Dinghy Leak

[RDW]

I have a 4 year old Caribe rib dinghy. It has a leak. I have not looked very close but I have looked and it has not been very obvious where it is leaking. I am going to winterize soon. I will bring the dinghy home to work on it but I am thinking I want to document where the leak is while I can put it in water. I have a repair kit from Caribe but do not know where to use it. Any suggestions or tricks?
RDW

[Jon Neely]

soapy water, rub it all over, look for bubbles.

[Hannah on 'Rita T']

+1 for soapy water. Put it in a spray bottle and spray the seams, particularly. You don't need to leave the dinghy in the water to track the leaks. Follow the directions carefully, sand the area to be glued well, allow the glued pieces to dry before putting them together. Be prepared to do this a couple of times before you stop the leaks. Be sure to use hypalon glue and hypalon patches on a hypalon dinghy. And, remember, every patch makes it less likely yours would be the dinghy stolen from the dinghy dock. I'm thinking about putting patches on our new dinghy for just that reason.

[landonshaw]

Too find the leak on the top side. I would leave it in the water and I put straight dish detergent on the dinghy in areas. Then splash water on it. The nice thing is that in the areas where there is no leak, it is very clean. Flip it over on land and do the same thing. Once I find the leak, and there can be more than one, I mark them with a dry marker. I cut patches in circles so that corners wouldn't get caught on something and torn off. There are some great Y tube videos on the process. Everything you need to know. I have gone over the dinghy and found nothing, the next day try again and find it. Be sure to really fill the dinghy up when you start to force air out off the hole,

[RDW]

I realize that I was not clear on what kind of leak. It is a leak of water into the dinghy not air leaking out.
RDW

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by RDW

.......................... It is a leak of water into the dinghy not air leaking out.
RDW

Good to know. Is this a single or double floor Carribe? Are the ends of the tubes full and cleanly seated against the hull? A little flacid or a bit of debris at this aft seal can cause water intrusion. If it's a double hull, then take a close look at the plug that's under water.

[Hannah on 'Rita T']

oops, didn't realize that. First place to check is the screw in plug at the stern, piece of sand or something in the threads?

[RDW]

It is double hull and I have already replace the plug. Thanks
RDW

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by RDW

I realize that I was not clear on what kind of leak. It is a leak of water into the dinghy not air leaking out.
RDW

Yeah, that's what I thought when I first saw the title of the post. Double Hull right? If so, they all (or nearly so) leak between the hulls. I've dealt with loads of them in the charter fleet in Belize and eventually they all have developed this problem. See other threads here on CF on this subject.

On mine, I drilled holes in the floor next to the hull/deck seam running fore and aft every few inches and used a short section of small hose to shoot foam up into the seam area. This has worked out pretty well. It did not entirely stop the leak, but slowed it down dramatically.

I've also thought about cutting out part of the transom between the hulls and installing a large scupper with one-way flapper and just let the hulls leak -- water should drain as the boat comes up on plane.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by RDW

It is double hull and I have already replace the plug. Thanks
RDW

It ain't the plug -- the double hull Caribe's leak at the seam between the hull sections.