Any ideas for a stiffer spray deck?

[Tristan Helzer]

Hello all!

I’m just getting back from my boat’s maiden voyage on the water and it was awesome! The only issue is my spray skirt is not staying on the spray deck. The plastic tubing is too soft, and it’s collapsing inward under the tension of my spray skirt. The tubing also became kinked and no longer holds the right shape.

Does anyone have ideas of other materials that could be a good substitute? Or just any thoughts on how to fix the problem?

Just a note, I also live remotely in McCarthy, Alaska, so I’ll need to be able to order the fix online.

Thanks so much!

Tristan Helzer

 

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[Tristan Helzer]

Thanks for the response Matt.

I am trying to use a kayak spray skirt and its fairly tight. Can you tell me what kind of tubing you use in your kit? I’d love to order more because what I have got damaged from trying to force it with my spray skirt.

I’ll also try to make it work with aluminum tent poles as well because the section I’m running is going to be pretty splashy.

 

[Matt (Admin)]

Sure, send me an email if you’d like to order a replacement piece.

[Matt (Admin)]

I noticed you didn’t order a spray skirt with your deck, so I’m guessing you’re using a different skirt, which might be a different shape, so trying to force it on may cause problems. If it’s a skirt designed for use on a kayak with a fiberglass or stiff plastic coaming, that will have a much tighter bungee in it than the one I supply with the DIY skirts, and the DIY decks just aren’t designed to withstand that much compression.

I’ve tried several different types of plastic tubing inside the coaming, as well as aluminum tent poles, and the stuff I supply in the kits is the best compromise between stiffness and flexibility I’ve found (If anyone knows of something better, I’d love to hear about it though!). If you want to make it stiffer you could try using aluminum tent pole segments on the sides (order on Amazon and bend them to shape) and join them together with the plastic tubing – that might work, but if you’re using a kayak spray skirt, even that will probably not be stiff enough.

If the kink won’t go away and is causing a problem, you can cut the tube at the kink and join it back together with a bit of dowel or anything with an 8 mm outer diameter. I have some 8 mm tubing that will work for that if you can’t find something suitable.

 

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