Father in law's boat is fiberglass with self bailing deck. Has leaked water
under that deck for years and now the boat is carrying substantial extra
weight. I have pumped all the water I can out of the built in fuel tank
well, but there seems to be no easy way to get to the foamed under deck
area. There are access plates (6" round) , but these are located to give
access ot the fuel connections and gauge.

The boat's weight is so great now that it has bent the 5/8" roller axles on
the trailer and poked a hole in the hull bottom with the broken roller. I
left that open for a time until the ooze of dirty water stopped, but did not
get much out.

There is no bilge plug or drain, because the bilge area is totally filled
with foam.

Any ideas about getting this water out? I have a few, but would like to
hear from others.

Thanks,
Richard

Pull up the floor and re-foam. Or go in where you can and de-foam.

-W

"Rich" wrote in message
.net...
Father in law's boat is fiberglass with self bailing deck. Has leaked
water
under that deck for years and now the boat is carrying substantial extra
weight. I have pumped all the water I can out of the built in fuel tank
well, but there seems to be no easy way to get to the foamed under deck
area. There are access plates (6" round) , but these are located to give
access ot the fuel connections and gauge.

The boat's weight is so great now that it has bent the 5/8" roller axles
on
the trailer and poked a hole in the hull bottom with the broken roller. I
left that open for a time until the ooze of dirty water stopped, but did
not
get much out.

There is no bilge plug or drain, because the bilge area is totally filled
with foam.

Any ideas about getting this water out? I have a few, but would like to
hear from others.

Thanks,
Richard

Drill holes to let the water out... you'll have to fix these AND the
'holes' that allowed water into the foam in the first place.

Forget it, that foam can literally hold water for years. The floor and
stringer will rot before you get it dry. Only way to get it resolved is to
tear it all out, inspect the wood for rot (replace if necessary) and let the
wood dry and start over.

Is there any hope that I can pressurize the space the foam occupies with ,
say 10 PSI, air pressure and give the water an escape hole low near the
transom? Will the foam admit the air into the same spaces now occupied by
the water?

The boat and financial situation make the floor out method untenable right
now.

Please give me some hope here guys!!!? {:-0 Optimistic ain't I?

You could try a wet-vac and pull a vacuum on the foam. Lydia did
something like that with her old boat and it worked. She was using a 5hp
wet-dry vac with a 10 gallon tank.

She tilted the boat up, nose high. Used a hole saw to cut into the back
of the foam chamber. The sealed a vacuum hose to it. Drilled a "tiny"
1/32 hole in the front of the chamber to allow a bit of airflow. Turned
the vac on and let it run. The low pressure, and heat from the sun
caused the water to evaporate. It took several weeks to dry it out. Make
sure to check the vac often during the first few days because it will
fill up quickly.

Capt. Frank

www.home.earthlink.net/~aartworks

Rich wrote:

Father in law's boat is fiberglass with self bailing deck. Has leaked water
under that deck for years and now the boat is carrying substantial extra
weight. I have pumped all the water I can out of the built in fuel tank
well, but there seems to be no easy way to get to the foamed under deck
area. There are access plates (6" round) , but these are located to give
access ot the fuel connections and gauge.

The boat's weight is so great now that it has bent the 5/8" roller axles on
the trailer and poked a hole in the hull bottom with the broken roller. I
left that open for a time until the ooze of dirty water stopped, but did not
get much out.

There is no bilge plug or drain, because the bilge area is totally filled
with foam.

Any ideas about getting this water out? I have a few, but would like to
hear from others.

Thanks,
Richard

"Rich" wrote in message
.net...
Is there any hope that I can pressurize the space the foam occupies with ,
say 10 PSI, air pressure and give the water an escape hole low near the
transom? Will the foam admit the air into the same spaces now occupied by
the water?

The boat and financial situation make the floor out method untenable right
now.

Please give me some hope here guys!!!? {:-0 Optimistic ain't I?




Cost to replace floor is high in hours, low in cost. I have heard, but
never seen, stories of a solvent disolving the foam and refoaming.

Rich wrote:

Father in law's boat is fiberglass with self bailing deck. Has leaked water
under that deck for years ... (snip for brevity) ...
There is no bilge plug or drain, because the bilge area is totally filled
with foam.
Any ideas about getting this water out?

A couple. None that are quick or easy. If there is truly no way circulate air in
there, your best bet is to take off the deck and rip out all the old foam. Or
you could start at the transom, and drill a hole forward thru the transom and
into the foam as far as you can, and put in a sealed hot dry environment, and
stand it bow vertical. That might take a good while.

I have lightened up several sailboats with waterlogged foam, but all of them had
a way to circulate warm dry air under the deck inside the hull. And it still
took a few months.

This is not entirely a joking answer, the best way to solve the problem is to
haul it to the landfill and buy another boat.

Fair Skies
Doug King

If she's holding as much water as you say the stringers and transom are
probably already rotten and its not safe. I would definately get it looked at
by a pro if you are not absolutely sure what you are doing before you put it
back in the water.

If one could assume that the stringers are fiberglass, and not wood ( which
would probably be rotted away by now)...it sounds like you have little to
lose no matter what method you try.

If she were mine, I'd drill a number of smallish holes at the lowest
point(s) of the bottom and see if water drains out while on the trailer. I
wouldn't hesitate to add a SMALL amount of air pressure with a small
compressor..however I doubt that you could keep the pressure on for long
without burning up your compressor machine. The prevous post describing
using a wet/dry vacuum adds another method of drawing the water out. It may
well take months, but heck, it IS Winter in most places.

What brand of hull is it???

RichG

Rich,

As Calif Bill said, replacing the floor is high in hours and low in
cost. Actually, number of hours is probably more dependent on type
of boat. I had to replace what started as a 1 s.f. area at the stern
of my boat a few years ago. By the time I got all the rotting plywood
out of that area, it grew to a 9 s.f. area. In my case, the folks
that built the boat used 'oasis' which is a type of foam a florist
would use to HOLD water! What moron thought this one up? I got all
I could out of it. Two years later I had another 'soft spot'
midsection. This time I removed all the floor/deck I could get to
and removed ALL of this foam. Overall, I'm sure the boat is several
hundred pounds lighter now.

I really think you *NEED* to do this. At the very least, cut out
a section and see what you're in for. I would be wiling to bet that
your fiberglass deck is over plywood. If this is the case, your
plywood is probably gone and the fiberglass layer is thick enough to
give you a false sense of security. Not to mention that your
stringers are questionable since they've been exposed to water and
moisture for so long.

I understand your distress over this when you feel you may not have
the money to do this, but I don't believe it will be as bad as you
think, if you're willing to do the work yourself. Either way, you
should consider how safe is this boat to even use right now!

PS: If you have a compressor, I suggest a tool like a high speed air
body saw. This does an awesome job of going through glass and plywood.
If you have just glass then a 3" air high speed cutter would work fine.
The following are examples. I'm not recommending this company or brand,
merely pointing out examples of what I'm referring to.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...itemnumber=113
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=47077


-JimL


Rich wrote:
Is there any hope that I can pressurize the space the foam occupies with ,
say 10 PSI, air pressure and give the water an escape hole low near the
transom? Will the foam admit the air into the same spaces now occupied by
the water?

The boat and financial situation make the floor out method untenable right
now.

Please give me some hope here guys!!!? {:-0 Optimistic ain't I?