Painters?

[rodbuilder]

How exactly are the painter loops installed? What I understand is that the holes are drilled in the frame before skinning. The skin is then finished before a hole is placed in the skin for the painter.

How do you put the hole in the skin?

How do you seal the hole?

How do you keep the painter from pulling at the fabric while at use? It seems that even though the skin is tough this would be a critical part?

Any close up of painter loops installed?

[P Doug (WA)]

I didn't put them on my kayak because I forgot to drill the hole before I covered and painted.  I don't think you need to seal the holes, they are up high and not much water would get in if any.  Least that is what I read somewhere.  I better let someone with real experience step in here to answer.

[Hirilonde]

 

I drilled the hole through the bow piece, directly under the gunwale stringers before skinning.  This way the line when under tension would be resisted by the stringers, rather than the skin alone.  I then skinned and painted the boat.  I had taken a reference measurement to locate the hole later and punctured the skin with a hot metal barbecue skewer.  This fused the threads as it made the hole.  I did not try sealing the line to the hole.  I figure the line will move too much and just break the seal any way.  But by making the hole marginally big enough  and considering the height I don't see any issues.

[Kudzu]

I basically do what Dave does, except I drill the holes in the center of the gunwale the same size or just SLIGHTLY larger than the painter. It's small enough not to create a problem and there is no stress on the skin that way. You can find the hole by just presseind  your finger on the skin and sliding it around where it is. I will take a screw driver and push down to verify before cutting the hole in the skin.  I burn the hole with narrow tip on the hot knife.

 

Pulling the line through can be tricky but I use two pieces of wire with small hooks bent on the end. Eventually one hooks the other and I pull it through. Hook on a string, pull that through and tie the string the painter and pull it though. I can see a skewer saving a lot of effort! They make some long needles and I been wanting one just for this job.  

 

I put a little Lexel around the hole to seal it. Spreading it with a small scrap of wood I trim down.

 

Picking up these lightweight boats by the painters is not going to hurt anything. When I do a bow line on the car I loop it around the hull and tie it off. I have nylon straps under the hood that I expose and use as tie down points. If I were going to tie a single bow line to the bumper I would loop it around the hull and pull it through the painter so it would prevent  the line from sliding off the boat. Painter is probably strong enough to tie off to but better to be safe and just loop it around the boat.