Avoiding haul-out charges...

damo

damo

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Location
k keeper,Portishead
longkeel35.org.uk
How about this idea..?

Classic wooden motor boat afloat alongside a marina pontoon, with eccentric but "highly intelligent" owner. He calculates the water inflow from a 2" hole and borrows the necessary pump capacity. He prepares a hull fitting with the necessary stickyflex, then drills a hole through the hull (with a 240v drill!). The pumps then spray the water far and wide while he lies on the pontoon with his arm and head in the water and stuffs the fitting into the hole, then runs back aboard to put the nut and stopcock on.

He was sure his calcs were correct (he was right!) and it was perfectly safe (he hadn't considered dropping the fitting!).

Good job the marina office weren't forewarned about the plan /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
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He was sure his calcs were correct (he was right!) and it was perfectly safe (he hadn't considered dropping the fitting!).


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or that the pump might fail..

Not sure how well the sealing compound (e.g. sika) will set / adhere underwater. Nice story, but he obviously sleeps easier at night than I do!

Ants
 
Simple use of Tides will make the job a little more relaxed. I'm impressed with his sanguine approach, but there are too many "what ifs" for my liking. I don't even like drilling small holes in my hull when on the hard.
 
mans an idiot to do it that way when he could simply have dried out on a sandbank or if his sterngear was a problem, had 30 mins in the slings for maybe £50. The hire of the pump must have cost that much.
 
Go to your nearest bar, steal a pint glass, Silkaflex rim, stick to hull exactly where you want to cut hole. Chew some gum, go inside and drill pilot hole. If you screwed up and missed the glass plug hole with gum while you reposition glass. If you got it right, proceed with hole cutter. Take skin fitting and plug the outside end with a wooden plug. Silkaflex flange. Whip glass off and stick the fitting in the hole. screw on nut, screw on valve, open valve and knock plug out. If that all works you must have friends in high places and only have a gallon or so in the bilge!
 
I've heard of people removing/replacing dinghy centreboards whilst afloat. You have to take out the pivot bolt, which leaves two holes about an inch diameter. Somebody can easily keep up with the inflow of water whilst the other chaps mess with the board.
However this is all on a boat which is positively buoyant when swamped!
 
Close but use a bucket with foam radiator pipe stuff around the lip to get a water tight seal. Hold in place under hull whilst friend drills hole in boat. Water pressure now holds bucket to hull. Using wire coat hanger from inside fish fitting out of bucket into hole and fit locking ring.

The boat, a grey funnel fleet tender and the fitting a replacement echo sounder transducer, hole already in hull. We used a diver to hold the bucket due the depth of the keel.

Pete
 
If he can reach the hole while lying on the pontoon then it can't be very far under water? Couldn't he just heel the boat over with a rope to the mast to bring it above the water line?

Or was he holding his breath and diving six feet under the boat and trying to find the hole in murky water and a fast current?

I wouldn't have the courage to do any of these things. In my experience everything possible always goes wrong. The thread has a burr on it about 1/8 inch from fully tight. The wrench you thought would be big enough is half a millimetre too small. There is an old nail buried in the wood at exactly the point where you need to cut, only apparent when nearly through. The fitting projects through a fraction further than you calculated, and needs 1/4 inch sawing off before you can get the stop cock on. The point where the cock thread tightens on the skin fitting unfortunately puts the handle at exactly the point where it hits a bulkhead, so you need to loosen and rotate the fitting again. You catch your trouser pocket on a nail on the pontoon, and the jerk makes you drop the fitting into the water.
Etc etc.
 
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So the hole was below the water line and he used a 240v drill?

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Yes. He may have a PhD, but I did use quotes for the "highly intelligent" bit /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I reckon he thought of a solution, then pursued that avenue rather the all the safer alternatives /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
Aha ! "He has a phd" One of the "more degrees than a thermometer and less sense than a spam sandwich brigade" /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Buy internal fixing that nhas a large flange drill holes in flange fix with screws to internal face of hull, in a steel hull the fitting can be welded in place. Install a valve on the fitting, with the valve in the open position drill through the valve, withdraw the drill turn off the valve, enlage the through hull hole from the outside and install the skin fitting.
 
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