Porta-Bote Project

Our Porta-Bote dinghy came with foam for flotation. We were grateful to have it that time our dinghy became stuck under a dock. It kept the dinghy from sinking all the way to the bottom. 

Porta-Bote when new two years ago

I vaguely remember reading that the foam should be covered to avoid UV degradation. After two winters in the Bahamas the foam has started to degrade. The last time we used the dinghy we noticed powdery black stuff in the bottom of the dinghy. We didn’t find a lot online about how to best cover it. One post on the Porta-Bote users group recommended gluing fabric onto the foam. I have a good vinyl glue (HH-66) that would work for the Stamoid vinyl fabric but I wasn’t sure it was compatible with the foam. I didn’t want to put glue on the foam and have it disintegrate even more. Our best guess is that the foam is made of polyvinyl ethylene and the HH-66 can said it is not to be used on polyvinyl ethylene. 

We decided to try to use the 3m Dual Lock (which I call super-duper Velcro) and Velcro the fabric onto the hull of the dinghy. The cutouts for the seats made it a very challenging project but we managed to get it on. Whether it will stay on is another question altogether. I have declared it a 50-50 project. It looks good from 50 feet away or going by at 50 miles per hour. 

Finished project

The supplies we used. 

A few weeks ago we walked down to the Cambridge Yacht Club to watch the log canoe races. It was a hot and humid day with very light winds but we had an outstanding view of the start of the race from the yacht club dock. 

Log canoe race

Notice the people out on the hiking boards on the boat on the right.