Inflatable Boat Center

Since the hack of our hosting company’s servers and the subsequent removal of our old site the pace of getting the data back up or rewritten has been a bit slow. The last blog for example had about 15 years worth of media and stories that were purged in one fell swoop, even the back up copies were purged when our provider who rhymes with “slow baddie” allowed the process to occur. Since then overcoming the day to day and trying to remain focused on things happening in the now has been up and forward with blog posting and website updating taking a back seat. We hope that as we continue to squeak a few minutes free at a time that we can continue to inform, educate and entertain you as we get the web stuff more together.

DISCLAIMER: Understand we or I as it were, am more of a practical guy who likes being outside or in a workshop more than being enclosed at a desk dodging phone calls or meetings. I prefer to hear the wind and smell the smells while taking in the beauty of the world not painfully typing words.

This whole discussion of Hypalon (CSM) VS P.V.C. is often misrepresented as a contest of superiority defined by purchase cost alone, or emotional responses to the OP’s own failures to take care of their boat (laziness). Each of the two primary materials has their place, their price, and their practicality.

Hyapalon, or as its called now CSM has been around for a very long time and has many uses besides inflatable boat fabric such as hoses for automobile manufacturing, roofing, transmission belts, insulating coatings, et al. It really came into it’s own with Zodiac and Dr. Alain Bombard’s collab on Le Heritique, a custom built inflatable boat designed to cross the Atlantic and prove survival at sea was doable. It’s resistance to fuels and oils made sense to the car industry and others but it’s ability to be flexible, tolerant to abrasion while maintaining good air keeping / preventing water intrusion made it a choice for the design and manufacturing of inflatable boats. Due to it’s composition it couldn’t be welded so the term “Sand and Stick” came to be known. Basically, you had to sand the area you intended to bond then stick with glue, the two pieces together. The fifties were a time of experimentation and material science development with the oil industry and chemical companies coming up with novel substances almost daily. This material and the process engineering that came from it’s genesis basically cemented it’s place in the heavy industries and maritime fields forever.

The space race and the seventies were a time of moving the needle forward and exploring new worlds. Enter P.V.C. into the inflatable boat manufacturing world. Again it was Zodiac who took up the challenge and advanced materials and process engineering to the next level. What does Zodiac have in common with aerospace you ask? You will have to get in your new A.I. powered time machine and do some digging to see that on December 22, 1896 Maurice Mallet -a famous aeronaut of the time- along with two partners founded société Mallet, Mélandri et de Pitray, the patriarch of the Zodiac company as we know it today. From it’s very beginning Zodiac as I’ll refer to it now (for sake of my poor typing fingers) has always been an aerospace company. This inclination to fly from it’s balloons, to it’s planes and later into space has remained a core identity of Zodiac and it’s this identity that led to the development of the Strongan Duotex material or as it’s known in it’s lessor competitor’s products P.V.C.

In 1971 after several shake ups, innovations, and acquisitions plus repeated failures to find a vulcanization process for Hypalon/Neoprene the engineering staff began an R&D project. With eight engineers & techs and thirteen staff they would change the face of inflatable boats as we know it.

If I had to point a finger at when the Hypalon VS P.V.C. argument started it’d be right here at exactly this time in Zodiac’s history. It wasn’t the self-proclaimed experts we see chiming in on web forums we have today, it was the people at Zodiac where it all started. Costs to produce the Hypalon boats from a labor perspective would destroy profitability and market feasibility because the leisure society movement simply didn’t have enough money to buy the end product.

In 1975 at the Toulouse plant (where the avant-guardistes were based) engineers developed the “Thermo-Bonding” process for a joint project with CNES (National Space Research Center) with a prototype machine. This step alone caused an even bigger rift with the old school sand and stick crowd at Rochefort. The typical 10 foot dinghy from Rochefort took in excess of thirty hours to complete, in Toulouse with Thermo-bonding and Strongan it had been cut down to fifteen by 1977, then to less than four today. The Hypalon VS P.V.C. dispute lives on today as a result in lost hours and wages more than whatever you decide to believe today in the web forums.

Hypalon is targeted at oil production historically and P.V.C. is targeted at leisure or recreational markets. The real cost of Hypalon is in labor to produce finished goods not material costs, P.V.C. just makes sense for everything else. If you’re not taking care of your boat because you’re a “do it later” person, if it falls apart, it’s ultimately on you.

When I was a young military man, we used both materials; Hypalon and P.V.C. We took care of our stuff because our lives depended on it. There was no one to call for help, we were it and we were all that there was going to be. Care was a priority! Despite our care and maintenance, we didn’t try to use old ratty boats. We understood they had a lifecycle and replaced them as needed or after a certain time. Glues and materials only last so long and with this in mind I really believe we shouldn’t be having this Hypalon VS P.V.C. discussion, we’re not Zodiac Rochefort or Zodiac Toulouse and we’re not Zodiac engineers.

Repair and maintain your inflatable boat no matter what, replace as needed because nothing lasts forever. Get the best boat you can, and spend more than the cheapest web special, you only have the one life to live, might as well enjoy it.

I’m no expert but if you have any questions about a new inflatable boat feel free to reach out to me thru Inflatable Boat Center.
Inflatable Boat Center
2041 SE Powell Blvd.
Portland, Oregon 97206
(503)235-2628

INFLATABLEBOATS.COM

About the author:

Mike is a U.S. Navy Veteran who served on multiple rescue-salvage, and deep-sea diving commands. He’s a “Boat Guy” and has a background in material science, directed energy and charged particle beam operations, nuclear and submarine repair. He likes outdoor activities, dogs, inflatable boats, God, family and country.