Nimrod18
Well-Known Member
Have recently been carrying out some renovations and repairs on my Westerly Nimrod. I needed to replace one of the two sections of metal rubbing strip that run along the underside of the boat, either side of the swing keel opening. The port one had been damaged by an ill-placed roller on the trailer. The metal strip is screwed directly into the slightly thicker area of keel at that point, but had bent and come adrift.
The story to date is that when I removed one of the rear-most screws, a lot of water came out. I estimate between 30 and 40 litres - after the first 5 mins elapsed without any abatement to flow rate I popped a 10 litre bucket under the hole, emptying it twice and achieving a neat meniscus a third time before the flow ceased.
The subject screw hole has been over-drilled and now enters the cavity that sits under the cockpit sole. Seemingly a lot of water had been sat in there for a while. After a little diagnosis (sealing the cockpit drains, flooding the cockpit, flooding the cockpit lockers) I have found the entry point for the water, which was a poorly filled gap in the starboard cockpit locker. That’s now fixed.
However, I am struck by the fact that I have no way of accessing the void under the cockpit sole to, for example, routinely check that it’s not sloshing around with 40 ish litres of each H2O inside. Here my questions, two, for the Nimrod-knowledgable collective:
Question 1. Has anyone tried installing either (1) a watertight inspection hatch in the cockpit sole, to allow periodic inspection, or (2) watertight screw bungs at the forward end of the under-cockpit sole void (that would need to drain into the rear locker accessed ‘downstairs’, if you can use that term on a ‘Rod),
Question 2. If anyone has tried a watertight hatch, were then any issues with the structure that supports the cockpit sole? I’m assuming that there may be some lateral beams that don’t want to disturbed, but I will currently be drilling ‘blind’.
Grateful in advance for your focussed replies.
The story to date is that when I removed one of the rear-most screws, a lot of water came out. I estimate between 30 and 40 litres - after the first 5 mins elapsed without any abatement to flow rate I popped a 10 litre bucket under the hole, emptying it twice and achieving a neat meniscus a third time before the flow ceased.
The subject screw hole has been over-drilled and now enters the cavity that sits under the cockpit sole. Seemingly a lot of water had been sat in there for a while. After a little diagnosis (sealing the cockpit drains, flooding the cockpit, flooding the cockpit lockers) I have found the entry point for the water, which was a poorly filled gap in the starboard cockpit locker. That’s now fixed.
However, I am struck by the fact that I have no way of accessing the void under the cockpit sole to, for example, routinely check that it’s not sloshing around with 40 ish litres of each H2O inside. Here my questions, two, for the Nimrod-knowledgable collective:
Question 1. Has anyone tried installing either (1) a watertight inspection hatch in the cockpit sole, to allow periodic inspection, or (2) watertight screw bungs at the forward end of the under-cockpit sole void (that would need to drain into the rear locker accessed ‘downstairs’, if you can use that term on a ‘Rod),
Question 2. If anyone has tried a watertight hatch, were then any issues with the structure that supports the cockpit sole? I’m assuming that there may be some lateral beams that don’t want to disturbed, but I will currently be drilling ‘blind’.
Grateful in advance for your focussed replies.
