BWCA Hole in canoe repair. Boundary Waters Gear Forum
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02/24/2011 06:31PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
Long time ago, my paddling buddy managed to hit a tree with rock for bear bag rope, bounce the rock off several trees and then hit the canoe 25' and 90 degree to the right.



Attention to the hole was required, after the mandatory manly ridicule of his throwing skills. Yes, duct tape would work? Not without some effort to make the hull sticky first.

The alternative was a smooth permanent repair. One plastic ziplock bag and lighter.




Go slow and take your time and it blends right in with the kevlar. Go to fast and rather than melting it will burn and catch the kevlar fibers on fire.
 
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02/24/2011 08:54PM  
Wow, never saw that before. How has it held up? How did you know about burning the kevlar? Seems simple enough - who thought of it?
 
02/24/2011 09:08PM  
never know it was there and held up well. need something that would melt and knew that ziplocks harden when melted and gears started churning.
 
J-Stroke
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02/24/2011 10:03PM  
Wow. THAT IS CREATIVE. I'm impressed. I bet there is a bunch of improvising that folks do in the BWCA. New thread on innovative fixes may be in order :>) Thanks for posting.
 
SevenofNine
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02/25/2011 07:35AM  
Bri,

Thanks for sharing. I now have a method other than duct tape to fix a hole in a canoe.

Just so we are all clear here. You did not burn the kevlar as BWP states, you simply melted the ziplock bag into the area of the hole in the canoe?
 
02/25/2011 08:29AM  
Greg, correct on melting the ziplock only. If flame get near the fiber threads in kevlar material it will just burn off like fuzz.
 
jb in the wild
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02/25/2011 09:00PM  
GPS your a genius. Thats got to be one of the best tips I've ever read.
So much for my hippo patch, I'm trading it in for a baggie.

Thanks
JB
 
02/26/2011 10:54AM  
This is a great tip! I guess my canoe repair kit only needs ziploc bags and a lighter...
 
02/26/2011 03:31PM  
Materials we all have with us anyway, without planning ahead for a hole :-)
 
02/26/2011 04:54PM  
Great idea. I wonder how big a hole you could patch with that. With enough damage you could turn a Kevlar canoe into Royalex :)

 
02/26/2011 08:39PM  
Nice trick. Hopefully I never need to use it.
 
bapabear
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02/26/2011 10:25PM  
Neat idea. Have tried seam sealer and duct tape but not thought of this. Does this form a strong bond even when cold? Like BWP I'm curious how the patch held up.
 
07/30/2018 11:46AM  


I saw on this forum a few years ago info about this repair patch. I bought it and last week on our BWCA trip it was the first time I needed it. It was super easy to use and worked like a charm. My kevlar canoe is 20 feet and a family of 5. While fishing with the kids one of them said we were sinking. We made it back to camp and I had it patched up in an hour. It is a permanent fix but did take 12 hours to dry because it was 60*f out and rainy. I think on a hot dry day it would have dried really fast. I'm going to order a few more because it worked so well.
 
07/30/2018 11:58AM  
Sorry guys, I didn't see that this post was 7 years old. But now I'm curious if the plastic bag will work as well.
 
rbcevergreen
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08/13/2018 02:28PM  
Very curious about the plastic bag repair myself. Will definitely keep in mind.
Last year, on my first BWCA trip, and first canoe camping trip, too, one of our canoes (group of 4) got a hole -- right angle puncture, two sides of a square were completely punctured, each side about 4 inches. Fortunately, we had some Gorilla tape along, and the patch held for the rest of the trip. Was very glad I brought the tape along -- don't think Duck tape would have held the same.
 
08/13/2018 04:33PM  
Well the repair patch I bought worked amazingly well. I just ordered 4 more (they were on sale)
 
andym
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08/14/2018 01:10AM  
We carry tape sold at Piragis as boat tape. It seems like very sticky, strong duct tape and comes in a moderately small roll.

Will also keep the ziplock trick in mind. I somehow missed this back in 2011.
 
carmike
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08/14/2018 07:30PM  
Very nicely done.

That's Reason #37 why I no longer hang the food. :)
 
08/14/2018 11:23PM  
I'm going to try this melting plastic bag trick on my sprinkler. It has a small crack. I figure if it can work on a sprinkler with water pressure is should work on a canoe right?
 
08/15/2018 09:56AM  
Canoearoo: "Well the repair patch I bought worked amazingly well. I just ordered 4 more (they were on sale)"

Thanks for sharing this, and for reviving the thread. I never saw it originally, and am glad to know the Baggie trick. I also just ordered one of those repair kits too. On my last trip, I banged into a couple rocks on the Frost River, and the next day as I set out saw a steady stream of water coming from the bow. Turned out one of my Duluth Packs had sat in water just before loading and was draining, but I had a good hard think about what to do in case of a real hole!
 
08/18/2018 01:55PM  
I wonder how the plastic bag trick would work with other materials. Could it be used to patch a slow leak in an aluminum canoe?
 
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