Bent Yak

[GkT]

So my parents have an Ocean Kayak Malibu 2xl that they got from a friend, my dad build a little portage cart out of an old dolly. Thing is, they stashed it and stacked a bunch of stuff on it (200# of carpet ) and now it has a big bend in the keel(?) bottom just forward of the center hatch, from where it sat on the dolly. i rolled the thing on its side and gave it a few good kicks thru the center hatch, to see if it'd pop back into shape but it seems pretty solid.

is there a way to bend or pop it back out, or is it stuck, and is this gonna change drastically the way the boat acts on the water?

[jorluivil]

I did this once

Lay the kayak right side up on some saw horses

grab a medium sized towel, soak it in water, place it on a microwave safe dish and place it in the microwave until it gets hot

place the hot towel directly over the portion of the kayak that is bowed and place some weight on it

repeat until the kayak has re-formed itself



I did this on my outback a few years ago and it works great.

[GkT]

Ill try that. I was thinking of getting out the heat gun but I feel like that would be too extreme of a fix.

[alanw]

I've dealt with some minor bulging, nothing that bad though. A heat gun is not too extreme if you are careful, just heat evenly. Try exposing the affected area to the sun first before resorting to the heat gun, that should soften it considerably (the darker the color the better). Even a dark blanket over the area to absorb sunlight and heat the plastic below should work. You should be able to get it to move.

[GkT]

Yeah the trick for me is since its on the bottom i cant really leave it in the sun with weight on it, because the boat has to be upside down. I'm thinking I might have to break out the heat gun, if this towel trick doesn't start moving plastic.

I'm thinking that maybe a wet towel plus the heat gun, to soak up/distribute heat more evenly.

This kayak is sort of on an open loan from my parents friends, since they live out of state, so were 'storing' it for them, with use privileges . so I'm trying really hard not to mess up this boat

[Sdspeed]

Electric blanket or heating pad maybe?

[IN2DEEP]

I've seen a video (youtube?) where they sealed all the hatches and blew compressed air into the hull while pouring hot water over the damaged area and it worked.

[CR Yaker]

I would try the sun trick without weight first. See if it pops out on it's own. A dark cover that soaks up the sun and absorbs into the plastic would help.