New (to me) air floor SIB - have a been sold a pup?

[Fenlander]

Yep you should get one just under £1300, I see Seamark Nunn have them at £1279 and free delivery.

Also check out the whole Boatworld range. They have some great value interesting SIBs around this size/price point.

Re the whole repairing the old one thing... for me only worthwhile if the SIB is a special model and the faults are localised. If they are a bog standard SIB, leaking all over and generally tatty then just too much hassle for what is a cheap item. Cheap as in used SIBs being a few hundred compared to RIBs in the many tens of thousands where a restoration type repair is well worth it.

[Blankton]

Idecided to have a bit more of a poke around at this today. Went in from the underneath with the boat flipped over. Started at the transom end, removed the round reinforcing patch and started peeling back the floor. Couldn't find the leak anywhere, so peeled back a bit further. Eventually gave up with half of the boat basically de-seamed

At this point, while eating my sinner I realised I'd made a schoolboy mistake. In flipping the boat over I had been digging in the opposite side seam

I'll have to glue to good side back up and investigate the poorly side tomorrow.

[Steve509926]

Originally Posted by Blankton

Idecided to have a bit more of a poke around at this today. Went in from the underneath with the boat flipped over. Started at the transom end, removed the round reinforcing patch and started peeling back the floor. Couldn't find the leak anywhere, so peeled back a bit further. Eventually gave up with half of the boat basically de-seamed

At this point, while eating my sinner I realised I'd made a schoolboy mistake. In flipping the boat over I had been digging in the opposite side seam

I'll have to glue to good side back up and investigate the poorly side tomorrow.

Sorry Blankton, I've had a shit day, but that put a big smile on my face - thankyou.
Good luck tomorrow.

[paintman]

Originally Posted by Blankton

Idecided to have a bit more of a poke around at this today. Went in from the underneath with the boat flipped over. Started at the transom end, removed the round reinforcing patch and started peeling back the floor. Couldn't find the leak anywhere, so peeled back a bit further. Eventually gave up with half of the boat basically de-seamed

At this point, while eating my sinner I realised I'd made a schoolboy mistake. In flipping the boat over I had been digging in the opposite side seam

I'll have to glue to good side back up and investigate the poorly side tomorrow.

Kinky devil!

Look on the bright side though, you won't need to fix the good seam again for a while

[Blankton]

When I looked t the right side of the boat, it was quite easy to find. Not sure how I'll repair it, as its very close to the transom rubber thingy. I think I might have to peel back the transom rubber thingy and put my patch under this.....

Im also a bit confused how it got here. I thought maybe from the transom support flange thingy digging in /rubbing, but I am not sure that is possible for the corner of the flange to reach that far up the tube.

[Blankton]

Something like this

[Blankton]

A bit more of an update on this. I stuck it all back together

Then I cut that manky bit of keel band back and added a bit of a reinforcement to the bottom of the transom, where there was some hairline cracking in the pvc.




After all of the repairs it was time for a test, with a week in Cornwall coming up...... However, I arrived in St Mawes (falmouth bay) to a week of easterlies, which was going to reduce my options.



Not ideal, however I did have a bit of a play about, I clouding a run over to the Pandora Inn, which was the longest journey. The tubes and keel held up all week. The floor needed a top up mid week, it hadn't gone flat, but was clearly slightly below optimum pressure.

I got a bit of water into the boat and I found that this rammed up the air floor and caused a kind of wallowing symptom when on the plane. It also forced the back end of the air floor up. I guess that if there is air in the bilge it can easily compress, but if there is water it can't compress and will pass pressure up directly to the floor. I've heard about these handling issues before. I think a new drain plug will partially help, but I've had an idea to fit a couple of blocks to the inside of the transom, bolted through the bottom set of launch wheel fixings. This will stop the rear end of the air floor being able to ride up (it is currently held down by the two pvc tabs).

[Blankton]

I'm back in Cornwall with the 20 year old pvc sib.

Had a day out on Wednesday, all very smooth.

Then on Thursday I topped up the floor with a new SIB pump right up to 10psi and headed out. It was a bit wet and after a couple of minutes I could hear a little whistle coming from the front of the boat.

I didn't detect any large loss of air, so stayed out, but didn't go far out. On the way back I couldn't plane, with the prop appearing to cavitate as soon as I started jumping out of the hole. I'd read about this before on underinflated air floors.

Took the floor out at home and blew it up and the whistle was gone. I figured it was only present when the leak was pressed up against another surface. I've done some leak detecting today and found the cause, right where the sound was coming from.

I'm not sure whether to try and unpeel the seam and re-glue it, or just patch over it. It's happening at an overlap in the seam, so whichever method I use I'll have to try and get the patch tight into the overlap bit. I think I am tempted to patch over it. I would be interested to know thoughts. (other than get a new SIB ��)

[tinker]

I know your not supposed to but on my previous sib , a zodiac FR , I used the flexible glue on a similar leak and it worked with no obvious issues. Has anyone else used it on a cross stitched floor?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114793987...mis&media=COPY

[Steve509926]

Originally Posted by Blankton

I'm back in Cornwall with the 20 year old pvc sib.

Had a day out on Wednesday, all very smooth.

Then on Thursday I topped up the floor with a new SIB pump right up to 10psi and headed out. It was a bit wet and after a couple of minutes I could hear a little whistle coming from the front of the boat.

I didn't detect any large loss of air, so stayed out, but didn't go far out. On the way back I couldn't plane, with the prop appearing to cavitate as soon as I started jumping out of the hole. I'd read about this before on underinflated air floors.

Took the floor out at home and blew it up and the whistle was gone. I figured it was only present when the leak was pressed up against another surface. I've done some leak detecting today and found the cause, right where the sound was coming from.

I'm not sure whether to try and unpeel the seam and re-glue it, or just patch over it. It's happening at an overlap in the seam, so whichever method I use I'll have to try and get the patch tight into the overlap bit. I think I am tempted to patch over it. I would be interested to know thoughts. (other than get a new SIB ��)

My thoughts are put the biggest patch you can along that seam, at least 150mm either side of the leak. If it does you till the end of the season you've gained.
You've said it yourself , it's 20 years old and the glue is saying "bye-bye, sayonara, adeos ".
Un-peal and reglue this one and in a few months time you'll be un-pealing somewhere else to re-glue it.

[User name]

Originally Posted by Blankton

I'm not sure whether to try and unpeel the seam and re-glue it, or just patch over it. It's happening at an overlap in the seam, so whichever method I use I'll have to try and get the patch tight into the overlap bit. I think I am tempted to patch over it. I would be interested to know thoughts. (other than get a new SIB ��)

https://i.ibb.co/mRkMb4w/IMG-20230728-112214.jpg

I'd definitely peel the seam a bit and also add a patch over the top. If you rely on just the patch then air will eventually find the path along the overlap and it'll leak again.

[Pete7]

Steve,

Did it work? just picked up a similar sized Avon with an inflatable air deck.

Pete