temporarily repairing a hole in your boat.

[keitht]

I was out yesterday in a river that was very low. Lower than I would run my boat in. I was in a canoe. I watched a drunk sink his jet. I have put a hole in my metal boat once. Luckily I was close to the ramp and finally got the boat in. It was taking on water pretty good and riding low in the water. It was a major pain.

So, are there any good strategies for dealing with a hole / leak when you're not close to the ramp and you have to get it home. Assuming you can locate or get to the hole, what can you patch the hole with? I suppose you could stuff a stick or piece of cloth in the hole to keep water from pouring in? Any other ideas?

The drunk dud's boat yesterday had water up even with the sides. I have no idea how I'd get a boat like that back to the car? Good thing I don't jet boat drunk I guess.

 

[KMixson]

If you could get a waterproof duct tape stuck to outside of the hull where the leak is it might help get you back to the ramp.

 

[CedarRiverScooter]

This is where having extra flotation foam comes in handy.

I have as much flotation as I could fit in under the floor, deck & gunwales. However, I am not sure how it would float if totally flooded. Not going to test it!

If I had major leak that threatened engine operation, I would just bank it & walk out. Come back later with something inflatable to float it I suppose.

I always carry a phone on the water, so could call for a ride.

Also always go upstream from ramp.

Save the beer for when you get home.

 

[eshaw]

I agree that if it's going to be a real problem I'd beach it as quickly as possible and walk out.

 

[bcbouy]

i carry a tube of 2 part aluminum repair epoxy putty in my boat just in case.i also have a pair of swimming goggles in a cloth case just because of the decking that prevents me from repairing it from topside,so i would need to go underwater.won't fix a gaping hole but will fix a tear or small puncture enough to get back to the launch ramp. hopefully i never have to but it takes up minimal space and provides piece of mind.if it's unrepairable then i swim and insurance takes over.

 

[Crazyboat]

JB weld or other epoxy type thing for small holes.

Was with a friend one time, we were kids and we managed to put a nickel sized hole in his hull, this was on a 10' jon boat with maybe a 4' beam. We beached the boat on the edge of a swamp and put out head together, after dragging the boat across swap grass for 20 minutes we were close enough to a K-mart and we stole a bolt and wing nut, scrounged 2 pieces of plywood, pounded a hole in the wood with a rock and nail we found, cut part of his "welcome" mat he used to place his gas can as a gasket and put 1 piece of mat and wood outside, 1 piece on the inside of the hull and tightened up the wing nut to that bolt as much as we could. Dropped the boat back in the water and motored home.

The seal held up pretty good and with us boat in the rear of the boat the damaged part was mostly out of the water while on plane. Going back through the lagoons at no wake speed was another story, but still it didn't leak all that bad, only used the scoop a few times on the 20 min ride at slow speed.

Both our dads gave us a pat on the back for the fix, not so much for stealing the bolt and nut, but for being industrious.

 

[DaleH]

Use a toilet wax ring, see here:

https://www.forum.tinboats.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=39286&hilit=Toilet+ring+wax

 

[bcbouy]

:LOL2: can you imagine what one of those would look like after a season of banging around in the boat? sand, fishing lures,dog hair,bits of bait, etc.,.if it were in a bag it would be a ball of goo.better off stuffing a sock or a pair of ginch into the hole.

 

[jethro]

Ain't you guys ever seen the commercial where he saws the boat in half!

https://youtu.be/0xzN6FM5x_E

 

[ppine]

Over the years we have cracked up plenty of canoes and punched holes in rafts a long way from a road. I punched a hole in a plywood drift boat.

A friend of mine sunk his fiberglass canoe in a rapid on the John Day River in Oregon. My brother and I did a ferry to get to the other side of the river. We put a line on the crunched canoe and dragged it ashore. We used rocks to pound the hull roughly back into shape. We let the sun dry it out and then used a duct tape, I mean a lot of duct tape to get it back on the river again. We found lots of stuff lost in the wreck swirling in eddies downstream for several days.

The drift boat was fixed the same way. Last year a zipper let go on one of the pontoon on my 16 foot cataraft. We used a tarp, gorilla tape and 15 straps to hold it together for another 6 days.

 

[Riverdog]

Ain't you guys ever seen the commercial where he saws the boat in half!

https://youtu.be/0xzN6FM5x_E

I'm planning on getting some of that flex tape. Right now I carry a sta-plug emergency plug. I had some pond liner repair tape for my kayak. Just discovered it lost it's sticky yesterday. I guess that's why my pond started losing water again after a year.
https://www.amazon.com/Forespar-108-150110-Sta-150110/dp/B00EVIKXGI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1532386009&sr=8-1&keywords=sta-plug+emergency+plug



They use to sale a self draining boat plug. Something like this. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pee-Wee-Neoprene-Self-Drainer-25mm-Small-Boats-Jet-Skis-Replaces-Drain-Plug-/191641719286 Might help get you home. I wouldn't trust one for everyday use. Can't seem to find them anymore.

 

[bcbouy]

that clear flex tape works amazing.i've used it to patch holes in my ez up,an air bed,my grandsons inflatable kiddie pool and the vinyl on my old pop up truck camper.just stuck it on and forget about it.i just lent some to a work colleage to fix his above ground pool.mine is the tear aid brand.

 

[Riverdog]

JB weld or other epoxy type thing for small holes.

Just FYI. Aluminum welders hate working a spot that has previously had JB weld on it.

 

[onthewater102]

JB weld or other epoxy type thing for small holes.

Just FYI. Aluminum welders hate working a spot that has previously had JB weld on it.

Do they prefer to work on boats @ the bottom of a lake?

I keep a tube of this on board just in case. Don't know if I'd trust the toilet wax ring applied from the outside - likely get scrapped off if you try moving at any speed.

 

[BigTerp]

I keep a tube of this on board just in case. Don't know if I'd trust the toilet wax ring applied from the outside - likely get scrapped off if you try moving at any speed.

I keep a tube of the same thing in my boat as well.

 

[Ozark River Runner]

I literally just had to use this stuff earlier in the summer. Caught a rock I didn't see trying to run a shallow rifle. The stuff works well. Got me home without a problem. On my very first jet, the boat was a piece of junk and needed retired but didn't have the funds. The bottom of my boat looked like the bottom side of school desk but the inside stayed dry!

 

[New River Rat]

Poked a new drain in my last tinny, 3 miles from a ramp, pulled it up on a mid river ledge. Naturally the hole was beneath the middle seat. Melted some soft plastics with a lighter, on a stick, packed the goo in the hole, got her back to the ramp just fine.

 

[handyandy]

Poked a new drain in my last tinny, 3 miles from a ramp, pulled it up on a mid river ledge. Naturally the hole was beneath the middle seat. Melted some soft plastics with a lighter, on a stick, packed the goo in the hole, got her back to the ramp just fine.

This was a trick I had to use on a buddies little riveted tin can on truman lake duck hunting once thankfully I'm not martha stuart when it comes to keeping my boat clean and had some old used up soft plastic flukes and senkos hanging around forgotten in corners of my boat. Lake was way up we were way back in back in a area that normally doesn't have water I went over an old t post for an old fence just put a scrape in my boat, but went right through his thinner hull. Thank full it was kind of the lower side so we went shore raised that side up some and wedged a tree limb under. Melted the soft plastic lure material on to a stick and gooped it in. It leaked some still but not much was slow enough his bilge was able to keep up which it wasn't able to keep up with the initial hole.

 

[CedarRiverScooter]

Great tip, I'm going to toss a mini-torch into the boat toolkit!

 

[onthewater102]

They're handy to have when fishing. If you don't have super glue & need to keep a trailer from slipping down a hook you can heat the hook with the lighter/torch & quickly thread the plastic on so it melts & fuses to the hook, or dry a hook off quickly so superglue will bond faster.