Kayak hole repair suggestions

So I noticed today when I pulled my kayak out of the water and put it on the kayak cart a lot of water coming from underneath my boat. After further inspection I found that I had a pencil sized hole under the keel at the very back of the boat (making it impossible to access from the inside). My boat is only two years old and I'm pretty good about not dragging it. So this really has me perplexed. There is definetely a lot of wear on the keel but I never expected to find a hole. Any tips on how I might try to fix?

One thing I wonder about is when I was fishing today one of willamette river ride jet boats came flying by and his wake washed the back end of my kayak onto a very shallow albeit large rock. I really didn't think too much of it other than it took a second to get off of. I wonder if that could have made the hole?

depends on material and type of hole but plastic weld or something like that should work

Contact the manufacturer.  They are pretty good about sending out some of the same type of material that you could melt back in.

I got some material for my Cobra Fish N Dives from the manufacturer without any charge. 

First, go to the manufacturer.
Wilderness should cover it, but it might be complicated if there is no dealer in the neighborhood.

Second, fix it.
Welding is great, but it takes some modicum of skill. I used West systems G/flex epoxy and fixed my Hobie drivewell with it before my replacement hull came. I was very impressed as that stuff sticks REEEEALLY well. The one caveat is READ and FOLLOW the directions to get satisfactory results.

http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,6033.msg62515.html#msg62515

Those cracks in the drivewell don't look like much, but thats a highly stressed area that gets flexed on each pedal stroke. They would fill my hull within a couple of hours.

One thing I wonder about is when I was fishing today one of willamette river ride jet boats came flying by and his wake washed the back end of my kayak onto a very shallow albeit large rock. I really didn't think too much of it other than it took a second to get off of. I wonder if that could have made the hole?

It's hard to imagine that getting bounced by a wake on the rocks (alone) would puncture your boat, but anything is possible.

I would say that a wave dropping you on a rock certainly could punch a hole in your yak, but other conditions would have to be in place as well(e.g. weakened section of the hull being hit by a particularly sharp and pointy edge of a rock), not simply your hull hitting a rock.  I would agree with what people have previously said: go to the store or manufacturer first.  They should give you some scrap plastic at least or the local shop might even weld it for you.  I would certainly ask the store if they would do it for you since they should have some experience with patching holes.

If they won't do it for you, welding the plastic isn't too tough to figure out.  Ask for more scrap than you need so you can practice on scrap first.  If you need a welding tool, buy a cheap soldering wand.  I say cheap because that thing will get ugly pretty quickly if you're melting plastic.  You also won't be doing much plastic welding(hopefully) so no need to spend a lot of money on it. 

Sorry to hear about the hole but nice job on the Smallie!

I did a little write up on filling screw holes a couple years back.  It may help give you an idea how you could proceed.  Just make sure you get good adhesion all the way thru the hull, not just around the outside.

http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,1526.msg11957.html#msg11957

-Spot-

So I noticed today when I pulled my kayak out of the water and put it on the kayak cart a lot of water coming from underneath my boat. After further inspection I found that I had a pencil sized hole under the keel at the very back of the boat (making it impossible to access from the inside). My boat is only two years old and I'm pretty good about not dragging it. So this really has me perplexed. There is definetely a lot of wear on the keel but I never expected to find a hole. Any tips on how I might try to fix?

One thing I wonder about is when I was fishing today one of willamette river ride jet boats came flying by and his wake washed the back end of my kayak onto a very shallow albeit large rock. I really didn't think too much of it other than it took a second to get off of. I wonder if that could have made the hole?

What kind of kayak? I have an OK Prowler13 and noticed that there are quite a few bubbles in the plastic. I have a vendor that our company uses, they are a plastics specialty company. They actually do plastic welding and the production manager told me that if I ever needed to do some repair work, that they could do it and that it wouldn't cost too much. You might want to check your area for a plastics specialty company. My 2¢

THANKS everyone for your replies. I think I ended up using a little bit of everyones suggestion and added something crazy on my own. So I bought a cheap ($14) plastic welding wand and thought I had some plastic rods at home to weld. However, they had been borrowed by the father in law (I only later foud out) so I was in search of something else.

Well  don't ridicule for experimenting but I jsut happened to have some extra tough line for for my weed wacker laying around> So I figureed what the heck. It melted down and sealed the hole better than I could have expected. It is now rock hard and the plastic welding tool made it a real snap to put on. I'll follow up with working report but knock on plastic it seems pretty tough right now. 

I meant to reply earlier, but if you could try rec repair.  It is pretty much hard plastic the you mold and stick to your kayak.  It would make a good skid plate over your repair.   

Good idea Txpaddler.

Nate,  do you guys carry rec repair?  And, will it bind to epoxy/fiberglass.  I am starting to get some George Rodgers Park concrete boat launch wear on my wood yak.  I like your skid plate idea.

Yes we do and it should work on epoxy.