We Asked Boat People: The Strangest Duct Tape Boat Repairs
There are proper boat repairs.
There are temporary boat repairs.
And then there are the repairs that were supposed to last until tomorrow and somehow survived for the rest of the season.
For the first Sailoscope Asks, I asked one simple question:
What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever fixed with duct tape on a boat?
The duct tape boat repairs people shared were very boat-like.
A leaking mast boot. A cracked hose offshore. A torn racing sail. A galley cabinet. A rusty fridge. A rattling hatch. A shaft seal that completely refused to cooperate.
And, somehow, a foot.
Apparently, duct tape has been given quite a lot of responsibility aboard boats.
Duct Tape Boat Repairs That Actually Worked
Some emergency fixes worked surprisingly well.
One involved a rubber mast boot that split during a heavy squall. Water started coming into the saloon, so the mast boot was wrapped in Gorilla tape until, in the sailor’s words, it looked like a mummy.
It was supposed to be temporary.
It lasted for the rest of the season.
Another sailor had a raw-water intake hose crack about 15 miles offshore, with no spare available. A piece of PVC pipe and duct tape became the temporary solution, and it held until the boat made it back to the marina.
There is probably a special category of boat maintenance for moments like these:
Please work. Please work. Please work.
Sometimes, apparently, it does.
Of course, an emergency patch that gets a boat home is not the same thing as a proper repair. Critical hoses, seals and systems still need to be inspected and repaired properly afterwards.
But when something fails at exactly the wrong moment, sailors tend to become very creative with whatever is already aboard.
Sometimes the Temporary Repair Stays for a While
My own contribution was considerably less dramatic.
Part of the wooden galley cabinet on our boat started coming away, so duct tape held it in place until we finally got around to repairing it properly.
Very glamorous boat life.
Another answer involved rusty sides on a fridge. Duct tape covered the damaged area and apparently did a surprisingly respectable job.
This is one of those very familiar sides of owning a boat.
The proper repair may need a part, a tool, better weather or simply more time. Meanwhile, the boat still needs to function.
So the temporary repair stays.
Then it stays a little longer.
And eventually everyone aboard stops noticing it.
If you have owned a cruising boat for long enough, you probably already know that every cruising boat seems to have one problem that never fully goes away.
Sometimes duct tape simply becomes part of the negotiations.
And Sometimes Duct Tape Does Absolutely Nothing
Not every attempt was successful.
One answer involved trying to stop a leaking shaft seal with duct tape.
The verdict was refreshingly simple:
It did nothing.
Which also feels very representative of boat ownership.
Sometimes you stand back from an improvised repair thinking:
That is actually quite clever.
Sometimes the boat looks back and says:
No.
Knowing when an improvised solution is useful and when it is time for a proper repair is part of the job. It is also why choosing the boat upgrades that really matter for long-term cruising is usually more useful than trying to make every part of a boat perfect.
A Silver-Striped Spinnaker
Racing produced one of the better stories.
A sailor had a major rip in the spinnaker in the middle of a race.
The sail came down, was dried with a beach towel and taped on both sides of the tear.
Then it went back up.
They finished the race with a silver-striped spinnaker.
Probably not the finish a sailmaker would recommend.
But sometimes the goal is not to make something beautiful.
The goal is simply to keep going.
The Repair That Worked a Little Too Well
Then there was the companionway hatch.
At 2 a.m., in a choppy anchorage, it started rattling so loudly that it sounded as though something serious was happening to the boat.
Eventually, the seam was taped shut.
The rattling stopped.
Success.
Unfortunately, the hatch also stopped opening.
The crew had effectively taped themselves inside the boat until morning.
Technically, the repair worked perfectly.
Perhaps a little too perfectly.
Anyone who has spent their first 24 hours with a used sailboat will probably recognise the general theme: solve one little problem, discover another one you had not planned for.
And Then There Was the Foot
One sailor even mentioned cutting their foot on a winch handle during a rough tack and using a shop towel and duct tape until they reached the dock.
That one belongs very firmly in the category of:
Boat story, not first-aid advice.
Duct tape may have many uses aboard.
Medical treatment should not be one of the jobs we assign to it.
The Real Theme Wasn’t Duct Tape
What I liked most about the answers was not actually the tape.
It was the improvisation.
A mast boot fails in a squall.
A hose cracks offshore.
A sail tears during a race.
A cabinet starts falling apart.
A hatch keeps everyone awake.
And the first thought is often:
What do I have aboard right now that might make this work?
That is a fairly accurate description of boat life.
You can have tools, spare parts and beautifully organised lockers, and the boat will still eventually find something you did not prepare for.
Then you improvise.
Sometimes it works beautifully.
Sometimes it gets you home.
Sometimes it traps you inside your own boat.
And sometimes the duct tape does absolutely nothing.
Thanks to everyone who joined the first Sailoscope Asks.
There may not be one correct way to use duct tape on a boat.
But there are clearly a lot of creative ones.
Want to Join the Next Sailoscope Asks?
In each newsletter, I’ll share a little from the latest Sailoscope Asks answers and reveal the next question.
The finished Sailoscope Asks posts will always be open for everyone to read.
