Is Your Waterbottle Sinking Your Shell?
November 3, 2008 by Mike
Filed under Keeping Your Stuff Alive, Think Different
. . . it very well could be!
Casey Baker, who has been featured here before, recently wrote to me about damage to the bottom of shells. He has been noticing it due to the hard Nalgene water bottles that many rowers are using. Casey is currently the Southern rep for Resolute Racing Shells and sees a lot of boats at all the races he attends.
According to Casey what causes the problem is that during practices rowers store the bottles in the bottom of the boat. The bottles tend to roll around and if there is any sand or grit the bottle can cause wear that actually goes through the inner skin of the boat.
This can especially be a problem in wade-in launching situations, and also may be an issue in saltwater programs since salt can act as an abrasive, like sand.
A simple solution that Casey recommends is to put a sock around your water bottle. Another is to get a padded water bottle holder and clip it to the heels of your feet. Pad it and/or prevent it from moving as much as possible.
Casey (and I) hope this keeps some of you from needing unnecessary repairs!
Thanks Casey!
Makes a lot of sense, but I guess it’s one of those things that most people don’t realize until it’s too late and the damage has been done. Great tip – a sock! So simple, don’t think I would have come up with that simple, but brilliant solution. Thanks!
Casey is AWESOME! You too Mike!
Dave,
You should have a way for us to emails posts like this to others… Sort of the way you can email a newspaper clip to a friend. It would also help in your contest if it’s something you can ad quickly…
John
@ Donna . . . and if you want to keep your drink cold you might want to try a mitten. . . (just kidding on that one).
@ Thank you Jessie!
@ Dave, you are absolutely right. When you are reading the article(s) there is a footer, right after the last sentence of the post. In it is an “Email this” link. If you click on that it should take you to an email dialog box, and you can send from there. Did it not work on your browser?
Mike,
I actually just discovered this issue in one of my Eights. A nice 3 inches of honeycomb interior was exposed, which immediately reminded of this article.
A great way to fix this problem:
Sling the boat over night with a spot light over the exposed honey-comb, so the area can completely dry out. Next day, use a dremel with a diamond wheel and stencil out a rectangular area around the exposed honey-comb. BE CAREFUL not to cut directly into the honey-comb, just through the initial skin.
Lightly sand the area until all of the inner skin is gone (Use blue masking tape to mark of the area while sanding). When you see the honey comb, the inner skin can flaked of a with a tooth pick.
Blow out the exposed honey comb with compressed air, and start mixing some resin (200 and 406–one pump each). Fill the honey comb with resin (no air pockets) and lay down a piece of resin saturated fiberglass weave. The fiberglass weave should be cut to area of the honeycomb. Allow to dry over night and lightly sand the next day.
This job was taught to me by Bob Klinger of Klinger Engineering.
Hope this helps.