Bic 252 Dinghy in Need of Repair

[Lakesailor]

Hi Sailingjupiter.
There is only one way to affect a proper repair on a BIC 252 tender/dinghy.
The boat is made from Polyethylene and as such is impervious to most "glues". It's the same stuff that the caps and spouts of "super glue" and other additives are made so enough said as to why they don’t stick. Polyethylene can however be "welded" by using Ethylene Glycol Monomethyl Ether which is not easy to get hold of and is quite hazardous to use. Household buckets are generally made of the same stuff so are a good source of "welding rods" as they can be cut up to match the repair and often acquired in a colour pretty close to the work requiring repair. The chemical dissolves the polyethylene and changes the molecular structure in the same way as a metal weld does. If you want to try this, get a bucket and some “ether” and in an open space with rubber gloves and a face mask see just what happens. I have made repairs to other items made of polyethylene where the repair is virtually invisible.
Hope this helps a bit.

Good post, but finding old threads and adding to them tends to result in the information getting swamped.

Better to re-post it as a new thread with a title like "Repairing Bic Tenders"