Jump to content

Water in Hull


Moaiman

Recommended Posts

Hi Guys,

My RHS hull in my 5.2 is taking on a lot more water than it should. I have no idea where it's leaking from. I know around the base of the dagger boards is common area to look. I've tried sealing the inspection hatches and bungs by using plumbers gas tape. That didn't make any difference. Being the latest owner of an old boat means I don't know if there's any history to it? All I know is little has been done in the past so my $ spent to fix it, is climbing. [ which means I could have bought a lot better boat] . I'll well press on any way. I thought I might take it to a servo and some how, fill it with air and listen for leaks. So if there's any other ideas how to go about fixing the problem could you let me know?

Thanks Peter

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't fill it with water. The boat will explode.

Reverse your vacuum and blow air into the hulls through the bog open hatch and leave the bung out as well. Then use soapy water all over the hulls and where bubbles for you have a leak.

This method has been used by many sailors on many fibreglass boats to check for leaks over many years. Obviously dont fill it until you get to 20psi, you will generally find a leak down low within a minuit or so with a hose in bungs or inspection ports.

Easy. Boat will not explode. Boats are generally not volotile to H2O!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't fill it with water. The boat will explode.

Reverse your vacuum and blow air into the hulls through the bog open hatch and leave the bung out as well. Then use soapy water all over the hulls and where bubbles for you have a leak.

This method has been used by many sailors on many fibreglass boats to check for leaks over many years. Obviously dont fill it until you get to 20psi, you will generally find a leak down low within a minuit or so with a hose in bungs or inspection ports.

Easy. Boat will not explode. Boats are generally not volotile to H2O!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmmm, I don't like the sound of filling it with water.

I'd like to know how many litres/kilos it would take to fill my 4.5, I wouldn't even consider it on an A class.

I only put about 20-30 litres in mine to pin it down in Cyclone Larry, even then my trailer didn't like it much.

I think the weight is too much, I'd try Matt's method first, just my opinion..... from an engineers pioint of view.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The boat is designed to take pressure from the outside and not the inside so I would never put water inside any hull. It will weaken it greatly. Just use the vacuum or a pump. Works every time without fail. Use very soapy water or as Darcy says, listen for it as well. But the soapy water will find all of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stating the obvious but have you checked the rudder gudgens. Loose ones leak like a sieve. Also my old 16 leaked through two places. The first was where the front and side stays connected to the boat. A little bit of sika flex fixed that. The other was under the deck inserts. There where a couple of spots where the inserts weren't glued down properly. Best fix is to use a paint scraper to lift the deck and glue it down properly or quick fix like me and dribble some resin in it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...