Boat condition update
You know all of those repairs the previous owners did?
Well, guess what? They patched the WRONG SPOT!
Last Tuesday, we put Black Magic back into the water following some repairs, most particularly to correct some horribly inept patching done to the inside of the boat below a bulkhead. After grinding away the old patches, I couldn’t find anything wrong with the original hull. So I filled in the portion of the hull that I had ground out with a much neater and, I hope, much more reliable, patch.
After we put the boat in the water, I inspected the patch, and it seemed to be doing well, as was the patch in the bow – although since that’s above the water line, I’m not so worried about it.
Friday we returned to the boat after two very rainy days, and we found that the boat was leaking – but NOT at the patch. Rather, above the patch (and above the water line), water was trickling into the boat. It didn’t take much more investigation to discover where the water was really coming from – it was leaking in around the chainplate and seeping into the hull, emerging originally where all of that old patching was, but now coming out through cracks in the interior paint above my nice, solid new patch. So for many years, I have no idea how many, previous owners of this boat have been slapping patch over patch over patch where the water enters the interior of the boat, rather than looking for where the water actually enters the boat in the first place. The port side chainplate is also leaking, but not as badly. Fortunately, the hull is glass-core rather than wood-core, so it doesn’t look like we will need to worry about core rot. Or rather, it doesn’t sound like we need to worry – we don’t hear any disconcerting mushy sounds when we tap on the surface, just reassuring, solid pings.
We now have Black Magic out of the water again, preparing it to go to Dillon, Colorado, for the Dillon Open Regatta. We’ve been reading up on hull and deck repairs, and we know that silicone is NOT the right substance for making most repairs; we’ll be looking for the adhesives that the books recommend for reseating chainplates to find one that sets rapidly enough to be ready in time for Dillon; if we can’t get one quickly enough, we’ll just let the chainplates leak at Dillon and fix the problem before putting the boat back into the water here.
Well, guess what? They patched the WRONG SPOT!
Last Tuesday, we put Black Magic back into the water following some repairs, most particularly to correct some horribly inept patching done to the inside of the boat below a bulkhead. After grinding away the old patches, I couldn’t find anything wrong with the original hull. So I filled in the portion of the hull that I had ground out with a much neater and, I hope, much more reliable, patch.
After we put the boat in the water, I inspected the patch, and it seemed to be doing well, as was the patch in the bow – although since that’s above the water line, I’m not so worried about it.
Friday we returned to the boat after two very rainy days, and we found that the boat was leaking – but NOT at the patch. Rather, above the patch (and above the water line), water was trickling into the boat. It didn’t take much more investigation to discover where the water was really coming from – it was leaking in around the chainplate and seeping into the hull, emerging originally where all of that old patching was, but now coming out through cracks in the interior paint above my nice, solid new patch. So for many years, I have no idea how many, previous owners of this boat have been slapping patch over patch over patch where the water enters the interior of the boat, rather than looking for where the water actually enters the boat in the first place. The port side chainplate is also leaking, but not as badly. Fortunately, the hull is glass-core rather than wood-core, so it doesn’t look like we will need to worry about core rot. Or rather, it doesn’t sound like we need to worry – we don’t hear any disconcerting mushy sounds when we tap on the surface, just reassuring, solid pings.
We now have Black Magic out of the water again, preparing it to go to Dillon, Colorado, for the Dillon Open Regatta. We’ve been reading up on hull and deck repairs, and we know that silicone is NOT the right substance for making most repairs; we’ll be looking for the adhesives that the books recommend for reseating chainplates to find one that sets rapidly enough to be ready in time for Dillon; if we can’t get one quickly enough, we’ll just let the chainplates leak at Dillon and fix the problem before putting the boat back into the water here.
posted by Carol Anne | 12:00 AM
2 Comments:
They do have a fast-setting version of 3M 4200 which might do the trick for you. Also, while you've looking at the chainplates, it might be worthwhile checking to make sure that they sealed the core at the cutouts, where the chainplates go through the deck. If not, a bit of West Epoxy might be worth adding before resealing the chainplates, as it will help prevent water from migrating in to the core of the deck. Of course, if the Etchells doesn't have a cored deck, this is quite moot. :D
Decks are cored, so we should check; we could drill a small test hold from underneath the deck adjacent to the chainplates.
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