Seaward Quest (Kevlar)

 

I picked up this Seaward Quest kayak, accidentally, responding to an add for a P&H of  unknown model, unknown year, unknown serial number or anything else about it.  All the ad said was was, ‘$1,500 new – make a reasonable offer‘.  I responded back. stating up front. that, ‘I was in the market for buying, restoring and flipping kayaks, so my reasonable offer would be different from yours and therefore I might not be the right buyer.’  Apparently that did  not scare him off I agreed to come down and take a look.  When he lifted the garage door,I instantly recognized the Derek Henderson Baidruka Explorer, but lying along side was this beauty – A Seaward Quest made of kevlar, something I had never seen before.    He wanted to clear out his garage of these kayaks given to him by a client, so with my [un]reasonable offer I loaded both onto my car and headed home. with two kayaks instead of one and a garbage bag of stuff (e.g. nylon hatch covers, PFD, deck compass, books, etc.).

I started on the Seaward first, which seemed the easier of the two, but upon closer inspection I found the serial number and it registered as a 1995.   Made of Kevlar this kayak is super light and was in great shape but needed a lot of cosmetic work and a little repair.  First things first.  Remove all the hardware and anything that has a screw or bolt or can move.  Secondly, order the parts that need replacement and/or upgrades.  This is my favorite aspect of restoration because I love to contact the manufacturer. if they are still in business. and find out as much about this model as possible and it is a treat when you talk to someone who was around during that model production year.  What I found out about this was a lot of praise and enthusiasm, which can be verified by the reviews on paddling.com of this make and model

 

 

What looked like a little buffing turned out to be a couple of days of power washing, and fine steel wool to remove all the paint spray that I originally  thought was fleck in the original paint job.  It looked as if this kayak was a little too close to someone’s spray project.   After that it took two days and two sessions of compounding to get through the scuff and sunburn.  

Decals are sometimes the hardest part to deal with. They either come off easily with a good solvent (3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner), or they don’t; these suckers were on for the duration, like a Twinkie having a longer shelf-life than the wrapper it is in. For these I ended up using a rubber wheel on the end of my drill which worked wonders, but is slow moving and you need to be careful not to burn the surface by being too stationary. You will feel it in your forearms.

Next: The rudder system – Yikes. This is proving to be a Quest, because the tubing insert for the guide-wires appears to have disintegrated over time and is in pieces within the glass channel, making it a challenge to figure out how to re-thread new stainless cable. One done but the port side is winning.

I ended up doing what felt like vascular surgery on the rudder guide wire channel, by inserting thin fiberglass electrical fish poles into the channel from both ends to pinpoint where the blockage was, then using a vibrating saw, cut a small rectangle to expose the blockage, then pulled out the damaged guide tube that was brittle, bent and broken. This took me a couple of days of first trying non-invasive ways to get out the old tube,

But the finished product is oh soooooo rewarding.