Florida Project #10 Dragon Boat Pull Handles

 Florida Project #10  Dragon Boat Pull Handles

We have two 20-man and one 10-man dragonboats in the club.  The worst of the 10-man boats has deteriorated pull handles, five on each side, that pretty much all looked like this.  UV and tincture of time has degraded them and they came apart.  

I had a heck of a time finding them on the internet.  There are lots of pull handles, but not this size.  The boats are made by Swift Racing and much searching found that they are based in China.  I thought this would be impossible to pull off, but I got an answer from an agent in the Netherlands and even texted photos of handles next to tape measures.  3 dollars apiece!  I ordered 30 of them, because at that price we'll never be able to find them again even if we don't use all of them right away.  Besides, they may become unavailable or expensive in the future.

Lo and behold!  In about ten days, my box of handles arrived and they are perfect replacements!

I needed to sit in the boat and chip the residue of the old glue off with a putty knife, which actually went quite easily.  I had an 8-foot alligator sunning himself on the carpet we use on the shore to pull the boats up onto for a companion two of the afternoon sessions.  

I chose this glue, which seemed to do the job.

It drips out below but stiffens up in a couple hours and cures in 72 hours.  Residue can be simply pulled (with difficulty) off the side of the boat below the handles.  I did one set per day for five days, using this method of keeping pressure on the handles until they cured.

The process worked quite well, and when the handles were cured, I put silicon tub and tile sealant around the edges to dress them up.

The finished job looked very nice and gained the approval of the club members when, after a week or so of curing, we took the boat out.  They seem to be adequately adhered to the sides.  Time will tell.  I now go north for the summer and we'll see how everything looks in December when I return.