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I was looking at my boat yesterday. I was thinking how proud I was to have finally made the boat water tight again.

Then I had a close look at the anchor locker drain? It looks like there is no type of drain tube in there? Should threre be? Or is that area surrounded by fiberglass?

The hole is too small to get my finger insded to check the foam (if it is exposed).

The only water that area has seen is from wet anchor lines and washing the boat off over the past week. There has not been much rain down here in a while (months).

This boat has been drying out in a large warehouse for over 7 months. I dont want water saturation problems again.

Boat is a 1987 13 Sport.

Thanks,

AJ

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AJ,

I presume you are describing a drain hole between the bow locker and the rest of the interior of the the boat, NOT a through hull drain tube. This surprises me as I thought after 1977 when they redesigned the interiors of the 13s they got rid of the small weep hole and installed a proper through-hull drain tube in bow locker.

If you have the old style weep hole, then yes, it is simply a hole drilled through the foam; no tube, maybe some gel coat but nothing to really stop water coming in contact with the foam.

My advice would be to plug and patch this hole and drill a proper drain tube through the hull.

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Well........

It has happened again!!

This boat was bone dry. I dried it out for months in a warehouse......... Now the foam in the front of the boat is saturated again.

I installed a temporary drain in the weep hole with white silicone. 3/8" poly tubing. Just so I can use the boat.

The only water that is in there is from washing the boat off. I can actually see the foam in the hole (with a flashlight). No gel coat, no paint, no nothing....

Now what?

Should I just wait for winter again and let it air dry? Flipping the boat is not an option any more. I flipped it 3 times to do the repairs and paint.

I dont know?.........

AJ

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AJ,

I doubt your hull is "bone dry". The water you are seeing may just be residual water weeping out of the hull in the area of that drain tube. I wouldn't worry about it too much. It can take years to loose much of the water in saturated foam and still never get it all out.

My best advice is to plug that drain and drill another as a through hull.

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Tom,

The hull was bone dry.

The shop that did the repairs pinned the boat with a moisture meter in several places. One of the places that was completely dry is wet again.....


I like your idea of going through to the outside of the anchor locker. I will attempt that next week. We are using the boat every day now. The boat is still light. So I'm assuming it is not too bad..... I just don't want to deal with more blister repairs again.

AJ

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AJ,

I don't think there's a Whaler out there that is truly "bone dry". A moisture meter will tell if the skins are dry for the purpose of blister repairs, but not the foam core. Once the foam has water in it, it does not give it up easily.

What probably happened in your case is that while the hull was inverted, the water in the area of that weep hole migrated to the top of the dam between the locker and the boat's interior. Now that it is flipped over again and the boat has bounced around a bit, it has migrated back down to the area of the hole and is weeping out.

But I doubt we are talking about much water at all so I wouldn't worry about it. Seal the old hole, drill a new hole.