Fruits Of My Labor (A-113)

[Tony G]

Mike, the scuppers are in a holding pattern for right now. My epoxy/cockpit table is still on the boat. I also have to find another vacuum pump. My old gast has a torn diaphram and the screw heads are so corroded from salt water there is NO way to back them out anymore. After I finish the bilge I'll scoot up under the cockpit to do some work there and then, hopefully, will get the scuppers in place.

Ebb, The ports are faired on the outside. Two, maybe three more coats of fairing compound to complete the openings and inside. The bolts are all in place and the lexan is waiting to be cut and drilled. I'm tellin' you, man, the idea came from your anchor chain well. It's cool. I like the clean look. yesterday I made a profile sanding block for finish work. I'll snap a few pics for you guys.

[Tony G]

I had to see for myself...That keel void thing...well, everybodys got one!

It started out with a little inocent dremel work along some cracks in the bilge. Some were deeper than others, and, there was a spot that just sounded hollow and weak. What the heck, I thought. I knew I'l have to do some 'poxy work in there anyway. Out came the 1/2" bit. It took little pressure and about half a second to pop through the little glass that remained.

I probed around a bit. Swore. Probed a bit more. Swore alot more. The only good thing is five years on the hard meant she was pretty dry in there. I hooked the shop vac up to it with the hose on the output and let her run/heat/dry for a couple of hours just for good measure.

After much more digging I decided to fill it back up with foam-it and seal it on the top side. We'll have to inspect the heel area well later on. Definitely before we dunk.

[Tony G]

What's in there you ask?

[Tony G]

Here's what it looked like before the foam really went wild. By the days end we had sanded it down and applied the first coat of thickened epoxy. Once there is enough epoxy down there we'll put in some matt, fabric, roving, and a light weight fabric on top to help smooth things out. If you've ever poked or sliced your finger cleaning a bilge, you know why I'm being anal.

[ebb]

G A W W W D ! ! !
I thought about taking a look and then forgot! Loosing it.

In pic #162, what did you make of the 'cake' stuff between layers in the hole? Do I understand you foamed the void? To me it shows that the ballast has settled in the years since it was put in there with shop floor shims.

For anybody rennovating...
It obviously important to find out the condition of the ballast. In my considered opinion any void should be filled solid with something that will keep the space clear of water that seeps through the hull laminate and down through the bilge. And through the sump, if the boat has one like 338, at the end of the ballast.

It's possible, but nobody has reported it, that the ballast could work, move, as the boat is sailed. Even tho the area is supposedly sealed, my feeling was that if the boat went aground and holed herself down there at least it would be mostly solid stuff exposed in 338's case.

[Tony G]

Ebb, The area we're dealing with here is behind the lead ballast. Those holes I drilled are in the aft section of the bilge where it begins to rise from the deepest part.

The stuff in post# 162 is the original foam. It was dry and stuck to the glass pretty good. Initially, I dug rather agressively with my big, busted screwdriver thinking I would be replacing alot more foam filler. Not much of it came loose though. The top hole didn't even commincate with the bottom three. The bottom three shared a space just below the surface of the fiberglass. The biggest hole had a 1/2" crevice that lead downward about 8". After fishing around with some stiff wire I decided it really wasn't as bad as I thought, and, I had better start thinking about repairing the void instead of making it worse.

Yeah, I may have water migrating into the void again, but it won't come from the bilge. One of these fine vessels has a drainplug installed and I'm begining to think that may be the way to handle seepage. Maybe even two plugs so you could force air through to facilitate drying....would the owner of said boat lead me to the link?

[Bill]

One of these fine vessels has a drainplug installed and I'm begining to think that may be the way to handle seepage. Maybe even two plugs so you could force air through to facilitate drying....would the owner of said boat lead me to the link?

It's described in the manual.

[ebb]

Hey Tony, I got the proportions wrong, what we were looking at. So you are putting foam back in.

Strange, in all the years I've been mucking about they have not come up with another type of expanding foam than polyurethane. Watch that stuff, the fumes are genuinely lethal, pour and get out of the boat immediately, enjoy your posts, fruits of labor! I've recently used some one part out of an aersol can. Not the same as two part. Befor it settles down it seems to shrink.

It isn't much further down to the bottom at the end of the encapsulated lead, like you say, maybe 8". Since I tanked 338 under the sole and brought fittings out the bottom of the tank aft, which is the top of the ballast, I found the extra depth convenient for turning T's and so forth. It's tight down in there. Also there's just enough room for a small bilge pump and maybe the hose end from the manual. Not much volume tho.

So I'll leave some of the very narrow V going back to the rudder unfilled to gain a couple gallons. The narrow V is suspiciously sloped up at the end of the hull and probably stuffed with unraveled roving and unreinforced plastic. 338 came without Everett's folly tho. Lucky, I guess. Otherwise, without the volume under the sole, tanked, it won't take but a few gallons to put bilge water on the cabin sole!

You know they don't guarantee expanded foam against water intrusion. They say closed cell but water gets in anyway. I asked the guys at TAP, complaining as I do at the quality of products consumer, one suggested mixing styrofoam pellets and epoxy for a filler. I mentioned epoxy exotherm might be excessive, so you'd have to do small batches. It's an untried idea. Maybe cheaper than buying the 2 qt foam kit for such a small space.