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Preventive Maintenance Inflatable boats are tough. However, tough as they are, inflatable boats are prone to a lot of damages not normally encountered by conventional boats. It is imperative that special care should be allott to your inflatable boat if you want it to last for more than a season or two. Here are some guidelines that you can follow. Don t Chafe the Boat Abrasion is a big factor in inflatable boat maintenance, though exposure to sun and oxidation are the primary factor in the degradation of inflatable boats.

Be careful where you drag or dock your inflatable. Rocks, logs and hinge bolts on docks can damage your inflatable. These conditions cannot be totally eliminated so just be careful when dragging your inflatable on a pebbly beach. If you and your buddies can carry the boat, do so. If not, take care especially around coral and shells. RIBs can better tolerate the dragging along rocky beaches but care should nevertheless be observed. Ropes, lines and metal fittings can also cause chafing.

You should consider flat nylon webbing instead of rope for tying on trailer boats. Protect your boat from shackles with plastic, like coffee-can lids. This way the shackle will rub against the plastic lid and not on the boat. Keep the inflatable Clean Keeping an inflatable clean is not really that impossible. It can be done but you need to out in effort. With normal use (fishing, swimming, diving, snorkeling) an inflatable boat gets covered with sand and mud. These little irritants can start leaks that are hard to find so it is best to clean the floor fabric once in a while and teach all your passengers to rinse their feet from sand before going aboard the inflatable. Do a thorough washdown on the boat at intervals. Deflate the boat and strip it of its content included floorboards.