A few weeks back, I carelessly let my boat slip down a rather steep incline onto some rather hard, sharp rocks. This caused a rather unfortunate “hull breach”:
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Having recently read a very useful “how to” on welding boats, I figured I had better have a bash, as the thought of paddling the Tsarap / Zanskar self-supported in my Crazy88 made me feel a little queezy!
A quick trip down to B&Q and we had the tools we needed – Chisel, Stanley knfe, sandpaper, heavy-duty gloves and, most importantly, a blowtorch. We were slightly bemused by the advice on the torch regarding its potential use as a barbeque lighter…
The first job was to construct the necessary welding tool:
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This was a simple enough task involving chicken wire and an old spoon, and is in no way impinging on the copyright of Mr Wilf *nudge nudge wink wink*.
Having not thought ahead enough to get plastic welding strips, the first job was to cut some slivers of plastic from the cockpit rim to use to fill in the split. We then gave the hull around the split a good clean.
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Using Paul’s handy infrared thermometer we realised that welding outside on a fairly chilly April afternoon may have its pitfalls. Anyhow, after a long time with a hairdryer we were ready to begin.
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Note to self: check the weather forecast before welding boats.
All photos (apart from the last one) property of Paul Wilkinson.
