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| Wet from her first paddle, the Amy |
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| A little bit of indian summer? |
So, now the story of my near disaster:
After building a bunch of boats using Corey Freedman’s ‘goop’, a 2-part polyurethane, I nearly ruined the skin of this boat by making a serious mistake in the mixing. I set up the kayak to do the hull, got out my mixing supplies and went to work. The mix is 2:1, resin to activator. I had one container of Part A and a double-sized container which I took to be Part B (you see where I’m going with this already). I mixed thoroughly, ‘cause that’s important, and went about squeegee-ing on the first coat. When I went back to the mixing room to mix the second coat, I realized I had mixed two parts A with one part A! I was a little sick to my stomach, fully prepared to strip the skin off and start again, but figured I had nothing to lose, so I tried this: the boat had ‘activator’ on it, and I knew how much, so I took the correct amount of part B and spread it over the hull, scraping it in very well. Then I went home and crossed my fingers.
Next day, when I checked it, the poly had set! There were only a few tacky spots, so I mixed another batch of correctly mixed polyurethane and re-applied a second and a final coat. I DO NOT recommend this method, but it seems to have saved my skin (pun intended) in this case.
Though I had a queasy couple of days, it seems to have worked out alright, and today I got the ‘Amy’ into the water. She seems well balanced, moves quickly and is snug, but not too small. Naming ceremony and offering of orange soda to the water spirits, followed by a short spin around the lake.
