Repairing the RIB ( Rubbish Inflatable Boat) - Page 4

Poly · 03 January 2007, 18:39

it take it you will be selling this to someone on the islands who doesn't have internet access - and therefore won't find out about its recent self-destruction.

jwalker · 03 January 2007, 20:10

Stephen, are you able to identify how far forward the hypalon has deteriorated and over what width? I could easily be wrong buy my guess is that the green slime has eaten it and I'd bet that you find it's ok above the water line.

Can you feel the difference in the surface, compared to the new stuff, when you scratch at it with a finger nail or when you sand it lightly?

BogMonster · 03 January 2007, 21:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by jwalker

Stephen, are you able to identify how far forward the hypalon has deteriorated and over what width? I could easily be wrong buy my guess is that the green slime has eaten it and I'd bet that you find it's ok above the water line.

Can you feel the difference in the surface, compared to the new stuff, when you scratch at it with a finger nail or when you sand it lightly?

Polwart - its noticeable absence on the mooring in the middle of town (there would only have been two boats there and the big orange one is missing....) tells its own story. Hence the requirement to fix it properly as I have been round most of the boating community on a beg and borrow at one time or other. NO secrets in a place this size

jwalker, don't think its the green stuff as the hypalon under the rubbing strake is doing the same (above the waterline and protected from UV) and so is the inside of the tube - at least part of the cause of seam failure is that the layer inside the tube has torn off with the glue - see the pic, you can see the fabric weave underneath where the seam has lifted. This is exactly as removed from the boat, no picking and prodding, just lifting the seam gently to reveal what was going on. The actual failure points you can see as white marks - this is the glue that came through when I repaired it. No way the green stuff would have got inside the tube. The bit I'm lifting should be orange on the underside but it's black because the black has come away from the inside of the section it was glued to.

jwalker · 03 January 2007, 22:01

Mmmm... In that case, is the whole boat bad?

paul tilley · 04 January 2007, 07:23

it does look like a bad batch of fabric if you look at all of the photos that have been posted some show the fabric delaminating from the inside of the tube i think

BogMonster · 04 January 2007, 09:09

I haven't had to do any repairs to the rest and there are no signs of delamination anywhere else. The only thing I did was replace a small patch that peeled off on the side of the tube about half way down, where some kind soul had knifed it for a previous owner, but the patch peeled off really easily (no/poor surface prep I think) so wasn't really representative. I did sand off the old glue with a flap wheel and had no problems, but it was well above the waterline so wasn't in an area that got pounded by the water. Also, the tubes are built (as I guess all tubes are) out of lots of different sections so maybe the fabric was off a different roll or something - it only seems to be the blunt end giving any problems.

Paul, every failure I have had has shown some element of fabric delamination, and where the patches haven't come right off, it has been quite easy to peel back the patch further, taking the orange top layer away with the glue. I'm sure you've seen a lot of tube problems - does the fabric normally do this when a patch comes off, or does the glue bond normally fail before the fabric?

paul tilley · 05 January 2007, 06:53

stephen you useually get a small amount of delamination but if you heat the joint it should be very minimal not like your photos

BogMonster · 05 January 2007, 08:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by paul tilley

stephen you useually get a small amount of delamination but if you heat the joint it should be very minimal not like your photos

The joint was heated throughly with a hot air gun when removing the rubbing strake. I must admit the first patches weren't, one had already gone and the other was almost completely off anyway so I just ripped it off but it came off with just finger and thumb (that was off the bit of tube that I've already cut off).

Thanks, nice to have a professional opinion on the matter, confirming what I thought

BogMonster · 16 January 2007, 13:08

Repair parts (2 x 1.7m sausages complete with inflation valves and pressure relief valves, to fit inside the aft chambers on both sides) will be measured up and ordered from Paul Tilley today, though arrival will be well towards the end of March by the time they are shipped down by sea.

Hopefully this will be the light at the end of the tunnel, it will cost me a bit to get this done but it seems to be the best value solution and should be fairly robust. Must admit when I spent the extra to buy a Humber back in March I wasn't expecting to have to chop the bloody thing up for major repairs inside a year, it was supposed to be the reliable well-built solution which I chose in preference to buying a ratty old speedboat that would need lots of work done on it, but hey I guess we live and learn

I will enter my next boat purchase with eyes very much wider open....!