast in place the part in a very
: rough form. When the part had cured, I removed it and gave it some
: aesthetic sanding to make something that looked like it belonged there.

Okay, that's what I was thinking to mold as you described it, too. If you had your choice, what would you use for the fabric? I was thinking that 2 inch wide strips would be wide enough to build it up, then fair out to whatever dimension looks good

: The new cap was then glued onto the boat with 3M 4200. It holds very well and
: is removable sometime in the future. Do not use 5200 for this process as
: it nearly imnpossible to get off the boat hull without some hard core
: grinding.

BTDT. I learned all about 5200 as 3M's idea of forever. I sure wish we had this converstaion 2 years ago. As an aside, 3M makes this clear fiber reinforced duct tape that it amazing. I used some to repair a long slice on a guy's Folbot over at Desolation Sound.

: I've been thinking of a solution recently that is very much like your Apitong
: method except that the wear bumper would be built from UHMW plastic at
: both ends of the boat.

Very good call, you'll be very happy with the results. I made Rikki's entire keel with maple and embedded stainless steel t-nuts from 3 inches from the tip, at station 0.5 and from there to station 4 at 6 inch intervals. Then from station 13 back three inches, then at station 13.5 to the stern at 6 inch intervals. screwed down is a 3/8 inch thick strip of UHMW plastic. I think 1/4 inch would work as well, it's very tough stuff and seems essentially impervous to the effects of sands, gravels and rocks. At very hard and sustained sliding impacts, the plastic gets scratched.

: I will build up the bow and stern inside the hull with a glued -in chunk of
: ash about 1/2" thick. From the outside I will grind away enough glass
: and gelcoat to allow for the new bumper. Then a series of stainless
: threaded inserts will get epoxied into the ash/glass matrix with the
: threads now visible to the air.

I like it. The ash is a great choice. I had maple around but ash would have been the preferred wood without doubt. The s/s inserts...I get it. I looked around in the So Cal area and settled on s/s T nuts from San Diego Marine Exchange at $0.85 each-I couldn't get a good deal anywhere I looked, and time was an issue...then again, time is always an issue

: The shaped bumper which is cut to follow the arc of the relief opening gets
: srewed down to the inserts with recessed Allen head screws.

Stainless of course, right? I used Phillips in the idea that on a trip I could unscrew them with the Leatherman, but in hindsight, what situation would arise that one would start surgery like that on a kayak in the middle of nowhere, right? The idea of using Allen or maybe square drive makes much more sense, I think.

: Sort of skinning the same cat, here, in a slightly different manner.

: What do you think?

Spot on solution w/o doubt. I have several people around who are in different processes of building S & G yaks. I'm wanted to incorporate the rub strip idea but only got two "okay, let's do it." Your ram cap idea for the bow and stern really got more interest from the newbies. I'm going to run with the ram cap idea it makes too much sense, but I think your way place an underlying rubstrip attachment base is brilliant! I'd like to retrofit mine and been casting about exactly how to go about it. Your solution is clearly the only way to go about it. So I'd like to call it the "Chris O Way" if you don't mind.