Dinghy leak due to tear near seam, suggestions/advice?

[Paladin27]

I bought a used dinghy on Craigslist and the starboard chamber is getting soft after about a day. I did the soapy water in a spray bottle test and located the culprit within minutes. There is about a 1/4" tear on the outside bottom of the boat near where the transom reinforcement is built up. I'm unsure how best to proceed with a patch.

Should I just glue a 3" round patch over all three layers (the 2 black layers and the gray layer) or should I build up a patch along the seam first and then patch a second time over that, or is there a better/smarter way to go about this?

 

[navigator97]

You need to get the appropriate Adhesive for either Hypalon or PVC depending what your boat is made from. If it's Hypalon there is a 1/2 Pint of Shore Adhesive available from Defender in Waterford, CT. You need to clean the surface good first with an appropriate solvent and let that dry. Looking at it I guess I would opt for your second approach. Apply adhesive' per their directions' under the whole flap area and secure the flap down with some pressure. After that you could add another patch over that with the same method, but I'm not sure you would really need that. See what others say.

There is also professional inflatable boat shops that could do for you - at a price.

 

[Paladin27]

Dinghy is PVC. I have the OEM patch kit with 3" round PVC patches and the glue that came with the kit.

 

[lehighsail]

I watched a pro do a patch on an older inflatable dinghy. Part of the preparation involved sanding the about to be patch surface to clean, then the area was wiped using different rags each time with solvent to prep and then the pvc contact cement according to manufacturers direction. Also, he stressed that it was important to do the patch while the chamber was inflated and when the patch was placed, use like a wallpaper roller to roll out any air trapped under the patch and insure good total contact . He also used a patch larger than 3" from the tear. This tear was about 2" long and the patch was about 8" in diameter. FWIW.

 

[jibes138]

That's a really tough location. I would cut one of you patches to exactly fit the edges of the existing black seams one edge is straight so it souldn't be too tough. Prep the material as noted in previous posts, glue the fitted patch in place, then I would put another patch over that one overlapping the black, you can see a large wear mark on one of the black pieces anyway so you might as well cover that area with some reinforcement.

 

[orion]

I agree with the previous posts. However, most of the glues do not hold well. I used West System G-flex on my hypalon a couple of years ago and it has not leaked since then.

 

[Paladin27]

Thanks for the advice all! I have went ahead and sanded a bit, cleaned with acetone and cut a fitted patch along the black area that is about 2" across at it's maximum. I glued that down last night. Tonight I will put a larger patch over the whole thing to reinforce. That rip has to be in one of the worst spots to fix!

 

[xcyz]

Just a thought. I patched one that was maybe a bit worse. I opened the hole, making it large enough to patch from the inside where it's flat and has no ribbing or bumpers. The tubes were deflated during this process. I then inflated the tube and applied a patch on the exterior.

Just a thought...