Re: Reinforcing My Sevylor Raft
In German your boat is under the official category “badeboot”, or directly translated, this means “bath boat”. It is not considered a real boat, and would never pass any test safety here, for use in any water other than a small calm swim lakes with life gaurds. You can not register it for use as a real boat.
I am not trying to make you feel bad about your boat, I too have had these types in the past, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with them, so long you use it for what they are made for. It is a boat for calm waters, close to shore, in sandy environments, with no underwater hazards.
It is a vinyl boat. The same thing my shower curtain is made of. You could, and I probably would glue some extra layers at critical points to the boat to improve it's strength, but it will never be a boat I would put my life on the line in. It is a play boat, use it as such, and it is a lot of fun.
When you consider that two good life vest for running white water, cost more than your boat, you get a good idea of why you should invest a little more, if this is what you expect out of your boat.
I am not being mean, I am just concerned you might be convinced you can somehow make this boat be something it will never be.
It would be totally irresponsible for us to suggest you can turn this type of boat into a river runner.
All this said, I was wild and foolish when I was young. A few too many sightings of drowned tourist when I lived, and ran rivers in Colorado, cleared this up fast.