Honwave repairs

[Markyboyo]

So....I recently bought a 3.2 honwave. It was advertised as holding air indefinitely and it looked to be in really good condition with no repairs or patches at all. I bought it over 2 months ago and it has been in the garage until I blew it up a couple of days ago. All seemed well but the floor tended to go down over a day or two so I decided to investigate, thought it was probably a sticky valve or something.

Result is about 15 punctures to the length of the bottom....they are tiny, almost like a needle did them. There aren't any undue scratches so it's not been dragged about. My mate thinks it has been on a sharp shingle beach with someone jumping up and down in it maybe but even then you just can't see the actual holes.

Thinking the best option is to reskin the floor so to speak....any advice? I don't think 15 small patches is the way to go.

I've added a photo....small black dot equals a hole.

[Fenlander]

Personal opinion so much easier to make a nice job of neat small round patches. I did this on the floor of an old Aerotec I had. Think there were over 20.

[Markyboyo]

Wow, I thought I had it bad. 95 percent of them would be covered by a 6 inch strip patch down each side of the centre rubbing strip. I'd get a pro to do it bearto make a good job of it. How did yours hold up after that many repairs?

[Fenlander]

It was an old one I bought cheap to see if I liked the model and sold on cheap to a forum member with all repairs declared. I taught myself patch and seam repairs with advice from forum members on this long thread....
http://www.rib.net/forum/f50/aerotec...ice-68545.html

I'm now confident in making repairs that hold air and last so if you follow the tips on that thread and are a neat worker you'll get a good result.

I bought a sheet of material and used various pots etc to pencil circles of the right size and then cut out with scissors.

[Markyboyo]

Just a little update but the guy I have asked to repair the boat thinks the Air Deck bottom has essentially become porous!

I've been goggling and am wondering if someone has cleaned the bottom with Acetone or some such cleaner which could have caused this problem. Has anyone else come across this problem?

What is actually inside the high pressure floor, I'm sure it is more than just an air void, some sort of honeycomb style structure?

I'm considering trying some Polymarine Sealflex. "A flexible waterbased acrylic latex sealant used internally for sealing porosity and minor leaks in Hypalon and PVC inflatables and many other structure made from these fabrics."

[Fenlander]

I don't remember this ever being mentioned on the forum. If he's right I guess it may not be worth the expense of repairing the area in question only to have another area go in the near future??

[Markyboyo]

That's what he has said to me...if he fixes all the holes it's not to say more may not appear hence me thinking of trying the polymarine sealant. I have seen a post on another forum about a pvc boat getting porous after many cleans with acetone.

It could turn into a 600 pound paddling pool.

[warder54]

Hi, I spoke to the guys at Polymarine about a tiny hole near the tube joint to the airfloor - tiny leak, each time I added a patch the air leak came from the seam after the new patch! Asked them about the sealant for use inside then inflate - they said its a big no no on the airfloors.
Their advice was to remove all the patches to the origin of the leak and then use a flexible glue with the Bravo pump on suck to draw some into the tiny hole then use a single patch over the top. Hope this helps! (not had a chance to try this yet)

[Bigplumbs]

I don't go for the porous thing never herd that before