zar
Theist
I recently bought an inflatable and tried to research it thoroughly beforehand but I'm constantly bombarded with accidental findings.
It's manufactured by Aleko, material is "Polyester reinforced and anti corrosive coated PVC" There's a lot of debate on PVC vs Hypalon on various forums which I didn't stumble upon until after I purchases pvc. I live by the water and planned to dock this thing and use the hell out of it this spring/summer before taking it out. So the problem comes with things growing on the bottom and degradation of material, preventing it and it's ability to be constantly sitting in the heat and I saw suggestions of painting it with some special inflatable boat paint.
I can fix the covering strategically to ensure water runs off the cover.
After more research I decided painting the bottom to the water line is probably a good idea. I've seen much debate.. some say do it and use a rubber thinner so the paint adheres to the boat (think of what they use when fitting PVC pipes for plumbing) which sounds like a terrible idea to me, to some suggesting several coats of paint to some saying "it doesn't matter pvc is crap" and even some suggesting a gust of wind can flip a inflatable boat easily and it shouldn't be docked? (anyways I planned to dock in horizontally to one piller and one cleat on the dock) And finally others suggesting their homemade remedies of hydrolic to citric acid to easily clean the barnacles off after season.. it's a lot of info and there doesn't seem to be much clarity/general rule about it other than a general discouragement of leaving them in the water. I figured somebody around here would have the correct advice for this situation from either knowledge or experience.
If it's just a matter of extending the life for as long as possible vs not, the convenience of docking really can't be beaten for me, my last fiber glass dingy took a good hour of prep to get everything reading, in the water, hauling a heavy outboard back and fourth because I was just pulling it out the water. Now on the other hand if your advice is that docking it would be catastrophic for longevity and risky based of experience I'll have to reconsider.
Anyways sorry for being all over the place, thanks for your responses in advance.
It's manufactured by Aleko, material is "Polyester reinforced and anti corrosive coated PVC" There's a lot of debate on PVC vs Hypalon on various forums which I didn't stumble upon until after I purchases pvc. I live by the water and planned to dock this thing and use the hell out of it this spring/summer before taking it out. So the problem comes with things growing on the bottom and degradation of material, preventing it and it's ability to be constantly sitting in the heat and I saw suggestions of painting it with some special inflatable boat paint.
I can fix the covering strategically to ensure water runs off the cover.
After more research I decided painting the bottom to the water line is probably a good idea. I've seen much debate.. some say do it and use a rubber thinner so the paint adheres to the boat (think of what they use when fitting PVC pipes for plumbing) which sounds like a terrible idea to me, to some suggesting several coats of paint to some saying "it doesn't matter pvc is crap" and even some suggesting a gust of wind can flip a inflatable boat easily and it shouldn't be docked? (anyways I planned to dock in horizontally to one piller and one cleat on the dock) And finally others suggesting their homemade remedies of hydrolic to citric acid to easily clean the barnacles off after season.. it's a lot of info and there doesn't seem to be much clarity/general rule about it other than a general discouragement of leaving them in the water. I figured somebody around here would have the correct advice for this situation from either knowledge or experience.
If it's just a matter of extending the life for as long as possible vs not, the convenience of docking really can't be beaten for me, my last fiber glass dingy took a good hour of prep to get everything reading, in the water, hauling a heavy outboard back and fourth because I was just pulling it out the water. Now on the other hand if your advice is that docking it would be catastrophic for longevity and risky based of experience I'll have to reconsider.
Anyways sorry for being all over the place, thanks for your responses in advance.