[Public-List] 1975 bilge leak

Wed Mar 2 07:53:32 PST 2016

Here is my experience - taken from my blog - about the cement/sand in my bilge and the repair:

In the area just forward of the aftermost floor, there was a piece of exposed ballast and aft of it a cement-like material intended, I suppose, to keep the ballast in place and the fill the aft area of the keel.

Water had apparently leaked through this area for some time because a previous owner installed a drain in the bottom of the keel just aft of this position.  Once I'd vacuumed the junk out of the bilge, I noticed a hole had been drilled down through the cement, and after rodding it out with a screw driver I was able to see through to the drain in the keel.  I'm not too keen on having a exposed fitting mounted to the bottom of the keel where it could be damaged or ripped loose in a grounding, so I will eventually remove it and install a garboard drain even with the bilge bottom.

I mixed up some epoxy and applied a thin coating over the exposed material in the keel as an initial seal.  Once it was tacky, I mixed up epoxy thickened with colloidal silica and used it to fill in some of the larger gaps.  Atop that I laid a layer of fiberglass cloth.  Although that provided some measure of protection to that area, it left an irregularly shaped bilge, so I cut a couple pieces of blue DOW styrofoam board to fit and fill the bottom of the bilge, creating a flat surface that sloped slightly forward from the aft portion of the bilge.  I then covered the area with a layer of 1708 biaxial cloth that attached well up the sides of the bilge, creating new bilge bottom and sealing the area beneath.

http://alberg30project.blogspot.com/2012/07/having-lot-of-other-stuff-to-do-canvas.html
________________________________________
From: Public-List <public-list-bounces at lists.alberg30.org> on behalf of Chip Dance via Public-List <public-list at lists.alberg30.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 2, 2016 9:57 AM
To: Jonathan Adams; Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all
Subject: Re: [Public-List] 1975 bilge leak

Thanks Jonathan.
I figured removing the loose sand and leveling off with epoxy was the solution,  but it never hurts to ask.

Chip

Sent using a stone tablet and chisel.

-------- Original message --------
From: Jonathan Adams via Public-List <public-list at lists.alberg30.org>
Date: 03/02/2016  7:52 AM  (GMT-07:00)
To: Wes Gardner <wesgardner1952 at gmail.com>, Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all <public-list at lists.alberg30.org>
Subject: Re: [Public-List] 1975 bilge leak

The pig was held in with a sandy grout / cement of some sort. When I had the engine out, I dug into the sand until it was clean, and then poured a mixture of epoxy and kitty litter in until it was all nice and smooth.
Thought I was going to dig through the bottom, but never actually reached it.
Jonathan

      From: Wes Gardner via Public-List <public-list at lists.alberg30.org>
To: Lawrence Morris <morris.lc at verizon.net>; Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all <public-list at lists.alberg30.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 1, 2016 9:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Public-List] 1975 bilge leak

Hi All,

I've got sand way down at the bottom too. I was trying to clean any gunk out while the motor was out and found sand....I stopped digging with my spoon-on-a- stick after about an hour. At first a thought it was 50 years worth of accumulation from just normal use but maybe not ?..:-)

No liner either...

Wes
#196 Griffin's Faith

> On Mar 1, 2016, at 9:25 PM, Lawrence Morris via Public-List <public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
>
> Solstice 501 has no plywood in the bilge either.
>
>
>
> Larry Morris
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>> On Mar 1, 2016, at 8:35 PM, Chip Dance via Public-List <public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
>>
>> No plywood liner on #456 either.
>>
>> I too recently cut out part of the bilge encapsulation as water was obviously passing through /around it.  I found some cement or sand under the glass. Was the steel ballast topped off with cement or sand? When I re-encapsulate the ballast,  should I be concerned about replacing any of that cement /sand?
>>
>> Thanks
>> Chip #456
>>
>> Sent using a stone tablet and chisel.
>>
>>
>> -------- Original message --------
>> From: Kris Coward via Public-List <public-list at lists.alberg30.org>
>> Date: 03/01/2016  5:46 PM  (GMT-07:00)
>> To: Greg Hounsell <greg.hounsell at gmail.com>, Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all <public-list at lists.alberg30.org>
>> Subject: Re: [Public-List] 1975 bilge leak
>>
>>
>> Candy Cane's also a 1975 (#583) and has no such floor in the bilge. My
>> hunch would be that it's a previous owner addition, and can be safely
>> removed.
>>
>> Hope this helps,
>> Kris
>>
>>> On Tue, Mar 01, 2016 at 07:16:54PM -0500, Greg Hounsell via Public-List wrote:
>>> Is the plywood floor located about a foot from the rear of the bilge
>>> standard or something a previous owner put in?
>>>
>>> If it's standard is it structural or just there to hold some bilge hose
>>> down?
>>>
>>> The one in mine is mostly rotten and of course sitting under the liner's
>>> engine pan. I've sealed (at least I think I've got it sealed) the rest of
>>> the bilge to keep water out of the keel. But there is still some leakage
>>> down into the keel and the last place to try and fix is this floor and the
>>> bilge aft of it. Luckily the engine is out for a rebuild.
>>>
>>> ...time to cut the liner out for access!
>>> Greg
>>> #592
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>> --
>> Kris Coward    http://unripe.melon.org/
>> GPG Fingerprint: 2BF3 957D 310A FEEC 4733  830E 21A4 05C7 1FEB 12B3
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