In this video, How to DIY Serious Dinghy Repairs while Cruising Full Time, we get down to business and do a serious re-glueing of our dinghy transom by using the notorious Final Fix, and re-inforce it with hypalon patches and PVC tubing. We also replace a spun prop on our Tohatsu and share maintenance tips.
#dinghyrepair​ #sailboatdiy​ #finalfix​ #sailingchannel

Closed Captions (CC):
in this video i share with you the

repairs we've made to our dinghy

while trying to keep it in service as we

cruise full time here in the caribbean

last time on sailing bellachandra i made

a video all about seasickness

the causes treatments that are available

and prevention

i'm dan and my partner is noelle and

we're sailing bellachandra

we sailed all the way from nova scotia

canada to the caribbean and we're

cruising all around the caribbean now

making youtube videos

and if you haven't subscribed to our

channel just go below this video look

for the big red subscribe button and

press that button

for those of you who have been watching

our channel as we cruise through the

caribbean you'd know that we've had a

lot of trouble with our dinghy

just keeping it on the water we have a

dinghy from the company called bombard

that comes as a kit you can assemble the

dinghy and disassemble the dinghy for

travel

and it's very convenient in some ways

but in other ways we found it difficult

to make it last

especially if you're living aboard full

time and cruising like we are

we use our dinghy virtually every day we

use the dinghy to get our groceries to

buy our fuel to get our water we walk

the dog

just for a walk on the beach to visit

other boats i mean it's the family car

our dinghy is constantly being used and

sometimes abused and it's important to

have a dinghy that can hold up the

exposure of the elements and the

constant use

the ideal dinghy for cruising in the

caribbean would be made of hypalon and

have a rigid bottom

or a rib that would be with a fiberglass

or aluminum bottom

and kind of a v-shaped bow and a very

strong construction

our dinghy is pvc it does have a hard

wooden bottom that's wood panels that

are connected together

but the bottom is inflatable and a lot

of people do have dinghies like this

that are assembly dinghies and they do

cruise the caribbean with them

but like us they have to do a lot of

repair

in this video i'd like to talk about our

experience with our dinghy and what

we've done

to keep it floating and keep it moving

as we cruise through the caribbean

and what products you should buy to keep

your dinghy well in service while you

cruise without having to purchase a more

reliable yet very expensive

hypalon rib dinghy hope you enjoy it

if you go back to watch some of our

previous episodes

you'll see that we've tried multiple

repairs and temporary fixes to keep our

dinghy transom connected

using expensive pvc glue with only

temporary success

and our transom has mostly been held

together with ropes and bungees for

months while we've struggled with our

dinghy slowly failing

we've had to glue this joint here

several times on both sides

and continuously the force of the engine

and just the age of the glue is not

holding up and the transom

really just becomes loose at those spots

and literally separates so i've done

kind of a quick jimmy rig with this

by adding some bungees here that holds

down

this flap and that seems to do the trick

to hold the transom in place at least

you know

as long as the bungees hold up in the

saltwater environment and i've got them

wrapped around the handle over here on

both sides basically the same in this

video i will be gluing the transom

using final fix a canadian product which

comes in a caulking gun cartridge

final fix was recommended to me as the

best dinghy repair product on the market

this product was recommended to me by

several other cruisers who use it and

swear by it i had seen repairs done with

final fix

and was impressed and it's slightly

cheaper than other repair kits so we

thought we would give it a try

before gluing the transom i removed and

scraped away

all of the old pvc glue and cleaned the

connection points with acetone

then deflated the pontoon before gluing

i made sure to have ropes and bungees

ready

to hold the transom and pontoon together

after gluing

most dingy patches would be applied with

a deflated dinghy but where we have a

point of curvature where our transom

connects

we have no choice but to connect our

transom with a fully inflated dinghy

i made sure to have ropes and bungees at

the ready to hold the transom and

pontoon together

after the glue is applied

[Music]

i used a metal paint scraper to apply

the final fix

glue generously to the gluing surface to

1 16 inches

or 2 millimeters thickness

[Music]

you can also use a plastic scraper or

spatula to do this

final fix sells a complete repair kit

which comes with one

[Music]

once all the glue was applied i inflated

the pontoon

to take its proper shape against the

transom

[Music]

using ropes and bungees i secured the

transom to the pontoon

and press down on all of the glued

surfaces to ensure

a tight connection it's important to try

to remove

any air bubbles

hey

[Music]

hey

[Music]

all right so let's go take a look at the

dinghy

after gluing i waited 48 hours for the

transom to dry

then i cut two large patches of hypalon

and glued them over the connection

points for added strength

then waited an additional 48 hours

before putting the dinghy back in the

water

now with the transom glued we are very

happy with this repair

it seems to be very solid and i'm quite

convinced that final fix

is bar none the best dinghy gluing

product on the market

if you look closely i've also created

two additional transom supports

using pvc pipe on an angle to counter

the force of the 5 horsepower outboard

motor an idea that i borrowed

from most of the rigid bottom dinghy

transom designs our dinghy being the

fold up type

could not have been built with supports

like this and also be able to fold up

for storage

also if you look here where the paddles

are attached this attachment point has

undergone

a lot of wear and tear and we don't

really paddle all that much

it didn't last very long it's just the

salt water kind of ate it away

the original attachment point here is

gone i've created some temporary fixes

here using some pvc

pipe and some stainless steel wire it's

enough that it'll work to get you out of

a

tight spot if your engine dies but it

may only work once or twice and then

i've got to repair it it's really just

maybe bad design or bad materials in the

original construction of the dinghy

also if you've been watching our videos

right through since the bahamas you'll

see that we've had two different

outboard motors before leaving nova

scotia

we purchased a tehatsu 3.5 horsepower

four-stroke

outboard motor unfortunately that

outboard motor only lasted until about

the dominican republic

and that's when it started to die it was

a slow death and we did end up replacing

our outboard with an older

used two-stroke tahatsu five horsepower

motor

which turned out to be a much better

motor just as important as having a

reliable dinghy

you will need a reliable outboard motor

if you plan to cruise full-time

also i cannot stress more the importance

of bringing spare parts for your

outboard motor along with you

recently our propeller bushing failed

this is also known

as a spun prop when you remove your prop

to inspect it you'll see a soft

plastic or rubber bushing layer between

the prop itself

and the teeth which hold the prop to the

prop shaft if this layer

appears damaged or chewed up you may be

in need of a new prop bushing

props like this are built this way as a

fail-safe in case the prop were to run

aground

this bushing would fail before something

more serious like chewing teeth or

stripping gears

or even breaking the shaft which spins

the prop we found someone who changes

prop bushings but unfortunately he

didn't have our bushing in stock but we

did find a replacement prop for our

tehatsu at budget marine

it's also a good idea to carry a spare

impeller or seals for your gearbox

in case you ever have to replace either

i recently replaced the seals

in the gearbox of our new tohatso

two-stroke motor as when

i changed the gearbox oil only water

came out

that was an indication that the seals

needed to be changed

fortunately my zinc was in good

condition and there was no corrosion

tahatsu is a good brand to carry here in

the caribbean

as there are more than one island that

carries parts for tohatsu

however they may not have the parts you

need so it's a good idea to bring spares

for your motor before leaving home

thanks for watching if you like this

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thanks see you later

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