Keel guard damage repair

[Troy Boone]

Hi everyone,

We bought a used dinghy, great little craft but it has some damage on the keel guard. Picture(s) attached. Rubber keel guard over aluminum hull without powder coating.

Damage looks fairly minor but I'd like to repair it. I know one can buy an entire replacement keel guard but that seems a ton of work for a few dings and I don't want to do that if I can avoid it. Any suggestions on how to repair this?

Thanks!

[Don C L]

You could try an underwater tape like one of the Gorilla tapes or T-rex tape. That's only stop-gap till you replace the whole thing. Actually I have used Flex tape for an application sort of like this and it actually may work better in this situation, it's sticky and fairly durable surprisingly.

[barnakiel]

If this is mostly hoisted - then plenty of adhesive tape (say 3 layers) will do.


If the dinghy sits in water long term then some flexible epoxy putty (sail epoxy style) and then you can paint over with anything like polyurethane paint 1 part.


b.

[jigray3]

How about hypalon strips and 2 part hypalon adhesive?

[Jim Cate]

Honestly, those little dings don't warrant repair IMO. The purpose of the guard is to prevent damage to the alloy hull and they will not impede that function... and the guard will continue to suffer such dings as you use the dingy. We also have an alloy hull RIB, now ~22 years of full time usage. The keel guard eventually (after ~ 16 years of being dragged over rocks, shells and other beach junk) came loose. We bought a length of PVC keel guard material from an inflatable repair shop and glued it in place with common PVC pipe adhesive from a hardware supply house . We used the "high pressure" variety along with its primer, both quite inexpensive, and the job took about an hour to accomplish. Has not come off in the intervening years of usage.

Your boat, your choice, but trying to keep that bit of plastic pristine will be a PITA forever!

Jim

[edlithgow]

Polyurethane casting resin
3M Windex
RTV silicone rubber
Epoxy filler
Polyester filler
Linseed oil base glazing putty (?)
Crumpled aluminium foil with linseed oil
Concrete
Bits of bicycle inner tube glued on
Tape


Pretty much anything or combinations thereof, IOW, but probably not worth buying anything expensive specially for the job

[edlithgow]

Sorry, 3M Windex should have been 3M Windo-Weld, a less pro alternative to polyurethane casting resin when making things like bushes and engine mounts