Stay afloat emergency leak sealant Patch#
The rigid patch provided more surface area to create an adhesive bond strong enough to hold the plug in place. Putting a patch of cloth over the Stay Afloat didn’t help, but a flat piece of wood or metal did. The Stay Afloat wasn’t stiff enough to keep from bulging up after being applied, and ultimately tore away from the sides of the hole.
Stay afloat emergency leak sealant full#
A 3/4″-diameter hole held the Stay-Afloat fix, even when applied with a geyser of water issuing up from the hole and with the full pressure from the 26″ water column. A thin crack was fixed with a swipe or two, wider ones needed a bit more. I smeared Stay Afloat wherever there was a leak and soon had my device watertight.Ĭracks, mimicked by saw kerfs from 1/32″ to 1/8″, were easy to seal even with the full pressure. I had caulked the plywood box seams and the pipe-to-plywood joint, but there were several leaks. I got my first test of Stay Afloat as soon as I filled the pipe with water. I kept the hose running during my tests to keep the water level from dropping when the test leaks were opened up. The 26″ water column might represent a worst-case scenario of rough water. The pipe I had on hand, 26″ in length, would create less pressure than their test, but more than the draft of any of my boats would. Stay Afloat’s documented testing depth of about 9′ provided much more underwater pressure than a small boat’s leak would be subject to. My leak-testing device created pressure equivalent to that of 26″-deep water. Common sense: the bigger the hole the more you use.”
It also depends on how much material you use and how big the damage area is. The FAQs on the Stay Afloat website say: “Stay Afloat has been tested…at 3 meters deep for 24 hours with no compromise. It’s a plywood box with a piece of 7″ plastic drainpipe connected to it. To test the effectiveness of Stay Afloat I wasn’t about to poke holes in any of my boats, so I made a gizmo that could simulate leaks. None of my boats had suffered enough damage to let water aboard, but that’s a possibility worth preparing for. Stay Afloat is soft, sticky wax-like material meant to fix small leaks of the sort I get with my older lapstrake boats. If you’ve been lulled into complacency by a boat that doesn’t leak, a little unexpected trickle of water could lead to a sinking. A small boat kept on a trailer isn’t going to sink while it’s idle, but leaks can occur when it’s in use, so it’s a good idea to be prepared to fix them. If you know a boat’s likely to take on a bit of water, you’re going to keep an eye on it and be prepared to do something about the leaks. “ A leaky boat never sinks,” or at least that is what my father led me to believe when he kept a 27′ carvel-planked sloop at my hometown’s marina. Stay-Afloat is a soft, sticky, wax-like material made of treated petroleum byproducts.
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