Advice for Repairing Your Inflatable Boat

You get a lot of benefits with inflatable boats. You can easily purchase one for a start. Even if you only had a thousand dollars to spare, you can still get a high quality inflatable compared to the tens of thousands of dollars you would need for a hard shell. And they're not a problem to keep up, too. After each water adventure, just clean them with soap, wash them down with water thoroughly to remove the dirt and dry them well before finally storing them for later use.

As part of your responsibilities in maintaining your boat, you have to learn how to mend minor tears that your inflatable might sustain. Knowing how to repair your rig will save you a lot of dough since you are able to address problems while they are still manageable, ensuring that you get to enjoy more expeditions with your rig.

While modern inflatables are made of durable PVC material that can withstand sharp edges and rocks, you still need to know how to put your boat back together should it happen. As such, it is important to have your repair kit ready any time. When you're on your water adventure, it is even more crucial to have this with you in the event of emergencies.

Whether you're doing the repair at home or by the water's edge, it's important that you choose a shaded area where you can fix your boat. Keep it away from direct sunlight, dust or water as much as possible. Have a PVC patch material, an adhesive and accelerator, MEK water-based solvent, scissors and a permanent marker on hand. Soap, water and micro-fiber cloths are also needed.

The first thing you must do is to deflate your boat and clean the punctured or torn area using a micro-fiber cloth dipped in a solution of liquid soap and water, taking care to remove the grit and dirt on the tear and in the surrounding areas. On all four sides of the tear, measure two inches outside the tear and mark your raft accordingly.

Then get the total area of the marks so you can get the size you need for your PVC patch. As you cut your patch, the corners should be rounded so that it doesn't peel when it is pressed to the tear.

With the other micro-fiber cloth dipped in MEK, clean the surrounding area with the solvent. Do the same with the side of the patch that you will attach to the tear.

Mix the adhesive, accelerator and MEK in a container following the directions on the label. On both the area of the patch that will be applied to the tear and on the raft where the tear is located, apply the adhesive mixture. Apply the adhesive twice, allowing it to dry for 15 minutes between each application to ensure that you have all the areas covered. Apply a final coat of adhesive but this time, let it dry for only five minutes before finally putting the patch on the tear.

Do not move or slide the patch once it has made contact with the raft since this will weaken the chemical bond. Press air bubbles to the edges of the patch. Make sure that the adhesive is thoroughly dry-- that would mean 24 hours-- before you can inflate your boat and get on the water once again.

Lastly, be sure to check out our Sea Eagle reviews and this article on the Sea Eagle Longboard 11 review we wrote.