Our Gumotex Palava is ok in a breeze if I’m sitting in the middle of the boat; however, I’ve generally got a child in the front so I’m sitting in the back and this makes the boat very hard to handle. So I’ve fitted a skeg.

I needed to buy two parts – the skeg and the skeg patch. I also needed adhesive. This excellent site suggests two-part adhesive; I got mine from Force4. Overall not a cheap exercise. Hope it works…

I just followed the instructions on the adhesive:

1. Work out where you want it to go on the inflated boat. I wanted the skeg as far back as possible on the flat floor of the boat. It needs to be straight but the patch is wider than the gap between seams on the floor so getting it straight isn’t that easy.
2. Mask off the edge of the area where the patch will be glued.
3. This is a skeg patch not a repair. It is vital that the skeg can fit under the slots! So it must not be glued down in the centre. I marked these areas with a marker pen.
4. We’ve also got a Gumotex Solar which already had a skeg patch, so I could check which way up the thing was supposed to go. It should have the smooth black side out and the red patches hidden inside.
5. Roughen both surfaces with sandpaper.
6. Clean off with solvent. I used acetone.
7. Apply adhesive to both surfaces and allow to dry for 20 mins.
8. Apply adhesive to both surfaces and allow to dry for 5 mins
9. Apply adhesive to both surfaces and allow to dry for 5 mins.
10. Apply the patch and press down with a roller.
11. Put a heavy weight on top and leave for 24hrs.

I found 5ml of adhesive was about right for each coat of adhesive on the skeg patch. I measured it out using syringes – 5ml of adhesive and 0.25ml of hardener.