My plan is to locate the hole by pressing a sponge soaked in dye against the
suspected area, with a helper inside who looks for a color change of the
incoming water.
Is anyone familiar with a product or procedure that can successfully seal a
small hole in a submerged object?
"Cornelis Koger" <c...@noonehome.org> wrote in message
news:ghgbbg$d8r$1...@localhost.localdomain...
Steve Lusardi wrote:
>> Perhaps your dilemma is far worse than you suspect. If you have a leak into
>> a foamed area and that foam is not closed cell, you have foam that will be
>> waterlogged. If also in that same cavity you have end grain glass exposed,
>> you will also suffer osmosis. I am afraid you have a winter project redoing
>> the entire area. The cost of NOT doing that will be far worse.
>> Steve
Haul out, rip out stern tube, remove waterlogged foam and dry out, grind
back to sound GRP, replace the bonded in nuts. laminate up a GRP tube to
sleeve the stern tube, bond in place checking alignment carefully, fair
and make good. When fully cured, bed the stern tube and its end
fittings in with plenty of a good quality sealant. (Assuming metal stern
tube, a GRP one gets glassed in directly.) There is NO shortcut. OTOH
the leak could be anywhere along the joint of the hull extension so you
may have an even bigger job as if its leaking at the joint, the
structural integrity of the whole addition is questionable.
If foam wasn't involved you *might* have been able to bodge it with
epoxy putty applied underwater. The dye isn't going to be any use as
the volume of water allready in the foam will dilute it to the point
that you dont get a clear colour change in anything like a reasonable
time to keep the sponge in place.
Been there myself and spent a winter on the hard fixing it right.
The water started coming immediately, so my guess is I overlooked a small
hole in a corner or somewhere along the seam between the bottom and this
"ceiling". Probably a maze in the roving that was too large for the epoxy to
fill. As you know, epoxy looks quite capable of filling gaps when applied,
but when it warms up during curing, it is thin as water.
This concerns the starboard tunnel, the port one, with identical
construction, does not leak.
Haul out *IN PERSON*, wipe down and look for drips (dont let the yard
pressure wash). If you get lucky you *might* find the gap. Otherwise
drill into the cavity and apply air at a pressure of no more than 6"
water gauge, and wet all suspect areas with a 1/3 solution of dish
detergent in water and look for bubbles. You've then got the problem of
drying out the foam.
If the leak *IS* round the stern tube, it will almost certainly have to
come out. I would never trust a directly glassed in metal stern tube as
unless there is a resiliant sealent between the GRP and the metal,
thermal shock alone can break the bond, let alone shaft vibration.
You haven't left youself any maintenance options with a one piece welded
up stern tube and flange directly glassed in :-(
Ideally one should be able to pull all bearings etc. from the stern tube
and heat it up to break the bond and remove it non-destructively for
repairs etc. Some light cleanup of the GRP shell round it and some
fresh sealent and it would all go back together sweetly. Bit late for
that now though.
I hope for your sake the leak is elsewhere.
Splash-Zone
> >> Is anyone familiar with a product or procedure that can successfully seal a
> >> small hole in a submerged object?
Den 48ft Yachtfisher EAGLE
http://www.densnet.com
"den" <d...@densnet.com> wrote in message
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