To Soak or not to Soak

[Scandal]

I have removed the floor and side panels of my 1960 Century Resorter and all the wood on the exposed hull seems to be in good condition. There is some dust about and, on the bottom, some of the paint is a little flaky here and there. When I bought the boat last winter, it had not been in the water for seven years, and as some of the paint on the underside was flaking, the seller scraped of all the paint from underneath the bottom of the boat and sent through pictures showing all the wood was found to be very sound. They then repainted the bottom.

I am wondering if I should soak the inside of the boat whilst the floor is exposed and, if so, how much water should I put in there, how long should I leave it and do I need to carry out any preparation work, or will there be procedures to carry out after it has been soaked. What happens to areas where the water doesn't get, like right up in the bows perhaps? I have heard of using wet towels but again, what happens with the areas the the wet towels can't reach like underneath the engine.

The boat is to go into the water in two weeks time when the engine is going to be recommissioned and it is intended for it to stay on a pontoon mooring on a local river for a few days to soak up water. Maybe this will be enough soaking anyway?

This is my first wooden boat and I want to make sure I don't actually damage it because of my ignorance when it comes to working on it. I would appreciate advice you may have from similar experiences, before I get the hose pipe out. :thanks:

regards

Alisdair :cheers:

[se7en]

If the boat has been out of the water some time then it would be a good idea to put a bit of water in it to get the boards to take up, how much to put in depends on the boat, you should only worry about the boards up to the water line, boards above this are not as important, I would suggest you put a hose in it and see how much water runs out, don't be to up set if it looks like a cullinder at first, it could take a day or so to take up, just check that it has stopped leaking by the time you launch,when you launch the boat just make sure you have a good battery and bilge pump that works,think about fitting another pump as well , if you are going to leave it on a mooring , two bilge pumps are a good idea, a second pump is cheaper than a boat retrim, rewire, and an engine build, I'm not joking !! I have known of boats that have had there pumps pack up after 1/2 hour of hard use , if the thing is on a mooring, it could happen in the middle of the night ..!! you wouldn't know until the morning

Regards,
Clive

[Scandal]

Well Clive, I have taken your advice and put a hose pipe in the boat and turned the tap on some time early this afternoon. The old boat is leaking like a sieve and flooding a wide area around the trailer to quite a reasonable depth.

There is one particularly strong spout of water flowing from around the prop shaft where it exits the hull. There is an oval cut out in the hull around the prop shaft with a gap all around it of about a 1/4" and this is where the water is flowing out. I have checked the prop bracket and the stern gland and, whilst there are screws that could be leaking and a some water leaking underneath the prop bracket itself, I can't see anything loose enough to cause this much water to leak out.

My latest theory is that it may relate to an accumulation of leaks from further towards the bow which have found a cavity around the keel which allows them to flow along the keel together and pour out of the gap around the prop. What do you think, is my thinking along the right track or is the boat doomed.

I do hope the old thing decided to expand (or whatever it's supposed to do) sometime soon as the flooding around the boat is quite severe. In fact, by my calculations, at this rate it will be afloat in the small hours of next Tuesday morning.

Ofcourse, the water will then start to go back into the boat, and, as the flooding will subside, the boat will land back on terra firma, hopefully on the trailer itself. Mind you, I suppose the water now in the boat will start to leak out, causing the area around the boat to flood. Bit like the barrell of bricks, in a way.

Alisdair

[se7en]

The boat has been out of the water some time, it could take 2 or 3 days to take up, don't worry to much at the moment, see what its like on saturday, keep me posted.
Clive

[Scandal]

Hi Clive

The boat is still letting quite a lot of water through although I have a slight feeling that some of the dribbles are slowing into drips. The spout around the prop shaft is still impressive. Hey Ho, let's hope tomorrow there's further improvement. I have worked out that the amount of water now leaking through the boat is about half as much as one of the bilge pumps can clear, so when the boat goes into the river this next Thursday for the engine to run, it may even stay afloat.

Andy Wise kindly lend me a pond pump to get the water out of the boat. I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever use it but today, I dug a hole under the boat, stuck the pump in the hole and drained the water from under and all around it. :thanks:

Connected to a length of hose, the water is being discharged at the bottom of the garden. I reckon the lake down there will be well formed by Tuesday and by next weekend, we could hold a not inconsiderable rally. :cheers:

Al

[se7en]

If it still has any big leaks by tommorrow evening then you could cork them with some putty, that will hold the water out until the boards swell, but wait till sunday evening,
Clive

[Scandal]

Hi Clive

The water started to rise in the boat yesterday and I was able to turn the hosepipe tap down a little bit. The same thing happened today and overall the stream from the hosepipe has reduced quite a lot since I put the hosepipe in the boat last week.started last week.

The spout near the propshaft has also reduced but is still most of the leak.

Andy Wise is calling round tomorrow afternoon, and with his help, I am going to disconnect the propshaft and hope this will enable me to unscrew and move the propeller tube from the floor of the boat. The plan is to use Silkoflex to seal the screw holes and also seal the propellor tube to the bottom of the boat.

On Wednesday the boat is staying dry as it's having some engine work carried out and on Thursday it is going on a pontoon on the river so the engine expert can tune the engine whilst it's running.

Following your advice there are 2 new bilge pumps rated at 500 gallon per hour each. The will be connected through separate circuits and switches. One of the pumps at half power should cope with the amount of water leaking out of the boat today. I understand the putting the boat in the water will help to seal the planks and I intend to leave it in the water over the bank holiday and keep an eye on it.

I'll keep you up to date, as long as it's still afloat. I have my wifes full permission to go down with it if it sinks. I told her the water would only come up to my waste, but she said that would be OK, I should just stand on my head.
AL

[petrolhead]

Your new boat sounds lovely and I can't wait to see it. It sounds like it is taking water up nicely and apart from the stern tube issue is well on the way to being fairly water tight.

I have always had this theory with our boat that I would like to put a Y valve on one of the water intakes with adjustable flow so the engine can act as a bilge pump in an emergency! adjusting the flow between the in boat pick up and hull scoop to suit the leak so the engine impellor clears it.

Perhaps you could try my theory out for me

Hope all go's well when it gets in the water.
R

[Alacrity]

My father ran boats for a living & had two 50 foot, 100 seater, wooden beach launched open boats both with twin Perkins 6.354's in them. He did just that for use in an emergency - which thankfully was never needed despite several holes being punched in them over the years. We did test them though by flooding the hulls to about 6" and it worked very well. Clearly only to be used in an situation when you were in danger of foundering as all sorts of muck could be sucked into the cooling system which could cause overheat problems, especially if the engine is heat exchanger cooled, but it does work.

[Scandal]

Hi Clive, Russ & Geoff

Today I turned of the hose pipe and drained the boat. Andy Wise called round and together we investigated where the water spouted from around the prop shaft sleeve. My main contribution was to fall over in the bottom of the boat twisting my ankle and my knee. Andy managed to remove the stern gland from the rubber hose that connects it to the prop sleeve, and the rubber on the inside of the hose is rotten, and this is the cuplprit of the spout of water.

The prop shaft coupling is bolted down so tight we were unable to loosen any of the bolts. It looks like a boat yard job. The plan is to replace the stern gland completely with a deep water seal.

I will get this boat on the water, one day

Al