I came up with this idea after getting a nasty tear in my brand new tiger tramp. The tear was about 6 inches long and was getting worst everytime I sailed the boat.

I talked to Greg Thomas at Nationals about how Hobie heat sealed the tramps without stitching.

I really didn't want to stitch in a patch because I didn't think it would hold very well and the fibers under the patch would continue to unravel.

Greg sent me a patch to try on the tramp and it worked great.

I used two household irons. I set both to high and I cut some material from the patch that Greg sent me that was smaller than my iron head. I put wax paper on each side of the tramp before heat sealing in the patch. After the irons were fully heated I put one on each side of the tramp and held it there for 15 seconds. This seemed to work well. After the patch had cooled I pulled the iron away and the tramp was good as new. Actually a couple of the edges were not completely sealed so I let it cool and then pressed on the edges again for 15 seconds. This seemed to work well.

I really don't think the wax paper was neccesary but I didn't want the tramp to stick to the iron.

It will only work on certain material. I tried it on an Inter 20 tramp and the tramp material doesn't melt. So as far as I know it only works on the heat welded Hobie tramps.

Keep One Hull Flying,
Mike Hill

Marine Goop will stop cuts or holes from unraveling in mesh tramps and growing. This glue is polyurethane dissolved in solvent, and is good for emergency repairs, but I used it for several rather permanent repairs as well. Put masking tape under the tramp too, then SMoooth it on. Lasts for years. It stops broken sewn threads from unravelling too.

So- Goop is the NEW DUCT TAPE that actually lasts.....Anyway, never use duct tape if you can help it.

Thanks for the info. I was wondering how I was going to convince my wife to let me use her iron. That would be akin to using my cat saw horses. Not!!

Clayton

I had some grommets pull out of my Tiger tramp. I took it to a sail repair place and had pieces of webbing sewn on the rips then other grommets placed on the webbing repairs. This worked great!

Dan

I fixed a small tear in my Hobie mesh tramp by duct tapping the tear underneath the tramp and using epoxy, carbon fiber tape, and fiberglass tape on top. Lasted all summer with no problems.

Many tramp materials do NOT like heat welding. A lot of materials will become brittle and fail, if you try to weld them. If the factory did not heat weld your tramp, do not try it yourself. Even if the factory welded your tramp, be careful. They may have used an ultrasonic weld only material.

There are commercial patches available. The best I have seen is called "MIL STD self vulcanizing fabric reinforced patch" It was made by Zodiac. It is basically a thin layer of Goop on sailcloth in a sealed foil bag.

You can make it yourself by coating a 3-4 in wide strip of tramp material coated with GOOP or 3M 52000. Use just enough adhesive to fill the patch and the tramp material. Clamp the patch in place with waxpaper covered wood blocks. Leave it alone until it dries.