dry a hull using vacuum

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pelissima

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I remember I have seen pictures of a small rag size plastic which you place on the hull for hours?/days? and a vacuum pump attached for a fast dry.
I was wondering is this a service or a product.
Anyone has any link?
 
Vaccuum packing a fibreglass or carbon layup is a common procedure in high end manufacturing.ie aircaft components. Often also put into an autoclave. It is priamrily done to maximise the ratio of carbon to resinfor max strength to weight.
It surely would be just as suitable for drying an area of hull.
For fibreglass they put down a layer of material which will wick out the excess resin then a layer of Tontine. This is a padding type material strong enough to stop the final layer of polythene pressing down on the f/g but at the same time able to allow air/vaccuum /moisure to pass through it across the area. Even with the tontine for a boat hull area like 1 metre by 1 metre you would have at least 4 ports to the vaccuum source.
Fittings can be bought which will seal a vaccuum hose to a hole in the polythene. The eadges of the polythene are sealed with a mastic type of stuff.
(tontine is brand name of a synthetic fibre used for pillows an open weave cloth might do or the padding from an old synthetic anorack.)
It would seem to be practical to vaccuum pack a small area of hull but difficult to imagine how it could be done where there are sharp curves. It might take a lot of patience.

It should speed up the drying process but I have no idea how long it would take to dry a hull. For a fibreglass or carbon lay up it is left on overnight until the layup hardens. They often will fit a heat blanket over the whole lot to assist hardening so this may be practical for you boat also.

So go to a fibreglass supply store and check out costs of the gear. Including a vaccuum pump. This may put you off the idea but then again it may become a practical new business if you can make it work.
Just a few thoughts. I dunno if it is practical...
good luck olewill
 
It works very well.I had a boat with a balsa sandwich hull a few years ago that wouldn't dry up.So I connected a small vacuum pump to a plastic sheet that was taped around the edges to the hull.I also laid a plastic coated electric resistance between the hull and the plastic sheet.After leaving the thing on for 24 hours there would be liquid water there and the moisture levels were significantly down.
 
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