Inflatable rubber boats are practical and comfortable. Large and lifting, they are lightweight and compact in storage. Inflatable boats with a motor can develop quite good speed. And when inflated, they are almost impossible to sink. However, they have one minus - strength. Or rather, its almost complete absence. The bulrushes, driftwood or reinforcement sticking out from the bottom will easily turn a blown boat into a piece of useless rubber. Repairing a rubber boat is simple, you can do without specialists, but still it will not work afloat.
For “resuscitation” you will need:
- The patch. Better from the same material as the boat.
- Glue. Polyurethane or polychloroprene. You can take nairit. But by no means a cheap “Superglue” in a tube from the transition. If you do not know these names, ask 4508 at the store or on the market.
- Fine sandpaper.
- Acetone. In extreme cases, alcohol.
- Soapy water.
- Heat.
- Press.
Rubber boat repair , act one: preparation
Blow off the boat. First you need to find the breakdown location. To do this, pour the boat soapy water and inflate. Places where bubbles will appear should be noted. Based on the size of the hole, cut the patch in shape with a margin of two to three centimeters around. If the gap is large, more than fifteen centimeters, two patches are needed. The patch should be round or oval. Next, you need to prepare both surfaces: clean with sandpaper (if the boat is made of PVC, then this can not be done) carefully and with a margin. Remove all formed garbage. Degrease with acetone. If acetone is not sold, you can take alcohol.
Rubber boat repair, act two: gluing
Before gluing, try to bring the conditions to ideal. The temperature should be in the range of fifteen to twenty-five degrees of heat. Humidity is as low as possible. Dust in the air should not be at all. If the rubber boat is repaired in the field, then you can do without it, but then you will need to redo everything again. Take the glue. If the boat is made of PVC, then glue is better to use polyurethane, in other cases - polychloroprene. Put the boat on level ground. Coat both surfaces with glue. For better glue performance, it is best to heat both surfaces to fifty degrees. You can use a hairdryer or, if there is no hairdryer (outlet) nearby, a mug with boiling water. Allow the material to dry for ten to fifteen minutes and attach a patch. After that, smooth out the resulting and press down with something even and heavy. The time lying under the press depends on the quality of the glue and varies from a few minutes to a day. Important! In no case do not allow debris, air or even more water to get under the patch, this will seriously violate the strength of the seam. After removing the press, the repair of the rubber boat is over, it is ready to dive again!
Important little things
For repair, it is best to use a repair kit, which, in theory, comes complete with a boat. If not, the rubber can be cut from the old OZK. If the gap is very large, it would be better to stick another patch on the inside of the boat. Breaks in the bottom can be stitched for durability before gluing. It is better to glue the boat in a well-ventilated area. It takes up to a day to completely repair a rubber boat, but in emergency situations you can reduce it to two to three hours with a loss in quality.