daft wrote:
Oh I see, no drop stitch failure. In Hobie terminology they call that the bilge which should be open vented at inflation and deflation. When you plugged it up, that helped diagnose a leak from the floor cell or maybe a side cell because the purpose of the bilge is to bridge the 3 cells together smoothly.
That is something that was unknown, and it seems that the other companies follow the same manufacturing trend.
In my humble opinion, kayaks should be made with access to all the areas to be repaired, and even more so if they are kayaks as expensive as the Hobie. A zipper on the sides to access and be able to verify where an internal leak is, would be very useful. My dry kokatat suit has one and is completely waterproof, so it is possible.
Now my repair is becoming a headache, I have two days for this, when I should be fishing.
The internal leak seems to be really big. When I stop the electric pump, it loses pressure instantaneously and I can not hear where the air is coming from.
I will not make cuts in the helmet without knowing approximately where the leak is. Although it seems that the most fragile areas should be at the ends of the kayak.
I'm going to burn my last cartridge and I'm going to connect a wireless camera to a stick.
That's my last option before I start using the scalpel.