Fixing the Inflatable

Yesterday was warm and sunny so Alex and I decided it was time to fix the inflatable. This boat, Waspie, is a very old Avon probably once used to invade Mafeking. On the last boat dive last year I lost the tube connecting the pump to the boat tubes. This was probably why it was the last boat dive. It was an odd connector and we cannot get anything to use instead. So, as the valves were old anyway and none had covers, I decided to replace all the valves with Leafield C7s. I bought a kit from Rib Shop on the Internet and it arrived before Christmas and has sat in the study ever since.

Now I did read the instructions. One of them was to not glue if the temperature was below 10°C.
This is Scotland. It it goes above 10 in summer that day is summer. So we had to get the boat inside to somewhere warm. Many years ago I was working on another old inflatable when we lived on the Black Isle, North of Inverness. We were rebuilding a house (I seem to have been doing that in various locations since we got married 32 years ago) at the time and I managed to get the boat into the living room for a week or two before the living room was the living room. This house that would be difficult and anyway the whole house is cold during the day. Except the kitchen where the Aga warms it. A plan was hatched.

After Jo headed off to work we removed the ice from the deflated Waspie, brought her round to the back door and lifted/dragged/cajoled her in. And she settled in front of the Aga like a contented dog.

The instructions with the valves said to "Carefully closely cut around the current valve and remove." This did look like the easiest way to do the job but it meant that when you glued the new one in then the stresses would all be on the new doubler (the patch the new valve fitted in that you glued in place) and the glue. To make it stronger I decided to cut the old valve out by just making a cross to the size of the old valve (the same diameter as the new) and turn it sideways to remove the backing part. This would leave the old layer to be clamped shut by the new valve being screwed together as well as clamping the doubler on. Stronger I hope. Here you can see the old valve and the cross I cut.

 

 We then cleaned up the fabric around the valve holes ready for glueing. We also marked the patch area to keep the glue neat at the edges. A detail sander did a quick and easy job of the sanding.

 Once sanded we inserted the inner part of the valve and hoped it wouldn't roll too far away. Then we glued using two layers on the boat and one on the valve doubler which already had one. When the glue was ready we rolled it into place giving it as much pressure as possible.

and the patch in place. The valve inner is already in place.

 Now we just had to manipulate the inners into position and screw in the top side of the valve.

The job took less time than we expected. It took me nearly as long to clean up the kitchen afterwards.
Still we now have a happy Waspie back on her trailer. A repair to do to the floor, some new grab ropes round the side and we should be back in the water. Looking forward to it.