[Public-list] Saturated Hull, Bilge Damage

Bill Blevins billblevins at mac.com
Sun May 2 04:31:26 PDT 2004


Now that most everyone is probably back on the e-mail list, can I ask my
bilge floor question again?

I remember from the past a thread about a black sand / silica mixture under
the floor of the bilge. It almost looks like uncured cement and is under a
fiberglass resin "floor" in the bilge. Does anyone else remember that OR has
anyone else had their bilge floor crack and come loose?

I have an old hull without the liner. Was that floor original or was it
poured on top of the sand / silica mixture later? On the old hulls, do you
have a fiberglass floor in your bilge?

My solution at the moment is to let it dry, pour in liquid foam, level it
off and re-glass the floor. The section is only about 12 inches long that
came up and is directly under the engine. My concern is with the part of the
bilge that goes up under the cabin sole and battery compartments. I can see
it with a light and mirror and it's really dirty under there but the only
way to get to it for a repair is to cut the floor out of the battery
compartments under the cabin sole.

Bill Blevins
Sabrina #158

--



> From: Bill Blevins <billblevins at mac.com>
> Reply-To: Alberg 30 Public List <public-list at alberg30.org>
> Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 11:16:40 -0400
> To: Alberg 30 Public List <public-list at alberg30.org>, Matthew Hay
> <haymatthew_ at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Public-list] Saturated Hull, Bilge Damage
> 
> If what you say is correct, then there was a false floor poured at some
> point over the black sand/silica mixture on Sabrina. The fiberglass floor of
> what was my "old" bilge was about 3 inches above the wood and was poured
> over the sand mixture with a thickness of about a quarter-inch. I did
> consider removing the engine.
> 
> So, you used a bilge coat over the wooden beam and that was it? How far
> forward of the engine compartment does the bilge go? Under the floor in the
> main cabin? The battery boxes in the floor drain below to some space. Did
> you deal with that in any way?
> 
> Bill Blevins
> "Sabrina" #158
> 
> --
> 
> On 4/20/04 10:39 AM, "Matthew Hay" <haymatthew_ at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>> Bill their is a lot of debris under your engine.  The sand is most likely
>> from the cockpit drains.  The piece of wood is in the bottom of your bilge
>> was to act as an anchor to screw bilge pumps too etc.  My hypothesis is that
>> so much sand ends up in the bottom of your bilge from the cockpit drains,
>> that over the years that wood piece is covered, and new anchoring devices
>> are used to mount pumps on top all of the sand.  I recommend removing your
>> engine in order to remove the sand, clean, and degrease, and paint, your
>> bilge.  I did the same thing to my bilge last month.  I had the engine out
>> and went down to the boat to paint the bilge.  After taking a closer
>> examination I realized that what I thought was the bottom of the bilge was
>> in fact about a foot of sand/grease/oil/water in the bottom of the bilge.  I
>> used a large spoon and slowly scooped out all of the sand mixture as well as
>> a few 1960's style tools, numerous washers, some strange home made device
>> made out of copper tubing.  It is not easy to see the bottom of your bilge.
>> If I did not have the engine out I would not have been able to see the
>> bottom.  I essentially had to crawl down into the bilge with my spoon acting
>> as an auger to see the bottom.  I felt like Clint Eastwood in escape from
>> Alcatraz.  How would you be able to notice a crack in your bilge with the
>> engine in place and sand filling the bottom of it?
>> Furthermore, all of that sand mixture holds a lot of moisture.  That could
>> effect your moisture readings.  I have a drain hole in the bottom of my keel
>> that made this project much easier.  After I had  scooped out the bulk of
>> the the sand and engine parts etc. I used a hose with nozzle to flush the
>> remaining sand out the drain.  It also makes it easier to get the water out
>> in the fall and I just leave the plug out all winter.  I would really be
>> more concerned with water in my deck core.  Which you said is not very bad.
>> Good Lock,
>> Matthew #314
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> I'm in a situation... My hull is saturated! 30% plus over most of the
> underwater area on a marine grade moisture meter. The topsides are in the
> dry range at 8%. Sabrina will be drying out for a while. Do any of you have
> experience with how long this might take? I'll take new reading next week
> and compare with my pencil marks all over the hull. Very sad. :(
> 
> I've removed all of the gelcoat and finished sanding the hull this weekend.
> I found about 20 areas of blistering and delaminating, each about 3-5 inches
> wide, through the first layer of matt, actually found more but they seem to
> be dry inside so I'm leaving them alone.
> 
> Anyway...THE BIG PROBLEM I found Saturday was that the floor of the bilge
> had a big crack. When I was vacuuming out the little water that the pump
> wouldn't get, I sucked up a piece of the fiberglass. Then it started! The
> sandy material below was soaked and I sucked out a 5 x 12" area down to the
> wooden plank below.
> 
> What is the fix for that after it's dry? How do you ever know if you have
> cracks forward of the area under the engine? Do people ever cut out the
> floor and battery boxes to repair? Do you think that's necessary?
> 
> Bill Blevins 
> A30 Sabrina #158 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Public-list mailing list
> Public-list at alberg30.org
> http://alberg30.org/mailman/listinfo/public-list




More information about the Public-List mailing list