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HULL TAKING ON WATER


Shippo

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Hi All,

I've been sailing a mk1 maricat for the past 12 months and love it.The boat sails really well but have noticed one of the hulls taking on water approx. 2- 3 litres.Can't see any obvious points of entry.So hoping someone can give me a clue as the most likely spot to look.

Cheers Shippo

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an observation from another class, my Careel 18 does this because the deck/hull join is suspect. it's not dangerous but the talc resin mix they use (more talc less resin is cheaper) breaks down. On Careels it's really hard to see where its coming from, some have totally removed the deck and redone it, the current trend is to release the rubbing strip and sikaflex into the gap. The maricat seems to be of similar construction so it might be the same. Remember that the hydraulic pressure when the leeward hull is hard down is quite significant.

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Try bungs & bung fittings, rudder gudgeon fittings, rivets that hold the tramp aluminium in place and inspection ports. These are all the common places, but there are others that are not so easy to fix. Get an air pump, make it fit the bung outlet, pump a little air into the hull, paint some detergent and water around the above areas and look for bubbles. If these are the culprits remove fittings, clean and reseal with sikaflex, buy a new set of bungs every year, the washers on them deteriorate fairly fast and leak.

NB a small amount of air pressure, go easy.

Hope this helps

Al

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The easiest way to find your leak is to simply blow (5-10 deep breaths will be plenty), in the bung holes while somebody listens for the leak, if no leak other than breather hole, then the bung is the problem. Metal bung fittings suffer from corrosion and will leak even with new bungs and o rings, replace the whole fitting if suspect.

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I just put the hose in the bung and put in about 5/10 litres.

Check the keels.....

empty.

invert the platform...do the same.

All will be revealed. Soap etc etc.is problematic. The weight of the water creats a desire to leak and the leak lasts long enough to make clear decisions.

IF you seal the boat well doon't forget the drill small holes in the inspefction ports so the heat does not do damage.

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another simple method grab a length of garden hose approx 1 metre paint boat with soapy water (dishwashing liquid) insert hose in bung hole and blow air through hose use your'e lung power this way no damage to the hull floatation where the bubbles appear you have found the problem

rudder assemblies, hatches & under the beams are a good starting point

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