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Hey everyone!
Sorry about the long delay on an update on this. I emailed back an forth with Matt, sent him some fabric samples from the affected areas, and it seemed to be a one off fabric issue. The supplier isn’t used anymore so it should 100% be a non-issue anymore.
I still wholeheartedly recommend the DIY’s to anyone that has decent spatial cognition and space to make them. The process is fun and rewarding, and the designs are top notch. On anything below consistent Class III or harder whitewater, I’ll be bringing my Skeena along in the future, (once I make it again this winter)
SI just got back from Alaska where we did 7.5 days of bushwhacking to a creek that, to our knowledge has only been run once before, eventually down to the Fortymile river system. All the DIYs on the trip did great! One Telkwa, one Skeena, and one V3. I wouldn’t hesitate to take these boats on another similar trip, and I’m looking forward to making our next expedition and all DIY trip.
Here’s a quick snap that really caught the vibe of the trip… stopping for coffee after a cold, rainy day of butt scraping down the upper creek:
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OK, so I pulled attachment points and will redo them in the correct orientation. I cut the old seat up to inspect, and found about 2 dozen points that the TPU and Nylon bond has given up– they feel like little blisters. They are all over the fabric, on the inside of the top and bottom of the seat, and a few of them correspond to small leaks that developed through the fabric. They seem to be near the wear points (the big long one is in the front center of the seat– looks like from folding, but I never folded the seat up like that), but I feel like it shouldn’t be separating this much with this little time on the water.
Short of painting the entire inside of the boat with aquaseal, is there anything I can do to help ensure that I don’t start having similar delamination on the actual boat? -
Matt, I’m sorry, you’re right on the forces.
Looking at the photos again, I tied the loops backwards from my original plan, which definitely put all the ‘pinching’ force on the tie in points as opposed to the seat back as I originally intended, and that explains the delamination perpendicular to the direction of pull– the tie down is getting forced into itself as the cord slides thought he holes. In testing with the sliding loop on the seat back as I intended, the seat back took those forces just fine with no indication of future failure, but I never tested the tie down in the same manner. I wanted rotational stability, easy on/off, and minimal material… I probably shouldn’t try for all 3.
I’m doing some troubleshooting on some fabric scraps now. My wife’s boat is red fabric, and hasn’t had delamination issues… It seems to be just the blue fabric that is problematic. I’ll let you know if my test pieces behave differently after soaking for a while to replicate the repeated wet-outs. So far her perimeter line tie downs are solid, and two of mine are starting to delaminate slightly, but there’s way too many variables for that to be a good comparison.
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Thanks for the reply, Matt. The the photo of the old seat is along the bottom, back right edge. It peeled back about halfway to the reinforcing strips on its own. The fraying didn’t start happening until the fabric pulled away from the TPU.
As for the attachment points along the side they too peel with little force. The ones shownare just for the new backrest. I copied Alpacka’s design a bit on this one. The multiple attachment points prevent twisting and should equalize load with how they’re currently rigged, not multiply– I took the photo with the boat deflated, I’ll get a photo of the system with air in the boat. (I studied physics and have a lot of experience with rope rigging and forces on those systems) Additionally, I keep my drybag behind the seat back– the main load is held by the stuff behind it. I’ll get better photos of the rigging and usage tomorrow. Most thigh strap tie-in points will see way more force at the end points due to the shallow angles involved, and those seem to be holding up fine with similar surface area tie-ins.
How would you rig the seat back further forward without tying the back in on the tubes? I am pretty darn short, and I’m in the smallest Skeena– even pushing myself forward several inches isn’t quite enough, even with something
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Short of painting the entire inside of the boat with aquaseal, is there anything I can do to help ensure that I don’t start having similar delamination on the actual boat?