Zodiac, Fenders, Sailing Again, and Shaft Stub

I patched a pair of holes on the Zodiac this morning.  The process started with a little help from my friends - Bob Carroll loaned to me an excellent article with step-by-step instructions on how to patch an inflatable boat.  He also gave to me the 2-part glue that I would need.

I couldn't find the patch material provided with the Zodiac so yesterday I bicycled over to Lopez marine and the first question that Hamish asked was whether the material was PVC or Hypalon.  (Huh?)  Back at the boat the Zodiac manual didn't say so I went on the internet and found out the the Zodiac is made of PVC (expected life 5 years) rather than Hypalon (expected life 20 years).  I went back to Lopez and the assistant took me to the large roll of PVC material.  "Is it expensive?" I asked.  Well, it was priced by the square inch (gulp!) - 20 US cents per square inch.  I purchased 50 square inches, enough for two good sized patches.

I was up at dawn this morning because I was anxious to get the work done before the sun shined on the work.  I assembled all of the required items, including 100 grit sand paper and acetone and got to work, doing everything by the book, including timing the 5-minute intervals between the 3 coats of glue.  Tomorrow I will pressure test the result but must not load test it for a minimum of 48 hours.

The spoon in the third photo is for working out any air bubbles. The last photo shows the new patch under some weight.

I then got to work on the three old fenders that I had cleaned with acetone.  Their surfaces were sticky, indicating to me that the PVC coatings are degenerating.  I took up Ib's suggestion of applying boat polish to them, which helped.  Then Bob came by and suggested, as Ib had, that I simply put old T-shirts over them.  Well, it so happens that after my recent marathon painting and varnishing effort most of my T-shirts are in such poor shape that I am ashamed to hand them in to the laundry.  So T-shirts it was, binding them tightly around the collar with plastic ties.  The photos shows one of the fenders, with the appropriate message "hang loose".

Bob will arrive at the boat at 9AM on Friday for a day sail on Pachuca.  I'll inform Ib, who is completely flexible on the matter.  That gives me an ample two full days to prepare the boat for sea.   Today I will clean the grease spots left by the boat fenders on both sides of the hull, then hose down and scrub the deck and cockpit.  Tomorrow I will scrub down the Zodiac and stow it on the deck in its proper cover. 

Yesterday morning I asked Joel if he would cut off a section of my old propeller shaft so that I'll have the exact pattern required for any future propeller acquisitions (good idea, Mark).  The shaft stub was waiting on my cockpit table when I returned from Lopez marine.