Association Forum - Bilge - sometimes wet/sometimes dry

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

Catalina 25 Specific Forum

Bilge - sometimes wet/sometimes dry

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

Page: of 2

Ryan L
Navigator

Members Avatar

USA
230 Posts

Response Posted - 08/09/2011 : 00:08:56

I have seen a Catalina 25 with "smile" type damage on the aft portion of the keel/sump margin (as well as the front). it lead to a similar leak to what you describe. I've also personally done underwater laminating repair on a similar type of damage. It's fairly straight forward. All done on SCUBA. One way to approach the repair:

Dive and inspect the area to see if a crack is visible. It will appear lower than you think (look for the faint trace of the line showing where the keel meets the keel sump).

Sand and scour away all paint and growth at least a few inches over and around the crack.

Cut out a piece of plastic (like part of a ziplock bag) that is the size and shape of the sanded area. It's important that this piece does not extend over the bottom paint.

Mix a batch of West Systems G-Flex. (note- I guess you can use another resin but I haven't found another that has the same semi-thick consistency, flexibility, and ability to cure underwater as G-Flex. Amazing stuff)

Spread a layer of G-Flex on the plastic.

Lay successive layers of fiberglass cloth and G-Flex (to wet each layer). Make sure the size of the layers are staggered per standard laminating procedure). 3 or 4 layers is probably enough?

Wet out the last layer with a lot of extra G-Flex.

Dive back to the crack bringing the laminate with you being careful it does not fold over as it moves through the water.

Press the center of the laminate onto the center of the crack and use a spreader to squish the excess G-Flex from the center to the edges.

Go away for a day or two.

Come back, peel off the plastic, do some finishing sanding if needed.

This may or may not stop the leak (if you have the crack) but it should greatly slow it down if nothing else.

There are plenty of other posts regarding how to repair the rotten wood etc inside the keel sump.

Now that I've written all this. Ignore it, pull the boat, and fix it right... :)

P.S. Generally stuff like Splash Zone does not work well in that area because there is too much flex.

Good luck...

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by ransley
 Thanks again to all the great responses to my original query... last week our bilge mystery took a turn for the serious! Due to the consistently miserable 105-degree (plus!) temperatures here in the DFW area, we haven't done much sailing this Summer. Consequently, I haven't been inclined to do any work on the boat either. We finally decided to go for an early morning outing, and just motor around for a bit. When we returned, I thought I should check the leak status since I hadn't looked for 2 or 3 weeks... I was shocked to find about 2 inches of water (almost 2 gallons) - significantly more than ever before. Obviously, since it hasn't rained here since early June, this water came from below, not above. I also noticed that the plastic bilge pump was leaning off to the side because its base had disintegrated (from the heat?). I bailed out the water and left the bilge dry. I checked it again 24 hours later and found about 2 quarts. I mopped it out again and checked this morning - about a quart. I purchased a new bilge pump, and installed it and tested the hoses, etc. but as I was working, I noticed that water was slowly seeping in from the aft end of the bilge - not a lot, but enough to see some accumulation. I checked the keel bolts - all snug, then I shined a flashlight past the most aft bolt where the bilge rises slightly and narrows significantly... that's where it's coming from. I'm guessing it's where the aft part of the keel attaches to the hull. There was probably a tiny crack there when we bought the boat March, and perhaps the extreme heat has caused it to expand. We were planning on a bottom job sometime this winter, but is there anything I could do to slow the seepage in the meantime. A glob of MarineTex? Silicon?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Edited by - on