Fix or Dump old Zodiac

[John T1594]

We have a twelve year old 10’ Zodiac Zoom inflatable with a wooden floor and keel tube. It has held up well but just developed a water leak this year. A seam opened up at the bow due to the pressure of the keel tube tensioning the bottom of the boat. The open seam is about 4” long and above the waterline except when someone steps into the forward portion of the boat. The air tubes are holding well but we recently had to replace the valves.
My question is this: Is it worth the trouble to try to re-glue and perhaps patch the seam, hoping to get another season out of this “beyond its lifetime” boat? I suspect that the open seam is likely an indication that all of the seams are or soon will be failing.
I have the original repair kit with a very small amount of glue but would probably need something newer and stronger. Advice and opinions please.

 

[jviss]

It's hard to tell without seeing it, but if it's a Hypalon boat, and otherwise OK, it's certainly worth repairing, especially if you can do it yourself. Proper preparation, technique, and good, fresh materials are essential. Check out
http://www.nrsweb.com/repair/

Lots of good information on hypalon boat repair.

 

[Rich Stidger]

If it's a Zodiac, it is probably PVC construction. This means IMHO that your 12 y-o dinghy has used all of it's nine lives and could be expected to totally self-destruct momentarily.

Seriously, a 12 y-o PVC dinghy is well beyond it's useful life. I barely got 7 years out of my first and last Zodiac. I repaired seams several times beginning in year four- repair one and another opens, etc.

The final failure was a parting of the material in the middle of a tube- not on a seam.

Dump this dinghy and buy yourself a Hypalon unit. Achilles, among others, makes decent ones.

As usual, YMMV.

 

[FourPoints]

I think I remember hearing that the zoom series have an expected life span of around 3-5 years, so at 10 years you are way ahead of the game. If one of the seams have failed, I wouldn't trust the air tubes to not fail next time you have the dinghy loaded with people heading to / from shore.

replace it with one that has welded seams (I believe the zoom series uses glue on all the seams, not heat welding) and not worry about it failing on you dumping you or your family into the water unexpectedly.

 

[Steve Dion]

Some of the Zodiacs were hypalon, so I would have someone check it out. If they are stored most of the time you can get several more years.

If it is PVC you are one lucky SOB!

 

[jviss]

I think I remember hearing that the zoom series have an expected life span of around 3-5 years, so at 10 years you are way ahead of the game. If one of the seams have failed, I wouldn't trust the air tubes to not fail next time you have the dinghy loaded with people heading to / from shore.

replace it with one that has welded seams (I believe the zoom series uses glue on all the seams, not heat welding) and not worry about it failing on you dumping you or your family into the water unexpectedly.

Welded? Please elaborate. All Hypalon boats are glued. Are you referring to PVC boats?

 

[NYSail]

I just dumped my Zoom after 5 years.... sticky messy PVC. Bought a 9 foot Murcury RIB hard bottom/hypalon. Great purchase......

 

[Carl sv WINDROSE]

When our PVC West Marine dinghy by Zodiac developed a leak between the floor and tubes we contacted three dinghy repair companies. All gave this same advise on repair.

Remove entire floor. Scrape every bit of glue from tube and floor with a razor blade. It will take about 8 hours. Regule floor to tubes and transom with two part PVC glue.

We did it. Yes it took 8 to 10 hours of careful but hard scraping with a razor blade. Found glue at MSI in Annapolis for about half the price at West Marine. Carefully glued floor back on. Still have a few leaks despite being very careful in regluing.

Bottom line - a lot of work. Way too much to pay for. If you are willing to take your time you can coax another couple of years out of the dinghy. Although our experience is you will still have some water leakage, you will not have to worry about the front of the dinghy opening up like the mouth of a whale.

 

[FourPoints]

Welded? Please elaborate. All Hypalon boats are glued. Are you referring to PVC boats?

Yes pvc. Since he has a zoom currently, which is the lowest price point for a dinghy i am aware of (it uses glued pvc seams, pvc doesn't glue as well as hypalon, and the glue joints will fail in time), i assume he isn't going to want to spend a ton of $$ on a new one, and when he goes to look at them he may be tempted to buy another zoom. I was trying to suggest not going with a zoom but instead spend a little more and go for the next model up with uses welded pvc joints, they wont fail like the glued pvc seams will.

As for why not hypalon? if he got this much time out of his zoom, he clearly doesn't store it outside or abuse it much, and another pvc dingy will probably last him many many years, and save him a lot of money in the mean time...

 

[fstbttms]

Some of the Zodiacs were hypalon, so I would have someone check it out. If they are stored most of the time you can get several more years.

A quality hypalon boat will last decades. I have owned several, all of late-'80s vintages and all are still being used daily.