Thread: New Kayak

Every kayak I've patched always starts leaking again, usually miles from the take out on the river somewhere. In the rivers and creeks I spend a lot of time dragging across shoals or between holes. I also fish year round. Nothing worse than finding yourself sitting in water, miles from nowhere and it's 35 degrees outside.

I stripped off what was salvageable like the fishfinder mount and sat the old kayak at the curb for bulk trash pickup. Someone with a truck stopped and picked it up within an hour.

I understand that lol. If you ever need to patch one though you can use a heat gun or small propane torch to heat the plastic and blend it back together. If it gets to thin any hdpe plastic with #2 recycle symbol can be used as filler or to build up with.

The challenge with the Dirigo is the construction. It's a three ply polyethylene construction instead of a single layer. There's an inner and outer layer with a foam core in between.





It creates a very strong yet lightweight kayak. The layers on the bottom of my kayak had began to separate over time because of UV damage (my abuse, not the manufactures fault). When I got the hole or crack in the bottom, water got between the layers. No way to get the water out so you can't use an epoxy between the layers effectively. The typical melt fix is also problematic because the material you'd be trying to bond too has become brittle and thin.

The short version is I paid $400 for a used kayak several years ago and got more than a good deal for as much use as I got out of it. Now I've found a replacement that's actually new, but at half price and I can spend my weekends fishing, instead of worrying about a leak and/or patching a kayak.

Oh I see, yea that's more complex that the basic kayak. Yes from all the fish pics and and great reports on here I'd say it paid for itself many times over lol. I'm sure you will break the new one in pretty quick!

For anyone that has a kayak in need of repair, there's an epoxy called G-flex that works really well.

G-Flex Torture Demo

Waiting on a pic.

DB, Are you going to rig it out like your last one?

Going to rig it similar except the rod holders. I plan to get with callshy tohave some custom Hi-Tek rod holders made.