East Greenland Kayak build, Day 7. Coating the kayak.
Nearing the end of the build now, I coat the nylon skin with 2 part polyurethane. Pioneered by Corey Freedman of skinboats.org this coating is durable, easy to apply, and relatively non-toxic. I don’t necessarily love the glossy look of it, and I wish that it was re-coatable and UV resistant, but to get those features you have to jump up to a super expensive product that’s also extremely toxic to use.
Being able to get this done in five hours is also a massive advantage, especially when you compare it to the endless sanding, fiberglassing, and varnishing of other types of boat building. Once the boat is coated there is no additional work for the lifespan of the skin, which seems to be about 2000-7000 paddling miles depending on how you use it. Reskinning and re-coating takes about three days and costs couple hundred dollars.
I think ideally it would be nice to use something more natural, but every effort I’ve seen at that results in a heavy kayak that is not very durable.
My friend Ant of Shipshape Boatworks in the UK has experimented with flax cloth and linseed oil. It looks really nice if you can live with the disadvantages. I might have to give it a try at some point.
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