Cracks in Hull - Storm Damage

[GreenLake]

Kittens: cute! If you post a video to a video hosting site, you can simply add a link here.

Repair: good deal on the DIY filler. Sounds about perfect for the purpose.

[bilbo]

I've finished up the repairs to the gudgeon, and also reinstalled the self bailer. However, I've lost the ball in the process so now have to source one of those from somewhere. Anyway, the homemade filler sanded nicely and that area is now good and stiff. That should hold the load better. I used 5200 to reinstall the gudgeon and bailer. That stuff is horrible to work with but I like that it stays somewhat flexible. I used it on the bow eye as well and forgot how bad it was.

Filler pre-sanding:


Through bolts for gudgeon and larger washers, slathered with 5200.


View of the same from behind the transom:


Once all of that cured I filled up the bilge with water to see if I had leaks anywhere and it was dry. I left it for an hour or so just to make sure and it passed, so I was happy to have a watertight hull again. My Wife helped me make some custom registration numbers with her Cricut so we could legally use the boat. I live right next to lake Okeechobee, so we took the boat over there yesterday to give it a bit of a sea trial.

We putzed around for a couple hours in the rim canal. It's a dredged channel around the outer part of the lake that big boats use to cross from the Atlantic to the Gulf and vice versa. I didn't bother with the sails as it was very windy, I'm quite out of practice, and and the canal is fairly narrow so we just used a motor. The boat worked fine, and when done there was a couple of cups' worth of water in the bilge. This is about how much leaked in when we would sail it before all of the damage. I was hoping that leakage was coming in through the bilge drain but it looks like I need to continue my search. The CB cable hole modifications were done by the PO, but I don't know how well they sealed.

As for the kittens, they are hopefully doing ok with Mom. She comes around and gets some food we put out, and we believe Dad is around as well as we saw him on the camera getting some food. I need to sit down and try to figure the video out. I just haven't had much time with working on the boat. Might have to get some help from my Wife or kids with that.

[GreenLake]

There's really no good excuse for using 3M 5200. There are many other fine products that stay equally flexible, but aren't as difficult to remove when the time comes. And on most boats, very few connections are ever truly permanent. The exception might be a hull-deck joint. But most fittings may have to be removed, either to replace the fitting, or to fix something else, like what you just did.

[GreenLake]

Great to hear the sea trials worked well. Absent any other undiscovered cracks, your CB is indeed the most likely cause for water in the bilge. If you ever have your boat upside down, you could fill the CB trunk with water and see if any of it makes it into the bilge. Or you could just inspect the handiwork of your predecessor to see whether it needs redoing.

[bilbo]

There's really no good excuse for using 3M 5200. There are many other fine products that stay equally flexible, but aren't as difficult to remove when the time comes. And on most boats, very few connections are ever truly permanent. The exception might be a hull-deck joint. But most fittings may have to be removed, either to replace the fitting, or to fix something else, like what you just did.

Yeah I probably should have researched that a bit more. The PO used what looked like plain old silicone caulk on nearly every fitting in the boat and they all seemed to leak to some degree. When I resided my house and replaced windows a couple of years ago I used a product called QuadMax to caulk everything. It was just as tenacious and sticky as 5200 and remained flexible when cured, but once laid down it stayed put. I need to find something like that but designed for marine use.

[GreenLake]

I know I'm a bit opinionated on this subject.

The key to remember is that some of these products are adhesives (even if flexible). A way of thinking about that is that they are intended for applications that you could use epoxy for (except for the need to be flexible). This is different from sealing or bedding something. On a boat, most fittings should be removable for maintenance or upgrade. So you don't want to use something that makes that very hard to do.

Now, there are many different opinions as to what is best for what purpose.

For general use, something that's listed as a caulk might be appropriate. Silicone based sealants are usually advised against because the silicone is said to interfere with latter applications of paint.

For deck fittings, some people swear by Butyl. It's also flexible, but not an adhesive. It requires that the fitting is held on by bolts or other means, exerting pressure. Supposedly very removable. I haven't had a reason to use it. That or caulk should have been fine to seal the gudgeons.

I've used 3M 4200 (not 5200) and similar products from other vendors on buildings. It's also adhesive, but not as tenacious as 5200. I've used it in places where I can cut out around it, if need be, if there's no other way to remove it. That's something that usually isn't a workable strategy in boats.

[bilbo]

My Son and I took the boat for a sail out on Lake Okeechobee yesterday evening. All went well, it was the first time I'd used the outboard with the sails and it was very nice to have. There's a narrow channel about a half a mile or so long that takes you out to the open part of the lake. With the wind coming straight out of the east and current working against me it would have been difficult to beat up that channel. The motor made easy, albeit noisy work of it and we were on our way. After not being able to sail for almost a year and a half, I've lost most of my rhythm and made lots of silly errors but we figured it out as we went. Winds were 5-7kt when we went out and they picked up to 10ish after an hour or so.



We were able to sail wing-on-wing heading back toward the channel to get home. By then the wind was over 10kt and it scooted the boat along nicely, while the sails provided excellent shade.



We saw this tugboat heading across the lake. It was a pretty big boat, not used to being around those. The lakes of MN don't have 75 foot tugboats generally.



We saw all kinds of different birds while sailing. Also a few raptors carrying fish they had caught. We also found a stowaway. This frog was hanging out inside the CB trunk and crawled out when I pulled the downhaul line. He jumped over to our anchor bucket and enjoyed (I hope) the ride.



We had a lovely evening on the water, including a picnic dinner while hove to. Looking forward to more trips and getting back into our groove.

[GreenLake]

This needs the like button.