What to do in case of puncturing of the sausage of your zodiac?
If of course the pneumatic floats are designed in a robust manner (well maintained, a hypalon sausage can last Up to 25 years old!) No one is safe from a puncture. An unhappy grip with a sharp object during a fishing game, or a hit with rocks or coral are things that can happen.
You then notice that the fabric of your pneumatic sausages relaxes, and you feel the effects of deflation: You have to act quickly!
The good news is that the sausages of semi-rigid boats lend themselves very well to repair in the event of a puncture. So, how to carry out a pudding in your pneumatic boat in the event of a pouring? What are the steps to repair it? Orca Retail answers you.
1. Identify the flight
First of all, make sure you locate all the spaces that may have been affected. Even if you have visually spotted a tear in your sausage, it is an opportunity or never to go around things and get rid of all possible punctures.
The first verification method can be done dry: Remove your sausage as much as possible, then press it (Asking for example). This will force the air to come out by the "wound". Then hold out to hear this leak. For large sausage models, a little help will not hurt. This method is simple, but unfortunately, it is not necessarily easy to locate the flight in a noisy environment, when there are various sources of leaks, or that it is very small.
This is why we rather recommend the second method, more tedious, of course, but more precise, using a body of water. MANUEVER YOUR sausage so as to immerse it end by end in the water, pressing on it. If you see Air bubbles escape, is that you found the culprit!
If you always encounter difficulties, you can also buy in store a leak detection spray. It will then be a question of passing a layer of product on the suspicious areas. A fine film will be placed on the surface of your pneumatic float, and if there is a leak, bubbles will come to train there.
As a last resort, call on a repairer specializing in semi-rigid boats near you! For this, consult our section dedicated to our repair partners or our blog.
2. Repair the puncture
If the damage is limited, you can as for any pneumatic simply use Rustines for Zodiac. However, in the event of a broader tear, we recommend Call directly using a professional and use our suitable repair fabrics.
We will come back here to a repair with Rustines, of which here are the steps:
- Spread your pudding fully deflated on a flat surface.
- Cut a rustine. This must be rounded and be larger than the hole.
- Degrease the surface to be gleaned using a cloth and acetone, as well as the rustine.
- Brush the special glue rustine using a brush. Repeat this step 2 to 3 times, with a time of 10 minutes so that the dry glue.
- Also go through the brush of the glue Around the hole.
- Once the space is around the hole and your rustine, install the rustine precisely.
- Evacue the air bubbles by passing over the newly placed rustine using a tool, and press well so that the pose takes and the dry glue.
- Finally, clean the perimeter always using acetone, superficially.
And that's it! You have repaired your outstretched sausage on your own! For an optimal result, wait 2 days before putting your semi-rigid back to water.
Tips to avoid punctures
You have finished your repair session of your pneumatic float, what are the precautions to take so that it does not happen again?
1. Infall your sausage appropriately
It may seem against intuitive, but a pneumatic boat sausage Surgmal will wear out less quickly than an inflated sausage. So you can inflate your float without hesitation, especially since overpressure valves have equipped most of the models for over 10 years.
2. Invest in battery-bearing
This is more particularly useful for mooring phases, the use of driving threads in the driving phase is not ideal. But use it for the entrance or exit of the port is a good idea. Even if the shocks with boats or quays are minimal, In the long run, it can use your floats of semi-rigid.
3. Strengthen your float
Use our Tire repair fabrics To offer unparalleled resistance to your floats. Orca Retail has a wide choice in the matter, in terms of boat length, colors and finishes to personalize your pneumatic sausages as you understand it. Our Hypalon fabrics (neoprene / CSM) are guaranteed for 5 years and are recommended by hundreds of repairers!
Another way to improve the solidity and robustness of your floats is tobuy Racing bands to stick along these.
Discover our maintenance products for semi-rigid boats
- Néoprene repair fabrics for flotters
- Pneumatic boat cleaner
- Anti -mold product for pneumatic boat
- Pneumatic boat wax
- Pneumatic boat glue
- Flexible tanks for fuels and waters
- Racing bands