Structural grid tubes acting s drain channels?

[Chanquete]

Hello
After a wet navigation often some small amounts of water managed to enter in my grp sailboat accunulating in hard reachable places.
The persistence of these humid places may rotten the basis of the nearby furniture.
These small water volumes (with the volume of a cup of tea) are close to tubes of the structural grid of the boat.
As usual the structural grid is heavilily laminated to the hull.
Is it advisable to drill holes through the nearby structural grid tubes and uise them as drain channels to the bilge?
I am afraid that humidity within the structural gris tubes may trigger delamination effects.

Thanks in advance for suggestions

Chanquete

 

[William_H]

Sorry can't help very much You will have to figure out if the place and size of the hole in the structural tubing is going to be a concerm Generaly holes near the ends of the tubes will be less critical than in the middle of a piece of structure. My little boat had an alkuminium frame to stiffen the area ender the cockpit floor and this went to dust with salt air causing corrosion so yes it can happen. good luck olewill

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

Difficult to tell if drilling holes will direct the water to bilges without causing further problems in its way. Can you just fill the area with a light fibre glass filler so that water does not accumulate there.

 

[oldsaltoz]

Hello
After a wet navigation often some small amounts of water managed to enter in my grp sailboat accumulating in hard reachable places.
The persistence of these humid places may rotten the basis of the nearby furniture.
These small water volumes (with the volume of a cup of tea) are close to tubes of the structural grid of the boat.
As usual the structural grid is heavily laminated to the hull.
Is it advisable to drill holes through the nearby structural grid tubes and uise them as drain channels to the bilge?
I am afraid that humidity within the structural gris tubes may trigger de lamination effects.

Thanks in advance for suggestions

Chanquete

Lets see if I this right. You have water coming out close to structural stiffening points.
Is this a single skin hull or does it have a second internal layer with perhaps a foam core?

 

[Chanquete]

Difficult to tell if drilling holes will direct the water to bilges without causing further problems in its way. Can you just fill the area with a light fibre glass filler so that water does not accumulate there.

Thank you for your idea!. I agree with you about possible problems with high humidity within the tubes of the grid.
Certainly just filling up the few areas (after drying completely) where the water accumulates will be a solution.

 

[Chanquete]

Lets see if I this right. You have water coming out close to structural stiffening points.
Is this a single skin hull or does it have a second internal layer with perhaps a foam core?

Only the lateral upper part of the hull has a divinycell core. The rest is massive laminate.

 

[Rigger Mortice]

Is such a small amount of water really a problem?
I leave my boat with one hatch slightly open (locked, but just ajar). When I get back to the boat a week later any water in the bilges has dried out.