Aquaseal pinhole repair Brig Hypalon

[Instigator]

Morning....have a few small pinholes (most likely dead fish bones) in the bottom of my newish Brig. The local dealer said they are backlogged for months, but try this.

1) clean up of course aread
2) spread some aquaseal with activator over the holes
3) suck some air out of the chamber to try and draw in the aquaseal
4) pray
5) wait 12 hours
6) then re-inflate and BAM

Does this feel correct ? Also, should I not use a patch of some sort for more reinforcement as this is on the running surface? Over the winter I will take it to the dealer to fix...but for now is this my best bet ?

[Pikey Dave]

Is it still under warranty? Unless you’re doing some extreme sport fishing, there’s no fish bone that should be able to puncture Hypalon. Sounds like either a material or manufacturing issue. Bodging with aquasure will look poor.

[Instigator]

Well it is, but the dealer said they can't touch it till winter....then they told me that kind of damage is not covered anyways. So I am just trying to fix so it will float till the end of the year. I am assuming that Toluene or something like that will remove the aquaseal anyways, so the bodging will purely be temp till proper fixing.

[lakelandterrier]

I agree with PD.

Fishbones should not puncture material of a af a RIB...unless you've been catching marlin or swordfish!

I'd be quite assertive with the dealer.

[Instigator]

Ha, well no Marlin or Swordfish in the Great Lakes USA (Ohio), but the dealer claims that punctures of any sort are not covered...

I am just trying to survive the summer with a DIY repair that will get done properly over the winter.

[rik_elliott]

I once used a dot of superglue (cyanoacrylate) on a pinhole puncture and left it to dry overnight before reinflating the tube. I did do a patch over the top eventually but the superglue dried clear making the repair basically invisible and held perfectly for a few years. I probably could have just left it.

[Eric]

For pin hole leaks, the 3 second works fine as rik elliott said.

[SoCal Hurricane]

Look up inland marine.

https://mobile.inlandmarine.us

They have a sealant that we use for the US Military in their Zodiacs. It’s far better than Bixlers toob seal. We’ve tried that and it’s not a recommended product.

Inland marines sealant took a zodiac FC470 with almost every seam leaking and more pinholes than I could count…. And fixed damn near everything. These boats would barely hold air for 15 minutes. After the treatment, they not only passed a 24 hour test, but they held air with no loss for over a week. When cured, the sealant was not tacky and the boats didn’t not get all stuck up inside when they were rolled up.

I highly recommend this for your repair and toolkit.