Are you a bilge taster ?

[Guest]

Or are you a leak freak ?

I have to admit that as an owner of the frozen mucus type of vessel to have a salt water leak from somewhere other than the usual expectant areas tends to send me off on a hunt that often seems to last months with the resultant shortage of kip. I have heard that leaking keel bolts can also lead to many sleepless nights.

Not that I am knocking wooden boats they are fine but how do you cope mentally with all that water intake ? Has anyone successfully gone from GRP to wood and coped ? When the old beams have to take all that falling off the steep stuff is the heart pounding hard ?

I would also be interested to hear from leak case histories where the ingress say was from point A and was actually coming in from miles away.

p.s. Should I take up marbles instead of sailing ?

 

[chas]

Yes

I recently spent some time looking for a leak and eventually discovered an empty fresh water tank. I now taste the bilge water.

 

[andy_wilson]

Nope...

Mine are dry and dusty!

 

[iangrant]

If you have a fibreglass boat with salt water in the bilge, get it hauled out, wash it out with fresh water dry it out and sell the bloody thing.

I had the keel bolts replaced, it leaked again. I became paranoid about leaks, loose keels, stern glands, deck joints, you name it.

It really detracts from the pleasure of sailing when you have to meve your guests aside to check the bilges, every 20 mins!!

Ian

 

[chas]

Re: Nope...

Your water tanks??????

 

[Guest]

Better watching paint drying if a little ingression of salt water
causes you consternation!
Happy watching
Bluebeard

 

[Guest]

Wis words Bluebeard !

Are us modern sailors paranoid or what ?

Or sailing grandads would collapse in laughter if they heard some of our moans ! The only stuff modern man pumps now in any sort of serious way is iron ( not me I hasten to add. I have a swinging mooring way down the creek instead).

Have now realigned my seawater intake thought processes to a lower grade of panic ratio.

 

[Castletine]

Wooden Boats do float!

Since September last year my all wooden 30 footer has taken just 3 inches in the bilge, 90% of which I estimate is rain water!

A friend of mine with a plastic tub takes on more and sweats about it (along with suffering the condensation problems).

All in all wood floats, and the intake can be v little on a wooden vessel. Mine is 70 years old, not bad for an old girl!

 

[Guest]

Re: Wooden Boats do float!

I own a Pine on Oak 1/4ton boat in Estonia and it is lifted for the winters, which can drop to -20C. It is important that the boat is dried out BEFORE the temp drops too much, or else the moisture will freeze and crack the timbers etc.
The timber strakes 'shrink' about 10% and 'cracks' open up between the strakes. Some can be as much as 1-2 mm.
So when the boat is lifted in each spring, it is held in crane slings for about 4 hours..... the boat has in the past filled up completely to the 'waterline' ...... e-mail direct to me and I can send digital photos of it ! So a pump is placed in and all pumped out as the timbers swell. Believe me after a few days, a teacupful is all that gets in. It is less than the condensation etc., that I get with my GRP job in UK ......

I was going to 'caulk / fill' the boat one year to educe the ingress on launch, but was advised by the builder ..... not to do it, it strains the frames and fastenings. As a surveyor I agree with him and abandoned the thought.

As to working in the seaway ..... when the boat is built properly, the seams have taken up, etc. believe it - it is one the most natural materials and boats to be in water. Thousands of years cannot be wrong !

Many people have Cascovered, Epoxy coated sheathed wooden boats ..... when done BEFORE the hull is getting soft / old then it is a good idea and can give virtually GRP type maintenance fre boat. But do it to an old boat that is tired and near its lifes end and it only delays the inevitable. The rick is to make sure that the sheathing 'moves' with the underlying strata .... this is where West Systems etc. epoxy is best.

I have 3 boats ..... 2 are GRP - fine and I don't complain. 1 is timber and its a love-affair that I also do not complain !

Nigel

 

[Guest]

Re: Nope...

Many moons ago, I took a pal and his dad sailing on my Snapdragon 23.
No problem and then I noticed a bit of water on the cabin sole for'd ..... his dad went to investigate, stuck finger in water, tasted it and said its not salty ...... but tastes strange.

So once we stopped at anchor I investigated .... On that boat I had a chemical loo for'd ... Dave my pal had filled the top section and also put some in the bottom and pan - closed the bellows !
Yep ! With the slamming of the bow and pitching the loo had decided to empty its pan and top section ..... the taste was the 'Blue chemical' ....

Moral .... I don't taste bilge water, I get someone else to do it !!!!!!

Nigel