Bought a boat off a man its a dog

[Olf]

I bought a brand new 8 year old Zodiac rib from a guy on eBay. It's a 2.5m aero deck. The deck is made up of a high pressure paddle board type squab. There is a tube underneath this (bow to stern) to make the v hull, then there is the deck proper which is flexible and glued to the tubes. The original owner bought as a tender but never used. I inspected it carefully and all appeared sound. Pumped it up again when I got home, still good.

Got it down to the coast, pumped it up, left it over lunchtime and the under-deck had separated from the tubes. Obviously the glue has gone off over time and the pressure in the v and the aero deck stretched the joints causing them to fail, maybe exacerbated by heat induced pressure rise. It's failed back about 10" from the bow on both sides. Not ripped just both glued surfaces separated.

So the simple question is dump or repair?

Thanks!

[hidetheelephants]

Get the right adhesive and give it a go; Polymarine sell the right stuff. I've carried out fairly major repairs on a similar Avon, the tube for the V had been attacked with a stanley knife or something and the rowlocks were peeling off; the two part glue did the business.

[Slushbox]

I seem to recall that there was a very low pressure required for the V tube on those, just enough to shape the boat.

They're mostly repairable with the correct adhesives.