Dynal Sheath Repair

Shock horro, I have found some small "holes" in the dynal on "Wavedancer". The story so far. I am in the usual prosses of painting the cabin top and coach house sides on the big boat, and on the weekend I was "picking out" the filler that was loose along the deck and coach house sides when I noticed that some of the dynal was lifting away. I Dug a bit further and found that the dynal was lifting where it had been originaly applyed over some sort of filler at the joint. Result, little "tears" about 2 to 3mm wide and up to 50mm long. Then it rained. My worry is that I will not be able to get enough dry time to repair the damage properly ( grind out all the old filler along the whole lenght of the cabin, 5m each side, and re do the lot with 50mm dynal tape and bote cote). It will be all but impossible to keep the whole area dry unless I glad wrap the whole boat.
I am thinking I should gouge out all the loose stuff use the heat gun to spot dry each little area and fill with Norglass filler ( I aleady have plenty of this) whack a couple of coats of paint over that and wait for summer to return (if it ever will here in NSW) and the do it all agian propely.
The question is, am I wrong?

Yep, that's the approach, a temporary fix to stabilize the area, then get on with it properly when the weather conditions favor it. My rainy season is a lot like yours, so I understand the concerns. You may want to make the repairs even more temporary. I've used something as simple as applying paint and pressing plastic sheeting down into the wet paint, then letting this dry as a temporary patch. The paint will seal fairly well and it's easy to remove, come time to do the real fix.

Thanks for your reply Par. Good idea using the plastic, I will have a go at trying that this weekend. Just to confirm what sort of plastic, I'm thinking something like food rap, (we call it glad wrap here).
Ian L

We call it Glad Wrap here too, but this is a bit too thin and easily damaged. The plastic sheeting I'm referring to is the stuff they sell at hardware stores as cheap painters drop cloth. For a couple of bucks you can buy a 4 meter by 4 meter hunk of this stuff. It's thin and clear, but a lot heavier then Glad Wrap. It's usually a polyethylene and 3 mil thick for the cheapest stuff. I like the slightly thicker stuff, as it's more durable and can take more abuse, such as 6 or 9 mil. A temporary thing like this only needs the cheap stuff. Scuff the plastic sheeting up with a coarse sand paper before pushing it into the paint. You can also use bath tub caulk for this. Just make a circle around the area you want the weather to stay out of and press the plastic sheeting in to the wet caulk. It'll hold well enough to let you have a life or until it's time for repairs. If subject to hard driving rain (like we have here in the summer), then a bead of more caulk at the edge of the sheeting, will help.

Thanks Par, all good info. Of to the boat this weekend, but I doubt if I will get much work done as the Admiral will be aboard and she insist that I should "socialise" occasionaly.
Ian L

I completely understand. I recently built a nice butcher block topped cabinet to her kitchen, because I knew I needed permission for my next project. Experience has taught me to let the honey do list get long, then you have options as to which you can do to get what you want. This might seem counter intuitive to those younger lads, but trust me, it's easier to do, so you can do, then not. So, I do, which pleases and now have reasonable rein to do as I like. A bit like building up spontaneous nookie credits (those of you that know my previous posts), though more one sided.