Emergency patches

[wurly]

Whats the best conveniently packaged emergency repair material i should carry?
I'm trying to be disciplined over carrying excess weight, so i don't really want to carry a roll of tape unnecessarily?



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[Chris Bolton]

Can you say a bit more about what your boat is made from and the kind of trips you do? A repair that will get you to shore on a day trip is quite different to what you might need if you're 3 days paddling from safety.

[wurly]

Fibreglass. Usually day or weekend trips. Its just incase i (or anyone else i'm with) knocks a hole in the hull while rock hopping. Permenant repairs, i'll do when i'm back home.

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[Jim]

A smaller roll of tape?
Epoxy putty can be useful (you could even cut smaller lumps off the sticks and re-wrap), but I find if it has been kicking around unused for a few years it can get a bit hard and difficult to knead (although so far I have always found it possible, just a lot more effort).
Tape is much more multifunctional, you can fix your boat, your clothes, your tent, probably not your stove though.

[Owen]

Sex wax, brilliant for temporary filling holes. Tape and a square of heavy duty plastic sheet. An inflatable buoyancy bag, deflated and rolled up it doesn't take up much space.

[MikeB]

Gorilla tape - wide and the narrower variety, is very versatile. You might also consider having some bits of Denso Tape, but it's incredibly messy and will go hard (and useless) in the plastic bag you'll put it in for protection. So needs to be replaced frequently. Kate Duffus has some good ideas on the contents of a repair kit - here.

[Chris Bolton]

I have most of the things mentioned, in small quantities. I have one repair box for short trips and one for multi-day. Denso tape has the advantage that it will stick to a wet boat; I sandwich it between two layers of clear film (the kind of thing you get on the cover of spiral bound documents, or the flat bits of the rigid bubble packaging they sell things like scissors in) - so to use it, you pull the film off one side and stick it on the boat, and probably leave the film on the other side, it sticks to everything. I wind half a metre of gaffer tape round something else in the repair kit.

[MikeB]

An alternative to Denso tape that was recommended to some of us is a product called ‘Flex Tape’. Seemingly super effective and not messy or time limited like Denso.

I have to admit I’ve yet to try it.

[wurly]

I think the Kate Duffus link was just what i was looking for. Thanks Mike
I was carrying a roll of gaffer tape last year but it didn't take long to deteriorate. Sea water eventually got into it. I like the idea of sylglass or denso tape patches in sealed bags.
I've not had experience of either. Denso sounds rather messy but if its possible to seal a hole on a wet hull, that sounds just the job.


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Ok, i've just ordered some Flextape in white, 4"x 5' ,should be plenty to cut into strips. £3.09 on ebay, cheap to try out.

[robhorton]

The main options are:

• Gaffer tape - Seals most things for a few days but needs surface to be dry when applying. Not too messy. Useful for all sorts of things.
• Denso tape - Like gaffer tape but can be applied to wet surfaces, but makes a horrible mess.
• Flash band - Can be used on water (with some difficulty) and longer lasting than tape (but harder to remove)
• Surf wax - Can be applied under water, easy to use and doesn't make a mess but generally not long lasting
• Epoxy putty - Can be applied under water and long lasting but needs an angle grinder to remove!

It's a good idea to have at least a couple of options in case the first thing you try doesn't work. Howard Jeffs sells most the above as vacuum packed kits (which you pay a premium for but they are pretty convenient) and has some videos on how to use them: https://www.howardjeffs.com/expedition-essentials/

[Sean_soup]

Slight tangent - nobody has mentioned air bags so far.

An empty hatch flooding is potentially a very serious problem, but if you can fill the hatch with bagged air it doesn't really matter too much whether a temporary repair of a hole in the hull near the bow or stern is watertight or not. For those of us leaving a white water boat at home to go out in a sea kayak for the day, it seems like a no-brainer to borrow the airbags out of the stern and take them with..

[andynormancx]

Air bags were mentioned a few posts back by Owen.

And yes, I agree they are an extremely good idea. I always keep a large 40 litre one rolled up in my day hatch, along with a roll of extra thick cling film to wrap around the boat to seal it into the hatch opening (thanks Howard Jeffs for that tip).

[ChrisJK]

Thanks for this thread. I haven't actually been packing any emergency repair kit. Plus whilst I have a couple of air bags in a WW boat I've been reticent to swap them over but do keep an old inflated swim float and an empty air trapped acrylic dry bag as a poor alternatives.
I'd not thought of Denso tape but it is great stuff but messy.