Re: Found Zodiac in trash bin
I love dumpster diving!!!
<br /><br />Sea_Hag_Avondale - I have a lot of experience with inflatables. My suggestion is to put it back in the trash.<br /><br />Zodiac (the brand name) was launched into popularity as a diving boat by Jacque Cousteau when he was involved in making all those wonderful TV specials. (fwiw, in the mid 1940s Cousteau was the co-inventor of the demand-regulator technology that is still used by scuba divers today.)<br /><br />That piece of trash that you pulled out of the trash is made out of vinyl. Granted, vinyl on steroids, but vinyl nonetheless. It is constructed using a chemical weld process. In the early 90s Sevylor (I believe that was the company) ran into problems when their chemical-weld vinyl boats came apart in the sun
on the ocean
with people in them.<br /><br />Today, everyone that knows and loves inflatables avoid Zodiac and Sevylor as inferior products. Zodiac is owned by the French company, Bombardier. This is the same company that bought the bankrupt OMC (Johnson/Evenrude) a couple of years ago. Local folks that work on OMC outboards tell me Bombardier gave OMC a hugh injection of quality that the old, fledgling OMC lacked.<br /><br />Bombardier/Zodiac make a line of inflatable boats called Hurricane. They do not say Zodiac on them. These are quality boats. Several branches of the military and USCG use these boats in various configurations. The Hurricane is made out of hypalon, a multi-layer synthetic material developed by DuPont. There is a durable cloth impregnated outer layer that is impervious to most chemicals, fuels, and uv from the sun. Underneath are neoprene layers to make the material airtight. Hypalon is joined with two-part epoxy. It is wicked cool stuff. Hypalon is very durable and very repairable.<br /><br />When speaking of commonly available boats, probably the best-made inflatables are from Novarina, an Italian company. There are over 90 different companies that make inflatables in Italy alone. Novarina developed the inflation valves used by a bunch of the other boat manufacturers. Great product can be had from AB and from Carib, both made in Venezuela. Hurricane (Canada), Avon (England) and Achilles (Japan) are also high quality boats. All of these brands make only hypalon inflatables. And Quicksilver makes a good hypalon boat, too!<br /><br />Last year a local fellow returned from a 6-year sailing adventure in his 42-ft boat. He took a Zodiac tender with him. Not long after leaving he was in the area of Venezuela when the vinyl Zodiac came apart. He bought a hypalon Carib. Says it was the best decision he made. I bought the Carib from him when he returned. BTW, I bought it from him on E-bay.
<br /><br />I also have an 18-ft Avon RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) that is used for diving. It is a fiberglass boat with hypalon tubes. It was made in 1975
coming up on 30-years of use.<br /><br />I would not own, and I would not allow my children to go out in any vinyl boat.
