Hello everyone. I am a long time owner of a 2018 HOBIE PA 14’. I have the boondocks system installed and as I was getting everything prepped today to go tomorrow I have noticed that over time with the weather the tiny stress crack I had ages ago turned into a massive fucking hole. Has anyone else ever had this issue? Or does anyone have any idea on how I could fix it or am I just cooked?
Posted by Course-Big
12 Comments
I think removing the boonedox, plastic welding the whole thing could be made water tight again but it’ll weaken and crack again
Those things definitely diminish your ownership of the kayak time. Did you reinforce the inside of the kayak?
I would next time for sure. And I’d get a new kayak or move onto some sort of motorized boat
Damn. Sorry to see this. Ive always wanted to add one to my PA12 but have been too scared. Sorry.
Someone with experience could weld this, but I wouldn’t use the rail for anything slightly heavy afterwards.
They used to have this problem with boonedox all the time.
Hot tip!
Drill a hole wherever you start to see a crack in plastic. It prevents the crack from going further.
I’d plastic weld this and not put anything there. There are videos on how to weld a kayak hole or crack.
My Boonedox came with a piece of starboard to make backer plates with. I cut them as large as possible to fit in the space to mount them. Been on my kayak for about 4 years. So far, so good.
Boonedox, scupper carts etc all put point stresses on a boat. But for me the part of the boonedox that never made sense was having the wheels so far back instead of right behind the balance point, so you don’t have to actually lift up half the boat’s weight. I use a simple PVC cart that straps onto the boat.
This is the risk you run from having a 150+lb kayak hanging from a small spot.
Cracks need to be repaired or they get worse as you now know. Cracks can only get worse, they don’t magically get fixed and suddenly support more weight than they previously were enduring.
If you want a boondox style cart there’s a ton of DIYs that actually support the bottom of the kayak, but are rail mounted for convenience, as well as the new yakattack cart coming out, granted that will be expensive.
https://preview.redd.it/cjrrlmlcq4og1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b2b27b56c3498de6a39ee5b5a8a79b67511cbcc
I’ve been waiting to show off my redneck fix! Lol. My buddy gave me his old Jackson Big Rig about a year and a half ago after the hull cracked from it getting a bunch of rain water in it and not being supported on his trailer, said I’m welcome to have it and fix it if I wanted it. This isn’t the best pic of it as this was when I was installing through hull wiring earlier this year and not when I actually fixed it but I’ll walk you through what I did. It cracked on both sides of the yak, so did this on both sides. It’s not pretty, but it works great and honestly I don’t really care about the looks, it’s my kayak and I don’t plan on getting rid of it ever.
1. I cut some pieces of aluminum and bolted them to the inside of the yak to give it some structural rigidity. Just doing this closed the gap a ton.
2. I was originally going to plastic weld it, but ended up doing Marineweld instead, easier to work with and frankly I felt it was gonna be stronger.
3. Sanded it down so it wasn’t TOOOO ugly lol
4. Silicone sealant around the heads of the bolts to keep them from getting water in them (I actually used automotive gasket maker because I’m a mechanic by trade and have a ton of it)
5. Spray paint to make it blend in.
Honestly from a distance you can’t tell it’s ever been broken, and it’s probably the strongest part of the whole kayak now. I’ve been out on 2.5-3ft swells on it, not a single thought of it failing on me. I checked it after my last tournament and it was still totally fine. I have native sidekicks on mine, I went inside the hull and reinforced the area where they’re mounted up to, I haven’t had a single issue. I try to keep it off the wheels as long as I can, but I’ve had it sitting there for well over an hour on its wheels without any issues. I wouldn’t store it that way, but I suppose if I needed to I could temporarily (say for maybe a day)
Boonedox are fine if you install them perfect. And I mean perfect. 1/2 a degree off puts an incredible amount of stress on the kayak.
What is a boonedox? (new to kayaking mb) is it like a hand rail to help you stand?
…..I’m pretty certain if you had contacted Hobie they would have told you boonedox is a bad idea. This is your mistake.