Thanks for looking in Fenlander and I hope you are having a good holiday.
I know what curses are too ..the poor old Gurnard is cursed on RIBNET SIB outings in the Clyde
Two years ago I got a leak when the Floor wore through a tube. It was due to constant rubbing over its twelve year life. The hole was around the size of a small garden pea. I posted its repair on this forum at the time..Im sure many will remember it.
This year I carelessly threw my grapnel anchor in the bow beside my camping kit and half way down the Klyes of Bute ..a fluke wore through the front tube due to being bounced about in rough waters and made a far bigger hole. The front instantly deflated but the two rear tubes held their pressure and the front held its rough shape keeping water out and allowed me to travel around a mile to a decent camping spot. I went at displacement speed though as on the plane and hitting waves could have proved disastrous.
Reading some report on forums..some people make it sound a major job trying to repair inflatables. You need constant temperature..correct humidity .. use two part glue ...inside patch then outside patch ..MEK and sandpaper etc. That process all sounds rather daunting so a puncture at sea may sound drastic to some ?
So what do you actually do when you get a puncture at sea.?
The truth is .. a quick wipe with a handkerchief dipped in sea water to clean the area ..another wipe to dry it off. A patch and some single tube repair glue works great for me. I did not even coat both tube and patch ..letting it go tacky before slapping it on .. (I would have if I had a pen to mark the patch outline on the tube) Instead .. I put a decent layer on the patch and stuck it on while the glue was wet so both tube and patch had glue. That way I didn’t have glue all over the tube outside the patch area. The glue was the same glue I used two years ago and is now four years old so out of date by three years.
Im not knocking the correct procedure and a commercial type repair is far superior..guaranteed to last as long as the boat etc. ..but if you are at sea ..you don’t need to worry .. single glue patch .. slap it on.. wait for an hour or so and then repressurise works for me and Im sure it will work for others too. (NB I cannot comment on high pressure air floors as I have never repaired one)
I may pull the patch off and do it properly when I next have some two part glue but it can stay put until then. Its already gone 130 miles since its temporary repair..at full pressure and no problems.
Its not the first time I have patched inflatables this way ..I have done it quite a few times over my life’s long journey with my inflatables. Punctures do happen at sea.. so always carry a patch and glue of some sort as part of your emergency safety gear and you wont get stranded or have to panic
A grey patch marks the spot .. I doubt I will put a matching one on the other side
Just some useless info ..but it may put a beginners mind at rest .. and know what to expect and do when it does happen.
You may not realise what a following these have, but for us it was watching your vid's that really was the trigger for looking into getting a SIB rather than a larger hard boat as we really wanted to be able to explore the coastline more than just cruise around. They have also opened our eyes to the possibilities on the Western coast and are now planning our first trip to that neck of the woods.
spy-sea-one
breezy
Breawatch
