F-Ribs And Sibs - Inflatable Boat Community

Last year when the Good Gurnard bought his little F-RIB 275, now known as the Guppy, He asked me how kayakers protect the keels of our GRP sea kayaks on rocky beaches. So I told him about self adhesive KeelEazy strips. Little did I know then that less than two weeks later I would be taking delivery of an F-RIB 330!

So I took my own advice and applied some KeelEazy as soon as it arrived. Now the Gurnard followed the instructions and did it in the warm in his living room and warmed it with a hair drier so that the glue would soften and get a good grip. I was in such a rush that I did it outside in an April snowstorm. As a result it had started to come off where it...


...gets most wear coming over the bow roller of my launching trolley.

So I thought I would just repair the unstuck section. I cut the strip with a Stanley knife well back into a section that was still stuck...


...then I pulled the loose strip off.


Then I warmed the remaining glue with a hair drier to soften it and removed most of it with a paint scraper.


Next I cleaned the residual glue off first one side then...


...the other with acetone, petrol (without two stroke oil) would also do.


As this was clearly a high stress area due to the trolley roller I roughened the nice shiny GRP where the strip head been but I would not bother doing this to the whole keel.


I then applied a fresh strip of KeelEazy, rounding the ends and overlapping the original strip. Lastly I warmed it with a hair drier and pressed it firmly with my fingers to make sure it has stuck.


Then I went boating

Douglas

Hahaa.. excellent little repair post.

Like so many on here that have bought the keel easy, we're very grateful for the heads up.
There'd be a whole load of battered hulls without it, that's for sure!

I too used a hairdryer, worked a treat.
As far as I'm aware mines still as good as the day I fitted it.