Old Kayak Bent Ribs

Ive got one more set of photos on deck for the old kayak series.  Not that I dont have more old kayaks or old kayak photos, but its a matter of being able to find them.

Todays tale of woe is all about the lethal combination of heavy nylon fabric and a boat left out in the sun for too long.  Nylon, if you dont already know, contracts with high temps and as you can see in the photos, pushes down on the keelson and bends the ribs into a reverse curve.  This isnt that bad, mostly it makes the hull a little flatter.  What is worse is the end to end shrinkage of the fabric which compresses the keelson which responds by taking on something of an S curve when viewed from above.  This makes the boat pull to one side.  But even that is not lethal and I managed to fix it with a rudder.  Its just that the boat is not the elegant craft that you started out with. So beware of heavy nylon combined with heavy sun.

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