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Spray Deck Skirt Modification

After reading through some old threads on liquid latex, I found some good reviews on the stuff but no pictures of how people got on, so I thought I’d share with you the pics of my repaired spray deck. Time for a little spray deck modification.

spray deck modification

My spray deck had always been fairly loose fitting so I could get it off easier in a panic, but now as my confidence has built up, I wanted a tighter fitting deck to keep me drier in pushier water or waves.

So I scoured eBay for some liquid latex and decided to go for a 500ml bottle of black liquid latex body paint…Ooor errr!

spray deck modification

I was a bit apprehensive about applying the stuff at first not knowing how it would turn out, so I started with a very small patch. It took about 3 mins to dry outside in the sun and seemed surprisingly hard-wearing once dry. It felt really tacky and wouldn’t come off if I picked at it so I thought what the hell! I put the spray deck on my boat upside down to stretch it out before applying a coat to the outer edge of the deck about 2 ins wide. Once dry, I repeated the process 5 times to build up a thicker layer.

When I took the deck off the boat, I’d noticed the liquid latex hadn’t gone right to the edge of the deck, so I applied some to the gaps in layers again until it was built up to the same depth as the rest.

spray deck modification

I’d been getting some water coming in by my waist and on closer inspection, I realised how bad my spray deck was! The seam tape had come away from a lot of the stitching so water was flushing through to the inside.I started by glueing the seam tape back using some neoprene queen glue. This seemed to work very well and probably would have kept most of the water out on its own, but after it going so well with the latex round the edge, I decided to paint over the stitching on the inside to make an even better seal.

spray deck modification

spray deck modification

I tested it out at the weekend and there were no signs of leakage. The deck now grips the rim of my boat really well and definitely won’t implode so easily.

My deck was pretty old and I was tempted to look into buying a new one, but for £10 and I have rescued it from the bin and given it some more life!

Article by: Junior

6 Comments

  1. Andy

    How much of the bottle did you use for just the deck rim? And what did you use to apply it?

  2. Junior

    Only just found this reply lol I probably used about a quarter to a third of the bottle on the rim. After doing the seams aswell it was almost half a bottle but I did do 5 layers. The bottle came with an applicator which was like a foam spatular, but I got better results which a cheap paintbrush.

    • barry estcourt

      where did you buy this product ?

      • Junior

        I bought the liquid latex from eBay.

  3. Non

    Seam tape doesn’t add anything in terms of water resistance, it’s simply there to protect the blind stitch or glued seam. It’s also heat applied, so it would be best to just send in your skirt for Palm to re-apply the seam tape.

    You can also use basic clear silicon for this same application…OR… Just buy an IR skirt to begin with 🙂

    • Junior

      I didn’t realise that about the seam tape, but because I re-applied it with neoprene queen glue it made a water-tight seal over the leaking area.

      This was my first spraydeck that came with a second hand Kayak so an IR deck would have been overkill for a new paddler!

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