A skin on frame kayak tied onto the roof racks of a small car

The Care and Feeding of your Skin-on-Frame Boat

  • A skin on frame kayak tied onto the roof racks of a small car
  • A woman lifting a skin on frame off car roof racks, where it was nested onto a seconf canoe
  • A man's hands tightening a cam strap around a kayak on a car roof rack

Congratulations on building or purchasing your skin on frame boat!
Here are a few tips to make it last as long as possible:

Storage

  • Keep your boat out of the sun when you aren’t using it. The coating we use is tough, but it degrades with UV exposure. Kayaks will crack in the knee area after the first year, this is normal, unavoidable, and doesn’t hurt the kayak.
  • Don’t leave it sitting on bumpy surfaces that will dimple the skin for long periods of time.  The coating is flexible and will easily bounce back from temporary dimples, but when left for days and days on things like rocks or wood chips, it can stress the coating. For example, when camping on a rocky shore, I turn my boat upside down overnight.
  • In kayaks, the two shorter pieces of foam go under the ribs in the cockpit area, and the larger mat goes on top. Take the seat matting out when not in use so the inside of the boat can dry completely. Check out our suspended seat video for other options.

Use

  • The skin and coating are surprisingly resilient to occasional hard crashes, but abrasion can add up, so try not to crash into things and/or drag the boat up or down beaches when possible, OR add rub strips to the ends to protect them. The ends are the highest wear points on a skinboat, so being careful with them, or protecting them, will add YEARS to the lifespan of the skin.
  • To avoid overstretching the leather deck lines on kayaks, don’t put bulky things like bilge pumps under them.
  • When entering a kayak, make a habit of running your fingers all the way around the rim to make sure the skirt is actually seated (especially on the sides) and check that the grab loop is out.
  • Try to rinse your feet as you step in and out of the boat to keep sand and pebbles out. When removing the Therm-a-rest seat mat, cradle it so any grit trapped in the ridges stays there until you can shake it outside the boat.
  • I design for speed and efficiency, but with strong secondary stability, so for your first paddle you can expect any of my modern kayaks to feel tippy at first, but for that feeling to disappear after a couple hours. This is normal. Stability in traditional kayaks varies depending on the user.

Repairs

  • Abrasion Repairs: Skin life averages around 5 years or 5000 miles, but sometimes the coating can wear down and expose the fabric before the rest of the skin needs replacement. In these situations a small dab of Aquaseal carefully shaped with a gloved finger will protect the exposed fabric. Keep in mind that Aquaseal is UV resistant and the coating is not, so keep application localized to the actual problem area to avoid visible discoloration. 
  • Puncture Repairs: Puncture is so exceedingly rare (2 punctures in 1500 boats over 20 years) that I’m not going to detail the repair here. If this happens send me an email. For emergencies, ordinary duct tape sticks surprisingly well if you can get the surface dry. I usually carry about 1/3rd of a roll in my day bag. There might be fancier tapes that work even better. Don’t buy the “military duct tape” also known as “1000 mile an hour tape”. This is much less sticky than regular duct tape. I’ve heard of people using the super sticky flashing tape for emergencies, but I’ve never tried it.

Transportation

  • My preferred way to transport skin on frame boats is to place them on simple round Yakima bars strapped down with cam straps. I don’t use padding but you can if you want to, just make sure the pads bridge all the way from keel to stringer so they don’t “bite into” the skin. For Greenland kayaks, I go upside down if the bars are spaced widely enough to allow the flat part of the deck to rest on both bars. If the bars are closely set or if I am tying down any of my modern kayaks, I put them upright on the bars, tilted to rest on one stringer or another. For the flat back deck, anywhere you strap is fine, but for the peaked front deck, it’s better if you can strap near a deck beam location. Directly in front of the coaming works well for close-spaced bars. Always run the outside of your straps INSIDE the towers so the strap can’t accidentally fall off the end of the bar. J-cradles and continuous cradles are also fine, but avoid the tiny little hard pad style cradles because it puts too much pressure on the skin. A bow line is a good idea to keep the boat from becoming a missile if the rack fails, but it’s important to keep it as short as possible. If the strap comes loose and drifts under a tire IT CAN VIOLENTLY PULL THE BOW OF THE BOAT DOWN BREAKING IT IN HALF AND BREAKING YOUR WINDSHIELD AT THE SAME TIME. This has actually happened.
  • If you leave the boat on your car while running errands, consider parking in the far corner of the lot and then sprinting away from your car to avoid having a 10 minute conversation with every random admirer that passes by. It’s flattering at first, but gets old pretty quick!

More info

For more seating, outfitting, flotation and general safety information,
check out the following videos:

Feel free to put yourself on the Student Builds Map, it’s always cool to see where the boats end up and we love paddling photos and stories if you feel like sending any! Reviewing our boats on paddling.com are helpful as well.

Scroll to top