[Rhodes22-list] RE: Bilge Water and A "racing" Rhodes

[David Culp]

Thanks for the background information Stan:

What you say makes perfect sense and I will put water back in the bilge if
it becomes necessary to locate the leak again.  In the meantime, further
information will shed more light and perhaps help others in the future.

First, this boat was in the water for 2 years without being pulled by the
previous owner.  Before purchase, a professional, underwater survey was done
in an attempt to assess the condition of the bottom hull.  The report found
that the hull was in good condition for the most part with the existence of
5 small blisters.  After purchase, I had the bottom inspected again and
repainted of course.  The inspection revealed 5 small blisters and in
addition, 20 very tiny ones.   All were easily ground out and repaired.  The
shop personnel told me that this was absolutely nothing to worry about and
things were generally in good shape. However, they did point out that the
seal area on the port side of the trunk where it appeared that some
blistering had taken place was a concern and they attempted to do something
about it.  In other words, a lot of grinding was done in the area of the
trunk seal and it was resealed.  At least, we thought we got it.  Maybe we
didn't.

After finding water flowing into the bilge, I pulled the boat and yesterday
was able to get underneath and do a thorough inspection of the suspect
area.  I have found in that same area on the bottom of the hull that looks
absolutely normal by the way, that when you run your fingers across it, it
feels just like wallpaper that has come loose from a wall.   The area is not
right up against the trunk, but if memory serves me, it is this same area of
concern in the seal area.

Perhaps I am naive, but I am not overly concerned about this.   As Stan
says, I believe some " dental work" is all that is necessary to fix this.
For whatever reason, I have some de-lamination in the seal area and it will
have to be repaired.   I'll make sure that we take a very close look at the
whole trunk seal area to make sure it's not happening in other areas.

The lessons for me from this reinforce what I have always thought:

Periodically inspect the bilge for water.  I look in there after every
sail.  Stan made it easy to do and I was on top of this problem right away.

No matter how wonderful you think your bottom job is, the boat should be
pulled at least once a year, the hull cleaned and inspected even if you just
do it yourself.  Again, Stan has made taking the boat in and out of the
water easy so there is no excuse not to. I found this problem by just
running my hands over the hull.  Tapping around with a blunt object looking
for dead spots is effective also, I'm told.  I would also take this
opportunity to lower the mast and examine the shrouds, stays and the other
structural hardware to insure its integrity.

Finally, I have found that when my sailboat is in the water, I am only
interested in one thing-sailing!  When it's on the trailer, then I can
discipline myself to look around and fix the little things. I will be doing
this while the boat is out this time.  I am also going to pull the sails off
and send them to Sail Care to be refurbished.

So looking at the silver-lining, at least I got a good summer out of it and
won't miss much with the boat out of water for the winter.  It needed to
come out anyway so the sails could go to Sail Care.

Stan, I would love to buy a new boat from you.  Unfortunately, my budget
doesn't allow it at present.  However, how are you coming with the "racing"
version?  I love my boat as it is, but I have to admit it would be fun to
have it set up more like a racer.  I took a bunch of stuff out of the boat
to expose the trunk including some wood structure to trouble-shoot this
problem.  This reduced the weight and then we sailed it over to the ramp to
take it out.   Wow, this is potentially a very fast boat!  I could really
tell the difference even by just the small amount of weight that I had taken
out.  I can only imagine how much fun it would be if you really stripped it
down.

Thanks to Stan and everyone and I will let the list know what the final
verdict is when we open it up.

David


Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2006 07:47:05 -0500
From: "stan" <stan at rhodes22.com>
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] RE: Bilge Water
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Message-ID: <005b01c71610$11189520$f76cf4cd at rhodes>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
       reply-type=response

David,

You cannot determine a leak by seeing where water is coming from inside the
boat.  A mistake many make - forget it.   The few exceptions are: any water
oozing out around the cb trunk/cap neoprene gasket or around any thru hull
fittings.

Leaks through the fiberglass hull are extremely rare.
The only ones I have ever seen are where someone had inadvertently drilled a
hull through the glass.

In older boats (ones where we had the hulls built by contractors) we have
found some faults in the sealing of the centerboard trunk (a separate molded
entity) into the bottom of the keel (which is part of the fiberglass hull
lay-up).   The positive way to determine if this is the source of a leak is
to put water into the boat and see if any water leaves the boat at this
joint seam around the bottom of the cb slot in the keel. If this is the
cause of a leak, where water actually leaves the hull (not where it runs
along the hull and finally drops off) is the fault area.  If this is the
problem location, a dentist can fix it.  Drill out the problem area and fill
it with an epoxy such as Marine Tex or others.   A water test by putting
water back inside the boat will show whether the epoxy filling has stopped
that particular leak area.

As far as we know, none of the boats that have had their cb trunks installed
at our plant have ever leaked, not that we are suggesting you buy a new one
of course....

You can call me if you want to go over this.

stan/gbi.