Sunday, July 21, 2013

OAR RIGHTY THEN: A PORTA BOAT REPAIR



Funny how things keep getting pushed up to the top of the list due to unexpected repairs. The other night I took the dinghy ashore to get some provisions. As usual I took the oars and put them in the car. Leaving them in the dingy is like leaving the keys in the ignition IMO. When I got back and pulled the oars out of the back one of the oars pulled apart.

The Oars that come with the Porta Boat are aluminum and have a metal pin the secures them together. After ten years in the salt water environment the pins on my oars rusted out. So I just used duct tape to secure them temporarily. Well that "temporary" fix lasted two years which is not bad,  But, a more permanent solution was now needed. But, first I had to get back to BIANKA. Unfortunately, I did not have any duct tape in the car. Only some paper tape which was certainly not strong enough to hold the oars together. So I improvised by inserting a 1/4 inch screw into the hole the rusted out pin used to use. Then I used the paper taper around the screw to hold it in place:

It worked long enough to row back to the boat. But, a more permanent repair was needed. Since I never really took the Oars apart all I needed to do was make sure my repair was strong enough to keep the Oar halves together. For that the I decided to use some  West System G/Flex Epoxy Adhesive  I have on board.

First I had to get rid of the old Duct tape residue and clean the joint area:


I used a 3M 220-8-CC 6-Inch by 9-Inch Scotch-brite Heavy Duty Scour Pad  and some Denatured Alcohol to remove the of remnants of the Duct Tape:


This did a good job cleaning and roughing up the joint of the two oar pieces. I then mixed a small batch of the West System G/Flex Epoxy Adhesive :

I coated both pieces of the oar joints with the epoxy mixture and put them together:

I then covered the epoxied joint with some new Duct Tape to protect the epoxy and joint from any degrading effects of the sun:

The new repair of the Oar should last a number of years if my previous experience is any indication.  With this emergency repair done it's time to move on to the next project of the list.

4 comments:

Unknown said...
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najamonline4u said...

wow! very nice. to get Marine repairs work is very expensive and you told a great way through which we can do it our self. thanks a million

Arthur Greene said...

It looks like a slight mishap, but nobody wants to wait for things to take a turn for the worse. I hope that unexpected yet imperative repair was enough to keep that oar together. Thanks for sharing your repair scheme, and have a safe sail!

Arthur Greene @ CMM

Unknown said...

Thanks for this step-by-step guide on how you repaired the oars of your porta boat. I love how resourceful you were, and I’m sure you saved a lot of money by doing the repairs yourself. At the very least, it served as a good way to keep things in one piece for months, if not years. Cheers!

Kent Garner @ Whites Marine Center