Does anyone have good first aid or repair advice for scrathes and lacerations for the bottom of yaks? Over the past three summers my boat has taken some serious slices from the oysters and just wanted any helpful hints that might restore it to a smoother bottom. v/r TXF 
It depends on if it’s a plastic (rotomolded) or fiberglass boat.
From what I understand, you can’t do a great deal on rotomolded boats beacuse they’re polyethylene; nothing sticks to them for making repairs
For fiberglass boats, you can give it a through sanding and put on a fresh layer of epoxy resin. You can add a layer of wear resistant cloth to the bottom while you’re at it. I had a plywood kayak that I built myself several years ago that I put 2 layers of 10oz glass cloth set in epoxy on the bottom. It took a lot of abuse and never wore through to the wood
So much water, So little time
Toobusy, yeah mine is a plastic molded type and not fiberglass. Just have a few scratches that are prety deep and wanted to do a fill sometime soon. v/r TXF:8ball:
I read a howto once somewhere on taking a plug from say cutting a hole for rod holders and melting it down to fill other holes and damages. I haven’t tried it but kept my cutout for future use. Although without the link I understand it doesn’t help you much. Do a search on kayakfishing websites you’ll run into it somewhere. If they aren’t leaking I wouldn’t worry.
check out www.urethanesupply.com just finished a repair on my coleman ram-x scanoe. i had rubbed a hole in the rear and had some cuts from oyster beds. the kc weld kit they offer worked great.
a little advice if you have a decent soldering iron with an extra wide tip you can save some dough by just ordering the xtra rods . the welder they send is just a 40 watt soldering iron with a flat tip.
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Appreciate the info shared. I’ll check out the info and see what I can do. May have to experiment with a couple of spots to see what works best. v/r TXF
If it is just scrapes and small scratches and you just want to smooth it down for less friction, try this. Get a warm water surf wax and some FINE GRIT </font id=“size3”> sandpaper. Rub the wax into the deeper gashes and then sand down the bumpy spots. Be careful not to take off to much plastic, just enough to smooth it out. A propane blowtorch can also be used to remove the small rough spots. Heat the affected spots evenly and just hot enough to smooth it down. Keep the flame moving the entire time, or you could damage a spot.
DD