[Public-List] Dinghy attack...

[George Dinwiddie via Public-List]

I've heard of a number of cases where Whaler foam has gotten 
waterlogged, but Boston Whaler always denies it.

  - George

On 6/12/16 12:43 PM, Gordon Laco via Public-List wrote:
> Hello gang.
>
> So here we are in the middle of June... It¹s unseasonably cool out here on
> Georgian Bay but blowing the dog off the chain.  Why am I not sailing?
> Because I¹ve decided to attack my Boston Whaler Squall dinghy once and for
> all.   I¹ve written in the past about my attempts to force it into a weight
> loss programme, but as with all of it¹s ilk, it¹s been getting heavier and
> heavier.  Twice I¹ve drilled its bottom full of holes and parked it over
> gentle heat in my warehouse... I¹ve kidded myself that it¹s gotten lighter,
> but I know not really.
>
> This winter was the second try.  I assembled six people (including myself)
> to turn it over so I could repair the drain/evaporation holes and found that
> six of us couldn¹t turn the thing over without great danger and distress.
> It weights a ton; well not really but far more that it¹s supposed to and not
> much less than when with great difficulty we got it into the warehouse last
> fall.
>
> I decided it was time to replace it.  Towing the thing is like towing a beer
> barrel... It makes more wake than SURPRISE does and I just can¹t stand the
> speed having it astern knocks off us.  At anchorages I much like rowing and
> sailing it, but it¹s just too heavy.
>
> I¹ve spoken with Boston Whaler Corp a few times and was much impressed at
> the friendly efficiency their Customer Service Manager showed.  I gave him
> my boat¹s serial number and he was able to tell me it was first sold in 1966
> at ŒDallas Marine¹ way over in Texas.  How it got from there to Parry Sound
> where I bought it I¹ll never know... But one thing I do know is that it¹s
> absorbed a lot of water during its fifty years of life.    Boston Whaler had
> no specific advice to offer about how to drain the boat but they did say
> categorically that their foam does not absorb water... What water is in the
> boat is in the spaces created by delaminating between the foam and the inner
> and outer skins.  I recall from high school physics that a cubic foot of
> water weighs 62lbs...  And the boat is clearly over 100lbs overweight
> (probably much more) ... Where could all these delaminating spaces be?
>
> Well, they¹re wrong.   The water was not in any voids caused by
> delaminating.
>
> Yesterday, Caroline and I took a rotary saw to the bottom and cut two big
> banana shaped pieces off the bottom, port and starboard of the keel.  Sure
> enough, the pieces of bottom skin tore off very easily ­ they¹d delaminated
> from the foam core ­ but guess what, there was no pool of water to spill
> away.  The foam was saturated. The hundreds of pounds of water in the boat
> was in the foam.  We spent the rest of yesterday and this morning carving
> out the soaked foam... We reckon more than 200lbs of it.  Fantastic.  The
> foam had the consistency of watermelon.  It was that wet and soggy.
>
> Well the boat is all carved out now ­ we¹ve mined and tunneled through it
> following all the wet foam we found.  I¹m sure there¹s more, but the areas
> left are all small so keeping in mind that a cubic foot of water weighs
> 62lbs, there¹s not room for much water left in the places we haven¹t dug
> into.  And, my wife and I were easily able to pick up the boat to move it
> around ­ I think it¹s 1/3 the weight it was.  Yahoo.
>
> So now I¹m going to stiffen the bottom banana sections with roving and
> epoxy, put a few tabs and false ribs of wood bridging the empty spaces in
> the boat where the soggy foam was, then slap the bottom back on.  I¹m going
> to cover the whole shebang with cloth and epoxy, paint it, and have my
> lightened Squall dinghy back.   We had thoroughly removed foam, wet and dry,
> from the after half of the boat when it occurred to me that if I left
> Œflying buttresses of good foam in place, we¹d have the shape of the bottom
> again.  Well like the comic said Œtoo soon old, too late schmart¹.   I¹ll
> have to build a former of some sort in the after part to support the bottom.
> Whalers are basically foam boats with a thin skin of glass inside and out...
> With the foam gone I¹ve got to give the boat some strength back.  No
> problem.
>
> I¹m going to put three inspection ports into it¹s bottom so I can pump out
> any water that makes it¹s way back in... And repair the place the water was
> getting it.  Yes we found it.  There is a nifty little locker in the stern
> seat with a drain that leads into the main part of the dinghy¹s false
> bottom.  Some time in the past whatever the tube connected the locker with
> the outlet disintegrated (we hardly found a trace of it) so whenever there
> was water in that locker most of what drained out went into the foam.  I¹m
> putting a couple of brass nipples in with a piece of vinyl tube and presto,
> no problem.
>
> Gord #426 Surprise

-- 
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   When I remember bygone days                         George Dinwiddie
   I think how evening follows morn;            gdinwiddie at alberg30.org
   So many I loved were not yet dead,           http://www.Alberg30.org
   So many I love were not yet born.                          also see:
                'The Middle' by Ogden Nash     http://idiacomputing.com
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