Its not like I'm wearing work boots in my canoe, I'm only sporting women's size 7 neoprene slip ons but there are significant wear spots in the footwell of my Hurricane.
The paint in the footwells actually started to wear last September the first few weeks after I purchased the canoe and when I was still paddling in bare feet. I contacted Hurricane about this and they told me it was just normal wear and tear.
Now the wear has gone through the blue paint, a black layer and to where a layer of silver is showing. Could the silver be some sort of metal insert?
Anyways, I'm wondering how best to repair and protect these areas of wear in the footwells of my boat.
Submitted by ho'okele on Fri, 03/28/2014 - 4:42am
Find out what kind of paint Ozone uses for their Hurricanes (pretty sure it's Polyurethane Paint according to their website) and try to find someone that can sand, prep, and re-paint the footwells for you.
One suggestion would be to get some type of tape such as 3M light duty (or maybe Heavy duty) non-skid tape similar to what some use on steering blades (the rubberized version not the gritty sand paper type) to put in the spot where the wearing down happens.
Another suggestion would be to get something similar to what they use on the decks of surfboards and stand up paddle boards (deck traction pads) and cut to shape and peel and stick them in the footwells.
Either suggestion would help to curb the wearing down of the paint and add traction for your feet.
#1 Fri, 03/28/2014 - 5:26pm
Helpful suggestions, E7M, thanks.
#2 Sat, 03/29/2014 - 4:32am
Took a look at my Hurricane and several others at my club this weekend and I have to say your description of wear sounds more extreme than anything I noticed. The Hurricane I paddle has about 9,000km on it and while there is a small chip in the footwell paint, the paint on the bottom of the footwell is still intact. Maybe the lack of wear in my canoe might be evidence of a severe lack of leg drive which would be awesome - a way to get faster!
What did occur to me is that since you are most likely launching off a dock you may be bringing abrasive grit into the footwells on the surface of your slip ons/feet that would be normally washed off in a beach launch situation. Make sure those footwells are clean!
#3 Mon, 03/31/2014 - 9:58am
MrPhil, interesting observations on your Hurricanes.....and slightly disturbing to me because this wear began very shortly after I got my boat, last September, and while I was launching in the water, straddling the hull, kicking off my flip flops and securing them under the bungies then popping my bare feet from the water into my boat.
In the cold winter months we do launch off of a dock however I take a lot of care to rinse off my neoprene slip on shoes especially because of the wear that started when I had paddled in bare feet.
I brought up my concerns about the footwell wear very early on with Ozone. We also had some issues with paint flaking off some of the other boats that were purchased by my paddle pals at the same time as I purchased mine. Two of them had their boats replaced, in fact, due to the paint issues however I haven't been able to even get touch up paint for my boat from Ozone.
Now I feel like I am on my own with trying to maintain my boat and would like to repair and protect the wear spots in my footwells the best way I can.
#4 Mon, 03/31/2014 - 1:21pm
I'm not a paint/materials expert but if you post some photos of the footwells I'm sure the experts will chime in with some expert advice for repair!
#5 Tue, 04/01/2014 - 10:25am
OK, on the suggestion of MrPhil, I am took some photos and will try post them here. I have pix of wear spots on the right and left ....the wear on the right footwell is worse than the left and seems to have gone down to some sort of metal layer.
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b402/skydawger/photo4.jpg
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b402/skydawger/photo1.jpg
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b402/skydawger/photo2.jpg
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b402/skydawger/photo3.jpg
#6 Fri, 04/04/2014 - 10:09am
Scratches obvious but wish to see global location for better sense of placement.
Please dry the boat, back up a foot or so and shoot one more.
aloha,
pog
#7 Fri, 04/04/2014 - 11:33am
OK, pog, once it stops raining here, I'll try for a few more photos.
#8 Fri, 04/04/2014 - 12:10pm
Post a few photos of your slip on neoprene shoes too so we can see if they can really be the cause of such extreme wearing. Top, bottom and side views. Particularly the sides that touch these areas being worn down.
I've used Nike Sneakerboats, Xcel Reef Split-toes and even some Vibram FiveFingers in my OC-1's on several occasions and haven't had any scratches or wear down of the gelcoat.
#9 Fri, 04/04/2014 - 4:52pm
hookele, that's not metal, I believe that is Eglass, used as an extra reinforcement in the cockpit areas of the Hurricane and because it conforms to the sharp curves better, prevents fabric "print through" is then overlaid with prepreg carbon fibre. The hurricanes were painted in a thin layer of 2 PAC polyurethane, very tough and long lasting but also very thin and easy to chip on edges and hard areas, unlike gelcoat which is thick. Once worn thru you lose the outer toughness, what's underneath will wear much quicker.
My Hurricane is over 7 years old and has chips in the footwell area that displays the same substrate as yours, Eglass etc, but no worn thin outer layer, but then I've always paddled mine bare feet.
I would have a fibreglassing trades person sand, epoxy and recoat your damaged parts and then I would place thin neoprene or thin rubber where the footwell contacts your feet/booties.
It's possible some Hurricanes have thinner paint coats in the footwell areas as its a hard to spray area due to the Hurricane being painted after it exits the mould and after it's hull and deck is joined.
#10 Fri, 04/04/2014 - 6:44pm
Rambo, thanks for educating me! Now I understand the construction process much better.
I definitely want repair the wear spots because, as I had suspected and now you have confirmed, leaving the boat exposed would not be a good idea. And yes, I think protecting the area after repairing makes the most sense. The footwell paint on this particular canoe definitely seemed to be rather thin as other Hurricanes that my paddle pals purchased the same time as I got mine do not show this kind of wear.
I had paddled in bare feet in the summer and fall until it got to cold and then went for my neoprene booties....photos of them are here, I grabbed them off the shower door where they were hanging to dry....
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b402/skydawger/photo5.jpg
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b402/skydawger/photo6.jpg
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b402/skydawger/photo7.jpg
#11 Fri, 04/04/2014 - 7:08pm
Yr welcome, neoprene is quite abrasive as well.
Don't take my post as being 100% correct, it's just my observation from having done some intensive surgery on my Hurricane and repairs on a few others.
#12 Fri, 04/04/2014 - 8:37pm
Rambo right about post build spraying ... While that area is EZ to "overspray" ( technique description us paint guys use and does NOT mean putting too much in ) in multiple passes, it is also ez to 'collect' too much paint and run or pool. So the person spraying that area may have just got the color in and was done ...
My gut feeling is, (even with possibility of it being a little thinly sprayed ) it is still over worn from the owner as per observation of photos so far. Apologies for bad combination.
Eh Rambo,
Just referred a customer to Hurricane Repair photos only yesterday !!!
aloha,
pog
#13 Fri, 04/04/2014 - 10:14pm
I understand about footwear being abrasive however am just curious why the other seven paddlers in our group who own Hurricanes and use similar footwear haven't had paint wear off in their footwells. Just my bad luck, I suppose.
I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions and will definitely get on with repairing the canoe.
#14 Sat, 04/05/2014 - 4:29am