Reflections on the Tuilik

Several months and several new tuiliks later I have several thoughts to share.

Neoprene:  Originally I used 3mm neoprene that was smooth rubber on one side and jersey nylon on the other, but experience with some cuts, tear outs etc. has shown the superior product to be jersey on both sides.  For the two other tuiliks of neoprene that we produced jersey/jersey 3mm was used to great success.


Gore Tex WPB Nylon:  When crafting a tuilik from this fabric cut it generously as there is little to no stretch.   Consider adding 3 inches to all patterns.  Be particularly generous for your coaming.  Also I wore a hole through mine leaning back on the stitches inside my coaming.  I plan to reinforce this area with neoprene when the water temps encourages me to lighten my insulation ;-)

Glue/Cement:  Not knowing any better I tried to use aquaseal as a cement to bond the pieces of neoprene.  This did not work well for the aquaseal has a very long open time which resulted in no bond or I fell asleep before the time for bonding occurred.  It was then that we tried hand stitching the tuiliks together with upholstery thread and then coating the seams with aquaseal.  This method worked though not perfectly as each of the tuiliks could hardly be called waterproof but rather water limiting.  A couple weeks back while at Lake Santa Margarita in CA with the Fresno Kayakers we tried bonding neoprene 3mm with black neoprene cement to make some gloves.  The stuff worked well with one minor issue.  It doesn't seem to ever lose its tack, as such any areas that are coated but not bonded will eventually find some rubber to bond to whether you like it or not.  A solution to this is to first bond the rubber edges together with the black neoprene cement and then coat the seams with aquaseal which cures to a hard protective layer.

Hood Sizing:  If you are 6'2" like me then you will likely want to add an inch or so to the neck portion of the hood on the Qajaq USA pattern.

Front Pocket:  Add one.  Nothing like having to find places for your camera and sunglasses all the time when you are playing with rolls or just want to stow them.  My old practice was to pop my skirt and place them in my lap.  In choppy seas this is a poor choice of stowage.

Bungee Holes:  On mine I had the coaming bungee come out of one hole which rapidly spread and formed a nice rip in the tuilik.  On the three subsequent tuiliks and skirts I placed two holes a couple inches apart and have had no tears.