What do you bring with you on long trips for a field repair kit? Particularly for cedar strip boats. And I don't mean a roll of duct tape. A little cloth and epoxy? Some latex gloves and a plastic mixing cup? How involved do you get?

Interested to hear your thoughts.

More interested to hear your horror stories...!

I don't paddle a stripper.....but.

I always have a small can of tuna so no specific mixing cup needed. generally have options for gloves not specific to repairs.

Besides the epoxy/cloth, a spreader (old credit card or similar).

A couple of cable ties in case of seat-thwart-bolt failure .

_________________
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

I don't bring cloth and epoxy I have never done any composite work so I'm sure anything I do with that would be a mess out in the woods. Other than duct tape, cable ties and thwart bolts I also bring quikplastik epoxy putty. It is a hand kneedable, fast setting epoxy putty that bonds, to pretty much anything. I have used it on a Royalex boat and kevlar boat with great succes. It is easy to carry, simple to use and dries quickly. I got it from a local marine store. The company also makes quikwood version. Not sure what the difference is (marketing?)

http://www.polymericsystems.com/epoxies ... lastik.htm

I've tripped pretty much exclusively in strippers for the last 25 years. Used to bring cloth and epoxy with me, but generally don't anymore. I run my canoes pretty hard, and the worst damage has been able to have a temporary duct tape patch till I got it home to repair. However, when running school trips with fiberglass canoes, I brought along a pack of five minute epoxy, the kind with the two plungers, and a piece of six ounce cloth. This will make for a fairly quick and dirty patch if needed.

I've had a cedar strip voyageur on the Yukon River Quest race (440 miles) five times, and the same boat twice on the Yukon 1000 mile race. No damage, no specific repair kit was along with us. Also have had similar strip voyageurs on the Adirondack 90 miler as have our competitors) more times than I can count with 5 miles of rough portages included.

Tripped a fair distance in cedar strippers on a variety of rivers.
You need layers on the bottom.
I have three on the outside and two on the inside. Multiple layers on stems.
Worst experience was a low bony river. The bottom was sliced open and water got in and
caused the strips to become sodden and the carpenters glue that binds them began to fail.
You could push on the bottom and it felt soft and squishy.
Once water is inside the skin it is hard to fix without a lot of heat and time to dry it.
My solution was duct tape and one of the gel adhesives like Shoe-goo or its equivalent.
I also braced the bottom by placing a stick between it and the seat.
I made it home so no complaints.
One of the super epoxies like G-Flex might have helped but the moisture would still have been in the hull.
My advice is to build according to the use you are going to put the boat through.
More layers on the crucial parts of the hull equal durability and resistance to damage.

I bang mine up pretty good but I don't do anything over class II rapids. I've had nothing that couldn't wait until I got home so maybe I've been lucky.
Like Stencil says, the only time Ive had damage through the glass it took days to prep it and dry it out enough for epoxy (significant sanding too) so I don't think epoxy in the field is doable or effective. The inner layer of glass was intact so I was still dry and continued my trip.

I usually take some cloth, peel ply, sandpaper, epoxy (loaded into syringes), mixing cups, and a couple small chip brushes. It all fits in a tall boy Nalgene bottle. On the Bloodvein river I wore through the stems down to bare wood. I took a rest day and repaired them. Duct tape probably would have worked fine to get through the trip but I still had over a week left on the trip and a lot of beating to go. I started a small fire and roasted the stems over it to dry the wood (it was cool and drizzly).

Since then I put dynel on the stems when I build them.

Alan

Alan, should have had an external stem with a brass stem band, lol.

I'm sure that would have done the trick but there were a couple portages where I would have sworn I couldn't possibly carry another ounce so what are ya gonna do?

Alan

What is dynel?

A fabric that is highly abrasion resistant.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynel

It's what the hip kids use for skid plates

_________________
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

Like Recped I don’t paddle a stripper, but on long trips or group trips I carry an extensive “Spares and Repairs” kit.

The “Spares” part is stuff like a large garbage bag, Zip-lock bag, lighter, candle, fire starter, bit surveyor’s ribbon. Even a spare whistle and photocopy of my driver’s license & insurance info. Small, lightweight flat stuff, and I’ve frequently used the first few of those items on a trip, especially with friends.

The “Repairs” parts are more extensive, and some not as frequently (or ever) used. Things I have not used but still carry in that kit:

Half a hacksaw blade, one end with a duct tape handle, wrapped in a cardboard sheath. Hard to cut anything metal with a Swiss Army knife saw.

Some wire, both stainless steel and braided, and cable crimps. For lacing a broken sheerline back together, or fixing broken rudder cables in a decked boat. I’m still waiting for the first time I encounter a sea kayaker with a broken rudder cable, hoping I remember to bellow “BOW TO THE LORD OF FIELD REPAIRS” when I produce the parts needed.

Piece of sandpaper, fiberglass “tape”, glass screen, two-part epoxy syringe and piece of peel ply. Other minor things like some wax paper and aluminum foil.

The “repair” things I have used occasionally, or often:

Needle & thread. Some 1” webbing and a 1” side release buckle. Parachute cord, cord lock, cable ties. Therma-rest repair kit and a bit of Tenacious tape. Superglue, mostly for busted fingernails.

3/16” stainless steel machine screw with nuts and washers, passed through a drilled dowel seat drop. I have used the machine screw, nuts and washers a couple times, and the dowel seat drop once. A friend snapped a machine screw on his seat and lost the drop when he went over; his delight when I pulled the needed parts from the Spares and Repairs bag made carrying that item ever worthwhile.

Duct tape of course. Some 2” Gorilla tape and some 1” Gorilla tape, re-spooled on a skinnier center. Actually the dowel seat drop has duct tape spooled around it, as does one canteen for easy everyday access.

A nail, thinking I could heat it up, hold it with the Leatherman pliers and melt repair holes in an RX hull before wiring a split back together and covering it with duct tape. Never had to do that (knock wood), but I have used up several nails replacing broken pop rivets in the front leg X of cheap folding camp chairs. Nail stuck through the vacant pop rivet hole, bent over and duct taped in place the chairs were good as new. Maybe better.

I go through that Spare and Repairs bag occasionally, rethinking the contents and (mostly) removing things. The teeny whetstone? Nice thought, never used in the field; I sharpen my blades at home.

And, today, adding things:



Damn, at 64 I am finally one of the hip kids. Thanks Recped, I cut a piece of Dynel for the Spares & Repairs kit.

Wow, Mike. You're ready for anything. Happen to have a cure for covid in there too?!

No cure, and I’m two beers away from becoming a self-isolating hermit. You may not want to know my take on Covid-19.

I spent my entire 35 year university career deep in this shit. And I mean shit, at one point part of my job was weighing and aliquot sampling “Napolean’s hat” receptacles full of Grade V rice water stool from cholera victims on a quarantined ward. BTW, stools are graded by consistency I – V. How’s that for TMI?

10 years with the Center for Vaccine Development/Division of Infectious Diseases. 25 years with the Medical Biotechnology Center (now BioMET) and the Institute of Human Virology.

Met (god bless him) Dr. Fauci in the 70’s when I delivered specimens to his clinical lab at NIAID. Worked with current CDC Director Redfield at the IHV. Half the local taking-head experts I see on the news I know and once worked with, some back in the day when they were after-hours misbehaving Post-Docs or young researchers. I have photos of more than a few, disheveled, hung over and worse for wear taken on group camping trips. Ah, to be in our 20’s again.

Anyone – ANYONE – with even a hint of infectious disease or vaccinology background knew this was going to be really bad months ago.

The lack of available testing and lack of preparation in the US is simply inexcusable; people are dying because of willful ignorance and magical thinking.

Apologies, it is hard for me not to rant about this FUBAR response, and I’m just a dumbass who had the good fortune to work around some really smart people.