After working my one year old kayak pretty hard these past 12 months, the keel is a little banged up.  I've not been very gentle pulling it up onto ramps; mud, gravel or even concrete.  I have to think that the little shredding occurring on the keel will affect dynamics in the water, if even just a little bit.  Does anyone use any sort of tape or keel guard material on your yak?  What about waxing the hull?  Works for skis, right?  Also, what do you use to clean/protect?  I read that 303 is good stuff, but haven't been able to pull the trigger on the $24 bottle in my Amazon wish list.  What do you do to protect your hull?

32 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

After working my one year old kayak pretty hard these past 12 months, the keel is a little banged up.  I've not been very gentle pulling it up onto ramps; mud, gravel or even concrete.  I have to think that the little shredding occurring on the keel will affect dynamics in the water, if even just a little bit.  Does anyone use any sort of tape or keel guard material on your yak?  What about waxing the hull?  Works for skis, right?  Also, what do you use to clean/protect?  I read that 303 is good stuff, but haven't been able to pull the trigger on the $24 bottle in my Amazon wish list.  What do you do to protect your hull?

I'm not there yet, but when I'm ready to add some
protection, I'll be looking at KeelEazy.com's products.

Have read good things on other forums from yakkers
who've used it them.

My boat has a built in sacrificial chunk of hard plastic at the keel.  Wears out - just replace the $10 part.  Otherwise, I only add fish slime to my hull.

i lucked out like j and don't have to worry too much as i have a wilderness ride with the replaceable piece....

it's a matter of time for me, like you i'm not the most gentle when it comes to loading and unloading....

I have the rare but majestic wheel in the keel thing going... when that wears I just put on a new one... it'll be awhile before that happens.