Patching a Hole With Skewers

Intro: Patching a Hole With Skewers

A couple of seasons ago, one of my pontoons got some water in it.  To remove the water I liberally drilled holes in the pontoon and forced air through it for a month or two.  When the time came to patch the holes, this is what I did.


1.  I stuck short pieces of skewers into a hole I wanted to patch until they fit snugly, and then I put an elastic around that bunch.   Don't let them fall in if you are working with a sealed pontoon!

2. I mixed Marine Epoxy with sawdust.

3.  I covered the skewers with the mix and put them back in the hole, filling all the gaps with epoxy/sawdust.

4.  After it dried I used an angle grinder to carefully (CAREFULLY, and angle grinder will EAT YOUR BOAT if yo let it :D) flatten the surface of the boat.

5.  I took pictures because the ends of the bamboo look cool :).

6.  I covered the flattened patch with more epoxy and/or resin paint.

7.  After _that_ dried we went sailing!  (The person in the last picture is not me)

Comments

[shannonlove]

This is a miniaturized version of the age old practice of repairing holds in ships hulls by pounding in wooden wedges. (I was surprised to find out they still do that on modern still ships.) 

In my estimation bamboo skewers are edging up so far in the general utility category that they are crowding duct tape. I got a package from my spouse who used them for cooking but I didn't really know what to do with them. Now I do. They are glue spreaders, probes and pokers, small dowels, miniature javelins, you mention it.

[alejandroerickson]

I'd say there is a business idea in that!