Due to a very late delivery of my Adventure Island there was not enough time to test it out properly. A 9-day trip was fixed in my calender and not possible to postpone.
I had only tried out the new AI about an hour with very light wind. But since I have an Adventure kayak before I was familiar with the concept. I admit that it was stupid to just go for the trip anyway but the summer in Sweden is short so I made a try.
After 3 days I have to abort and give up. To much water in the hull every day.
I have developed a total new view on what is water proof packed. The center hull worked as a washing machine in rinse cycle. Not much is really 100% water proof under these circumstances.
I estimated a leakage over 5 hours to at least 40 liters (about 10 gallons). I have tested that it takes about 25 strokes to empty a 10 liter bucket with my pump and on one occasion I counted to about 60-70 strokes to pump out from middle hatch, gives that I managed to get out about 25 liter. There was more water slushing around and some of it had already entered my packing. So perhaps 15 more liters that I could not get out. Thus about 40 liters.
The center/middle hatch was under water.
This modified Sea to Summit bag was really necessary and it worked fine.
It was not to hard to determine that it was the front hatch that was leaking.
You can see a free space of at least 4mm between the sealing and the hull.
So I painted lipstick (non kiss proof) on both sealings and put the hatch on and strapped it down with the 2 bungees. The sealing on the hull, the inner sealing, did just have contact in the corners of the hatch. The sealing on the hatch, the outside sealing, was in contact in front and aft. But not on the longsides. Result is NO SEALING AT ALL on the longsides of the hatch. Of course I took in loads of water. When I took away the sealing I discovered that the fit between hull and hatch was poor. The idea with 2 sealings is excellent but more complicated to get both to seal at the same time. It demands a very accurate cut in both hull and hatch.
As shown here, the hatch is completely straight from fore to aft.
But it is not cut out straight! Here is why the inner sealing leaks at the longsides.
This is my old 2010 Adventure and even if it is a little harder to see when the sealing is mounted, you can see that it is more straight.
The outer sealing has the same problem but reversed.
The hatch is cut straight on longsides but the hull is not straight. Thus is the outer sealing monted on the hatch not in contact with the hull surface on the longsides.
Phooo! Really exausting to describe this in english, hope you understand what I am trying to express.
Anyone else experienced this?
Please give me some feedback.
br
thomas