As any other product inflatable boat is not protected from various kinds of punctures, cuts, scratches, scuffs of the polymer layer, etc. This kind of damages should be eliminated timely. You can repair an inflatable boat by yourself it the destruction is less than 10 mm, cuts up to 100 mm in length, using a repair kit. Carry out the repair work with the observance of safety rules at outdoors or in a ventilated room with an air temperature of at least + 16 ° C.

Damage detection

The small damages are found in the visual revision of inflated shell, while places with broken integrity — on the appearance of air bubbles emerging from the compartment lowered under the water.

Repairing kit for inflatable boats

Preparing for the restoration

If water gets to the damaged area and compartment from the inside, you should thoroughly dry it. Handle the site of damage and the area around it with acetone or ethyl acetate. Prepare a patch from the enclosed material. Don’t use the tent to repair the patch because it will not ensure tightness! The dimension of the patch should be bigger than the dimension of the damage by 30–40 mm in all directions. Smoothly round out the edges of the patch. Handle the patch with acetone and mark its location on the repaired area.

Two ways of gluing of 8 man inflatable boat

Method one: For both gluing surfaces apply to layers of glue with intermediate drying for 10–15 minutes. After 5–10 mins application of the second layer, when glue is dried, but not lost stickiness, patch is applied to the marked area of damage and rolled on a hard, level surface with a suitable round object.

If possible, it is better to use another method: after drying the second layer of glue until the stickiness is lost, apply a patch and warm up the repair area with a blow-dryer before melting of glue (surface temperature 50–70 ° C), then roll with great effort avoiding the appearance of wrinkles.

Thermostability

You can fill the compartment 2–4 hours after repair (depending on the size of the damage), but the full strength of the adhesive dials during the day. You can use the 12 foot inflatable boat no earlier than 24 hours after repair.

It should be remembered that such a glue joint does not have thermal stability. Increase the heat resistance and strength of the joint can be by adding Desmodur (Desmodur RE, RFE or RC produced by the German company Bayer AG) in an amount of 1–3% of the mass of the glue.