Boat Review: Inflatable Boats

Arpit Sharma

There many different kinds of boat suitable for ones need and one of them can be inflatable boats. These boats are usually very light-weighted and constructed with flexible tubes at the gunwale. They are often designed to be portable by being deflated and packed into a small volume allowing them to be used as life rafts for boats or aircraft or simply so that they can easily be transported to water. Boats may have rubber floors, either plain or inflatable, or they may include steel, wood or aluminum sheets for rigidity. The tubes are made of rubberized, synthetic sheets of Hypalon or PVC to provide light-weight and secure buoyancy. The tubes are often constructed in separate sections, each with a valve to add or remove air, to reduce the effect of a puncture. Should one section puncture it is quite possible to repair it while still underway.

More extensive inflatable boat repairs - due to pinholes, punctures, peeling, leaks or worn fabric - can be done easily and inexpensively in dry dock using new innovative two-stage synthetic rubber coatings (SRC). Some inflatable boats have an inflated keel to create a "groove" along the line of the hull improving the hull's wave cutting and turning performance. Due to the weight, it is very easy to cause an inflatable boat to start hydroplaning, thus making it faster than the engine would allow when the hull is operating in displacement mode. The rigid-hulled inflatable boat is a development of the inflatable boat.

Due to the speed, the portability and the weight, inflatable boats are used extensively in tending operations in port and at sea, recreational water skiing, commercial fishing, and mostly as Rescue crafts. These can be restored or even repaired if they are subjected to a great deal of wear and tear from the elements such as water and sun. As these products aggressively adhere to the damaged Hypalon or PVC shell can fix virtually any surface damage through a unique chemical bonding between the undercoat and topcoat that permanently vulcanizes the two rubber coatings together to make the inflatable as good as new. But as these kind of boats are very cheap they are mostly replaced by a new one.

About The Author
Arpit Sharma is the webmaster of the site http://www.boat-dealers.us on which he is currently working. In his leisure time he likes to listen to music and read books.