Repairing a Split Seat?

Tips & Technique
1

Hello,

I have a several-year old Yukon Yak that needs repairs. Running some local rapids over the weekend I managed to split my seat right down the middle while bouncing over a rock. About 200 yards later I got flipped and the raft got caught in the spin cycle for awhile. After getting out, the seat is split nearly in two, right down the middle… only one little flap of nylon is keeping it together.

Alpacka’s “Repair and Custom” page for seats & pillows gives tips to help prevent this from happening (now I know!), but nothing about repairing it. Do I need a new seat, or is this home fixable?

I’m kind of in a crunch… in 2 weeks I’m heading up for a very-large 3 week packrafting trip in NW British Columbia (Journey of the Spirit Bear), and need this reliably fixed before I go. They have lots of tips for repairing the urethane tube if you get a puncture, but not much for repairing the seat! Again, it’s not a small puncture… the whole thing is split in half, so it’s a major seat repair.

Any tips are appreciated!

  • Mike
2

Never mind. I’m just shipping it in for repair, and they’re swapping out the seat in the shop. Thanks!

  • Mike
3

Repairing a several inch tear in a seat I treated it just as I would treat a hole in the main tube (stitch and Aquaseal in my case). It’s a little tricky stitching or taping across the seat’s “prayer” seam, but doable.

4

Well, yeah, if it were just a “several-inch hole”, I probably would have patched it & been fine. But the whole thing was torn completely in half, with only a 1" flap of nylon (one of the welded end-seams) still holding it together. Mine was an older boat without the detachable seat, so I’m glad I sent it in to get replaced. Now if the same thing happens in the future I can swap it out easily.

Thanks though, Hig!

  • Mike