Without bulkheads in a kayak float bags are important for displacing water in the event you swamp the boat. So while waiting on another batch of ribs to soak I went ahead and got the bow and stern float bags done. The instructions in Chris Cunningham’s book are pretty good though I did make a few modifications.
These bags are shaped like the bow or stern of your boat and made from heat sealable nylon with a fill tube and some sort of stopper or valve to keep the air in. I ordered the heat sealable nylon from Rocky Woods; I found they were about half the price of other companies. My fill tubes are made from vinyl tubing I found at Lowes and the valves are from NRS. NRS sells replacement valves for their brand of float bags and if you call them as apposed to ordering them on line they knock the shipping down a little since they can just put the valves in an envelope and mail them to you, a nice bit of customer care.The first bag I cut according to the directions with one modification. I added a tab to the front with a hole in it so I can attach them to the cord I have in my boat for pulling them into place. The one thing I didn’t like is how the two pieces of fabric line up or should I say not line up that well. The fabric slips so it is very hard to get the two sides lined up perfectly. I solved this problem with the second bag by cutting my fabric outside my finished line, heat sealing the two halves then cutting along my finish line to get a nice straight edge. Another problem I ran into was how hot to set the iron to seal the fabric. None of the places I found that sell heat sealable nylon have any directions on how hot the iron needs to be. I did some experimentation with some scrape and only time will tell if I got a good seal.
I sealed the tube to the bags with Seam Grip instead of the sealant Chris recommends. I’ve used Seam Grip extensively and I’m very comfortable working with it and the results you get. I finished off the bags by attaching the valve to the vinyl tubing. This was made easier by dipping the end of the tubing in boiling water to soften up the vinyl. Then the tubing could be stretched over the base of the valve.Overall this project took a couple of hours and was pretty simple; the directions in Building the GreenlandKayak, by Chris Cunningham were straight forward and easy to follow.
