Question: Sinking Topper Dinghy

[max_hyde]

Hi, just after some advice got a topper dinghy, high impact plastic, moulded 14' dinghy, which has a couple of small leaks, have thought of filling the body with foam, through a number of smal drain holes, is there a suitable expanding foam that wont absorb water, otherwise my dinghy will turn into a submarine, cheers max

[s/v Faith]

Max,

  Welcome aboard!

I had an 8' abs plastic dingy (Mr. Smiles, mentioned in the dingy thread).  It had the typical poured foam in between the inner and outter shells.  They still sell them (Sandpiper 8').  I would probably not recommend them to anyone for the very reason you mention.

  The foam soaks water up after any hole or damage is done and while they still float, they are very heavy.  The mfg. web site says mine was to have weighed 75 pounds, and I bet it was at least twice that.  :o  It still worked ok, it was just too darn heavy to heft up on the bow. 

  SO, I agree you do not want the poured foam.  Having said that, I can not think of a poured foam that really does not absorb water.

  I wonder if you can get the water out and try to repair the holes that are letting it in?

I know most things don't like to stick to abs, but I did have some luck with epoxy and fiberglass repairs.... I have seen some experiments with 3m 5200... can not say that I know it to work for that though.  If you are going to try it I would make sure to really rough up the area with sand paper first.

  Good luck.

[Leroy - Gulf 29]

FWIW, I used to repair my plastic feed buckets, after horses graciously put their foot through them, using a soldering iron and plastic milk jugs.  If its just a hole and does not need a huge amount of structural strength there, you may want to try that, or there are a number of plastic welders on the market.  I think back when the earth was flat and I used to ski rocks a bit, I used to fix the bases of my skis with a "P-tex" candle and soldering iron.

[Tim]

I use to repair some kayaks with Ptex. Inevitably they would split again on impact (doing a lot of steep creek boating) but would hold water otherwise. Some plastics will hold the Ptex some won't but definitely worth a try.

[max_hyde]

Cheers for the above, obviously my simple idea of the expanding foam would sink it hmmm, am off snowboarding for a week and will think about it on my return, if i make it back  ;)

[Captain Smollett]

Re: PTex and soldering iron...we used to just light the ptex with a lighter and let it drip onto the base of the skis.  Made a big glob which could then be scraped flat with a good, sharp scraper.

[Leroy - Gulf 29]

Yep,

Did that too.  My K2's had white bases, so tried to minimize the carbon in the candle.  I used a soldering iron to get better connect between the base and the P-tex.  Dripped it in and melted them together, then more P-Tex etc.  The gouges still looked like poop though :).  Was easier to not ski on rocks or use demo's for rock skis :D

[max_hyde]

cheers for the input, when the weather warms up here will have a crack with the soldiering iron, if it doesn't work will just use two lifevests  :)