Paddle wheel out - what to put in?

[ningcompoop]

Hi all,

I've removed the paddle wheel (only had 3 paddles left!) from my boat's hull, won't be replacing it (good GPS signal on Windermere). The fitting tube looks very secure, I've fitted the blanking cap, but what next? I'm not too keen on having a completely unnecessary hole in the hull, below the waterline, but similarly loathed to start hacking away at the hull to remove the tube before doing a patch-up job on the hull. (We are still out of the water, may well be for some time.) I've thought about making an epoxy-coated wooden plug to fill the tube and fair off the outside of the hull, would this be of any benefit, other than psychological? Does the forum have any other ideas?

John

 

[pvb]

It's not under any particular stress, so the blanking cap will suffice.

 

[oldsaltoz]

Doing anything from the inside only will result in a weak spot in the hull.

A proper repair of this type is very simple and economic as you are already out of the water.

Cut or knock out the old fitting, grind both sided at around 15 degrees. Start inside, then cover the outside hole with some builders plastic and some rag then wedge it in with a prop. Glass the inside making each layer a little larger the one before.
Let this cure, then remove the plastic prop and rag, grind the outside as above and re glass as above but leave the last layer a couple of mm below the hull finish, fill this with Micro-balloons to make it easy to sand back.

4 coats of epoxy resin and you are done but for a light sand, priming and painting.

Good luck and fair winds.

 

[charles_reed]

Don't do anything but keep the blanking plug firmly in.

You may wish, at some time in the future, to sell the boat and a new owner might prefer not to have the hole filled in - especially the way proposed by oldsaltoz, which seems very much a sledgehammer to a nut.

 

[yoda]

Just leave the blanking cap on. In the future you or another owner may wish to replace the log (the paddle wheel part is often quite cheap and easily replaced) and at least then the hull fitting is already there.

Yoda