Water in the deck.

[Travis DG]

Hey all. Looking for advice to fix water in my decking. I took out the bilge pump bracket, water started leaking out of the screw holes. The was at lease 2 gallons so far. Did three exploratory 1/2 in holes to see where the water was located. It seems like under the laminate decking is Nida-Core Honeycomb.

The two outer holes were dry while the darker hole next to the bilge pan was wet and mildew.

I was thinking to cut out a the red stripe. Put the boat back in a tilt towards the transoms. shop vac and dry it over a day or so. Then replace with foam, then refiberglass the decking.

Any advice is certainly welcome. Thank you!

 

[Carl]

Travis,

What type of hull (brand, model) are we looking at?

 

[Travis DG]

Travis,

What type of hull (brand, model) are we looking at?

2004 wrangler boat, duck hunter 15

 

[william bowman]

i would cut the deck 3x3 hole tilt boat let water drain back just let air out then after a good month just patch holes id worse then start making that hole bigger if you know how to glass its not hard and if you dont watch youtube or total boat on you tube very helpful forgot to mention fid out where it is comeing from

 

[Huntindave McCann]

First it seems one must determine where the water came from. Is there a breach in the hull? Is this rain water? Snow melt? Sealing the area, without out knowing the intrusion point (and correcting that issue first) is useless and counter productive.

 

[Travis DG]

i would cut the deck 3x3 hole tilt boat let water drain back just let air out then after a good month just patch holes id worse then start making that hole bigger if you know how to glass its not hard and if you dont watch youtube or total boat on you tube very helpful forgot to mention fid out where it is comeing from

Thank you. I’m pretty confident the source was the bilge bracket pump screws

 

[Travis DG]

First it seems one must determine where the water came from. Is there a breach in the hull? Is this rain water? Snow melt? Sealing the area, without out knowing the intrusion point (and correcting that issue first) is useless and counter productive.

Thanks Dave. I’ve double checked and very confident I’ve located the source.

 

[tod osier]

Thanks Dave. I’ve double checked and very confident I’ve located the source.

That is a bummer that someone didn't dab a little quality sealant on there during the install. For wood boats something like that can be a death sentence. For you, and thinking about the repair, I'd make some larger exploratory holes and let it dry, use suction from a shop vac and then a fan. If you make your holes in good spots that are easy to repair all the better (don't hit an important structural element - ask the manufacturer). Leaving a bit of water in there in a fiberglass boat wouldn't be horrible, but it would bug me (there are a lot of wet fiberglass hulls out there that are "fine").

 

[Travis DG]

That is a bummer that someone didn't dab a little quality sealant on there during the install. For wood boats something like that can be a death sentence. For you, and thinking about the repair, I'd make some larger exploratory holes and let it dry, use suction from a shop vac and then a fan. If you make your holes in good spots that are easy to repair all the better (don't hit an important structural element - ask the manufacturer). Leaving a bit of water in there in a fiberglass boat wouldn't be horrible, but it would bug me (there are a lot of wet fiberglass hulls out there that are "fine").

Thank you Tod.