Thread: Water in sealed hull

thoughts of that expanda foam in a can come to mind... then the thought went away and I thought... nah not gonna touch this one leave it to better minds last time I touched one of these I got munched so...

All the best Greg... someone will be along shortly to give advice

one question though... the hole? its through the hull right? ie through the outter layer of fibreglass through the wood then through the inner layer? is that right?

Check... gawd why in hell cant I stop myself????... anyway what I suggest and its only a suggestion from afar here... is to have a good LONG HARD look at the timber around the hole... AROUND the hole that is... if its had water ingress for sometime and water has SAT on that fibreglass timber fibreglass part then you can bet your gronicles that the problem is NOT just the hole but the timber SURROUNDING the hole... this could be as close as 1/2 an inch or as widespread as several feet depending on how long the waters had to creep and capillory through the timber... it will also decide and determine how much work you have in front of you.

as I said before all the best with it and mate? I hope for your sake its only a small amount of wet wood in the surrounding timber







Please can someone tell me how to stop myself from posting to these threads??? ooooh I can feel it coming any time now... be your usual pessimistic self Shane its cool its cool no wukkers

Howdy - the expanding foam is REALLY BAD.

It holds water and prevents the space from ever drying out properly - so the boat gets heavier and heavier and it increases the risk of rot hundredfolds.

There must be some way of fixing the leaks - in a more structural sense would be the best way to try first or mayb you could try working over the leaky areas with a product like Sikaflex - DON"T USE SILICONE on boats ever - it doesn't work in any sort of trustworthy way and you cannot remove it easily to maintain the boat.

I would put in a plastic screw in inspection port to allow access so it could be bailed out when necessary.

The best thing is to prevent the water going in and store the boat so the water can drain out - prop the nose up - use a good quality polytarp.

Best Wishes
Michael Storer

Thanks for the replies. The boat is a 5.1m Pongrass Seaking which has 3 sealed bouyancy areas, 2 that run down along each internal side and the one in the floor. All these 3 sealed areas have residual water in them due to people not realising that your not meant to drill into them and mount things. I have used a syringe and rubber hose to get out as much water as possible and constantly have the boat tilted and covered all the time. The bottom of the boat is in really good condition and very solid. The water is getting into the sealed hull area through the floor where people have tried mounting seats and other stuff. I have pulled everything out and have a clean bare floor with patches over all the holes I can find (Im still looking for more). I am going to replace the floor eventually. I like the idea of an inspection cover and think this will be the easiest way to clean out any water that gets in and allow better ventelation when required from all 3 bouyancy tanks.

Cheers

Greg.

Originally Posted by Boatmik

Howdy - the expanding foam is REALLY BAD.

I knew that!!! But it was the first response I had!!!! but then Im a mad buggar but even I wouldnt do that... it just crossed my mind as a typically dumb response to an issue with NO good responses available at the time... if at all

See to me and here its me own opinion here and not to be taken as the ONLY opinion out there... but to me IF the waters got to the timber between the fibreglass outter and inner coverings there are NO EASY FIXES... you are not going to like what Id suggest which is why I hessitated to respond in the first place and why I asked someone to tell me how NOT to respond to these threads where I really would like to help but know that Greg or anyone else who posts them wont like the answer I would give

I KNOW!!!.... I will leave it at that and just watch for awhile ... midgey or that other bloke who knows everything about fixing boats (Viking?) may have a work around that Im unaware of and so you might be able to fix it without doing what I would suggest

Take it easy and all the best Greg



nb... I did know that Mik ol son it was one of those stupid responses to what initially I took to be a stupid question but now I know hes serious I wouldnt have posted in the first place if Id have known... just a dumb statement sorry bout that my bad eh!

Originally Posted by gpn80

I have a fibreglass/wooden boat with a sealed hull. I have had water get into the sealed hull area due to people before me who drilled holes through the floor to mount things and with a bung that was internal to the outer hull bung that was never installed when the boat was used, so when some water got into the boat the sealed hull area wasnt sealed and allowed water to enter. The problem is now there is residual water in the hull that i want to try and get out ( I have tilted the boat as much as possible to allow the water to drain ), and because the boat is stored outside i will need to continue to extract the water before i can perform a more permanent repair. I am wanting to know if there is a chemical that i can partially fill the sealed hull with that will allow the water to sit on top and come out of the bung hole. The other problem will then be that the chemical i use will be trapped in the hull so i need it to be compatible with the wood so not to cause possible rotting.

Regards

Greg.

Hi Greg

It seems as though you have the bulk of the water out. Now what you need to do is get the moisture out that has possibly soaked into the timber before you seal it up again. If it were my boat I would try to get some warm air flowing into this area. That would soak up the moisture and allow you to continue with sealing it up. You might have to cut several small holes to do this. For warm air you could use a hair dryer or even a heat gun but don't over do it with the heat gun. Hope this helps.

Merry Christmas

Don

I have just put a new transome into a fiberglass boat. nearly all the wood in the boat, all the transom and some other wooden backing plates had rotted. the transome was like compost.







You can see what happens to wood if it gets water trapped in it.

Have you thaught about adapting some thinner tube up to a wet & dry vac.
that would give you a better chance of getting some more of that bulk water out.

I think you then need to get some airflow thru the cavity.... the hair drier & hot air gun I dont think are long term enough.........I've tried to dry suuff out like this before........ the hot air approcah workes very well where there is some open air to exchange with the hot moist air... great fast.


where the air flow is very low.... it dont matter how hot you get it..... the moisture wont get away.

you need to be thinking, long and perststent..........an airflow that keeps going for days weeks, rather than an hour or so.

some means of producing an ongoing air flow.......a large aquarium pump and some aquarium tube would be my thaught........it might not seem much air....... but it just keeps going and going....all day.. all night.

getting the moisture out of between the plies...... well best of luck..... time and persistent suction perhaps.......you need to inspect to see the extent of your problem........... a bigger hole might be a safer option.

cheers

That soundman is just where my hessitant thoughts were heading when I first posted with reluctance...

Pagie... how did you find our FOR SURE what the state of the internal timber ply was? cut a section out?.

What you did to find out the extent of the water ingress could be a bonus help here mate