Has anyone got a good trick to blowing up the Crewsaver bags, with their big screw-in bung. Formerly, they had a long thin inflating tube with small bung, and it was dead easy. I know the principle is to have internal pressure,- for e.g. applied with an arm,- to keep the internal flap closed, but it doesn't work more than half the time,- then woosh, it's head down, bum up and start all over again. It's practically impossible to be fast enough to release the mouth pressure and get the bung in place, and I've tried keeping the bung in my mouth and screwing it in with my tongue but lack the buccal dexterity. Please don't lower the tone with comments about the desirability of acquiring such a skill, and just concentrate on telling me how to blow the bloody things up. I tend to let a bit of air out after a sail unless very hot, since otherwise they risk bursting when the sun comes out, whereas for obvious reasons I do like them to be full when it's cold.

On the crewsaver bags I have there's a flap valve on the inside of the inflation vent. When the bag's flat it needs a little careful manipulation to make sure it closes as you breath.

When there's some back pressure (hand on bag) it self-seals....

That makes it all really easy..

Colin

In our Enterprise days with  five(!) bags, if I remember correctly, we used to us a bit of hosepipe over the long stem - you might get one that fits inside the Crewsaver screw in bung hole?  At least that way you can blow them up in a more dignified, upright position each time.  Won't stop the air from rushing out though.

Vacumn cleaner in reverse.

Colin, if the internal flaps did self-seal properly we would be fine & dandy; they don't, or at least not often, however much I manipulate them

Rod

The flap valve doesn't work in one of my bouyancy bags.  You just have to be very quick with the bung!  No complaints so far

Julian

I use an electric air pump which I got on ebay for blowing up airbeds (blew up so many at Clywedog last year I flatted the battery on the car!!).  It was cheap, has a range of nozzles and I got an extension cable as well.  Great for those big bowbags! I found that it works well but I finish off by blowing the last bit in by mouth.  Although there are flaps on the Crewsaver bags they don't always behave themselves.  Another trick is to blow up hard early morning when it is cool and quickly get the bung screwed in.  You will lose a bit of air but when it warms up they will be drum tight.  I do worry about over inflating them when it is cool.

Agreed, blowing up when cool does help, but if it's already hot? I just find it a singularly ill-designed system.

If they are tight when hot....when you capsize the water makes them cold and....

I have one which works well and one which doesn't. The only identifiable difference is that the flap on the one which works is hinged 'at the top' of the filler hole, inside the bag, so tends to be hanging in a half closed position already. The one that works less well is 'hinged' at the bottom, and naturally sits fully open and is a challenge to close automatically unless encouraged by manipulating the bag while it's not fully inflated. I thought of loosening the bung and rotating it, but haven't got round to it. I can confirn the fact that time spent submerged under cold water does reduce the apparent volume of the bags and more things besides.