: Bill,
: In all due respect, I disagree.....
: Since Dan presented a picture of what he wanted, I assumed he
: wanted the "look" and the strength of carbon fiber. I
: suggested what I thought was a good method to achieve it. The
: atributes of carbon fiber or carbon/kevlar cloth are well
: documented, especially for a kayak coaming. Also, from my
: experience using carbon fiber/glass layup instead of glass only
: offers a MUCH STRONGER layup that is also less thick, however it
: is more expensive. If using glass only for his repair, I would
: add a layer(s) to the underside of the coaming instead of the
: top, as you suggest.

: There are multiple methods to achieve simalar results, but weight,
: strength, and looks are all considerations of each project.

: Larry C.

Hi Larry,

Don't want to argue about this, discussing is fine. NDK coamings have lots of gelcoat and are prone to it cracking from use, it's more cosmetic than structural. My old Greenlander is 12 years old and has had a huge amount of very hard use and the coaming while not really pretty is plenty strong.

I don't see the point in basically laminating up a whole new coaming to be epoxied to the existing coaming after the lamination is complete, if you're going to do that, why not just epoxy it in place in the first place. Won't be fun getting the new piece off the old one and might not even be possible without cutting it off, you have no idea remotely if the coaming sides are plumb anymore and if not the new part may get stuck.

I doubt he'll need 6 to 8 layers for a reinforcement, would just end up with an over thick coaming that isn't the ideal for sealing with the skirt. A couple layers at most should easily do the trick.

Bill H.