Sea Flea Flotation Bags

Man-o-day, where does the time go? I haven't posted about Paige's kayak since May 15. While I haven't posted, I have continued to work on it. The last post mentioned that I finished the final epoxy-work on the kayak. The next step was to build flotation bags for Paige's kayak.

Since I had made flotation bags before, I was pretty sure of the process:

1. Acquire & cut PVC connectors
2. Measure the kayak's circumference at the bow and stern
3. Transfer that to clear plastic vinyl
4. Cut
5. Glue connector in place (for inflation hose)
6. Tape off 1" on sides & 1.5" at ends
7. Glue both pieces together
8. Glue hose & mouthpiece

Viola! You're done!

Between the time I had cut the bags and got around to gluing them, Paige had decorated them with a Sharpie and I wrote a message to her.

The cutting the connectors proved to be my first challenge. Previously, with my father-in-law's assistance, we cut them using his hack saw in a vise and then cleaned them up with his disc sander. I should have done all of the steps while I was at his house, but I didn't have the connectors so I just borrowed the hacksaw. I don't own a vise (yet), I will – I just haven't invested in one so far. Not letting a lack of tools (or much ability, but I digress) get in the way of a successful project – I winged it and cobbled together a vise out of my work table, scrap pieces of wood and a couple of clamps. It was a little rickety at times, but it worked. My lack of disc sander was made up for by some 80-grit sand paper (down to 120 grit-ish - it didn't have to be pretty, just cleaned up a bit) and a little extra time and effort.

The next problem, I'll admit was out of sheer laziness: I have vacuumed or swept my work floor in a while. So, as I was gluing – I had various sorts of "stuff" sprinkled through-out my glue. None of it seemed to be problematic, just looks "less good".

The final problems turned out to be small leaks in various spots on the bags.

Leak #1 (on both bags), while I was gluing the bag – the extra height of the inner connector keeps the top layer of PVC from lying properly. I thought I was being slick and sliced the edge out, mashed them back together and went about my merry way. What I found out (later), was that I create a leak that proved to be challenging to fix.

Leak #2 (on both bags), on these bags and the one that I made for the Dirigo, I ended up with a leak around the PVC connector for the inflation hose. The simple fix is to glue a patch over the area and move-on. On this particular bag, I did 2 patches and then covered the entire area with a bigger patch – it was "cleaner looking" was my justification. As the picture shows - I even tried to be careful and clean! It still didn't work out quite like I had hoped.

Leak #3 (on just 1 bag), while "fixing" one of the leaks, Paige came out to help. Not being much for her to do, she wandered around the garage and did whatever she wanted. The wandering included her walking on both bags multiple times. Apparently one of the bags got walked on a time too many – she put a whole clean through both layers.

Leak #4 (on the other bag), while fixing my leak #1 on one of the bags, my solution was to put a patch on and then clamp it between 2 pieces of wood. Apparently I got a little over-zealous with my clamping and/or heat gunning and worked a hole into the bag.

With all of these leaks, I'm ultimately left with 2 patched up bags that hold air. In case you (dear reader) are wondering - I do feel comfortable that my patch-work will hold and they're as safe as any non-patched bag.

Lastly, I had previously mentioned installing an eyelet into the stems of the kayak (using the drill-fill-drill approach). These serve 2 purposes, one- to act as an anchor point for securing the flotation bags to the kayak and two- to act as a bit of a pulley for re-installing the bags once the kayak is skinned. Truthfully, I think #2 looks great on paper, but won't actually pan out- but only time will tell.