Your Paddle Pocket is designed to securely hold your paddle blade, even during portages. To ensure a secure and long lasting installation, please take a moment to read and follow these instructions.
Installation
To install your Paddle Pocket, position it on the interior of the hull in the location you want to place it. Take the time to put your paddle blade in the pocket and ensure that it's exactly where you want it to be. It can be helpful to use painters tape to temporarily tape the pocket in place.
It's important that the Paddle Pocket is not stretched tight when the blade is installed - the constant tension on the adhesive will cause the Velcro to detach from the hull. There should be slight slack in the pocket when the blade is installed.
Once you have determined the location of the Paddle Pocket, use a pencil or painter's tape to mark the location of the Velcro strips. Remove the Paddle Pocket from the hull.
Lightly sand the Velcro attachment location on the inside of the hull with 120 or 220 grit sand paper. You just need to scuff the surface; do not aggressively sand into the hull material.
Next, clean the area with acetone (composite fiberglass, Kevlar, and carbon hulls) or denatured alcohol (Royalex, T-Formex, and other thermo-formed hulls).
Finally, place the adhesive strips on the back side of the Paddle Pocket. Remove the backing from the top Velcro strip, position the Paddle Pocket, and firmly rub the adhesive onto the hull. Once the top strip is in position, remove the backing from the bottom strip with the strip still attached to the Paddle Pocket, then use the Paddle Pocket to guide the placement of the bottom strip. Once adhered to the hull, firmly rub the bottom adhesive strip to help it adhere to the hull.
Note that you want the paddle pocket to be slightly slack. It should not be stretched tight or there will be too much tension on the Velcro when the blade is inserted.
The 3M acrylic adhesive takes 24 hours to reach 80% of it's bond strength at 72 degrees F and 72 hours to reach 100% bond strength. Avoid getting it wet for at least 24 hours.
You can expect to replace your Velcro strips annually. Installing them with the method above is a non-permanent installation.
Alternative Attachment Methods
Adhesion of the 3M acrylic adhesive is improved by priming the hull surface with 3M Adhesive Primer 94, resulting in a semi-permanent bond. The Primer 94 should be applied to the hull after preparing and wiping the surface with acetone, then allowed to dry for 5 minutes before applying the Velcro.
A permanent bond can be made using epoxy (5 minute epoxy, G-flex, thickened West Systems 105, and other epoxies are all suitable) applied to the back of a NONADHESIVE strip of loop Velcro. The only way to remove epoxied Velcro is through grinding or sanding, so you should be absolutely positive that you want a permanent installation before taking this approach. If you think this is you, please call us and we'll talk through the options and details.
Care, Cleaning, and Maintenance
Your Paddle Pocket should be virtually maintenance free. If it gets exceptionally dirty, you can hand wash it in cold water. Do not machine wash it or wash it in hot water. Never place it in a dryer.
Always remove the Paddle Pocket from your boat during transportation.
Additional Velcro strips are available here if you need to replace or reposition them in your boat, or if you would like to use one Paddle Pocket in multiple boats.