That sinking feeling

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Rapier
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Location: West Glos

That sinking feeling

Post by Rapier »

Pearly Miss owners are generally stoical about leaking boats - I can remember using mine at Cardiff it's 1st season and thinking that 6in of water in a boat was quite scary..SO, I wondered why we were slopping around a bit on the Thames run last weekend and having to run the bilge pump more often than normal (every 5mins..). Looked under the hull yesterday and ended up drilling out another 16 suspect rivets. The ones missing their heads are a dead giveaway. My boat lives outside and the cover's a cheap chinese job, so there is invariably water in it anyway. I noticed those that those rivets that were suspect (and had intact heads) had mould growing around them and sure enough they seeped when that area was filled with water.

Rivetwise sell the sealed pop versions I get from them, in 99% aluminium - I no longer have access to a rivet gun for the correct rivets + is a 2 man job. These work fine with a smear of Duralac and clean metal around the holes.

On a similar subject, was plagued by water in my fuel on the day, causing 2 breakdowns. Am normally fastidious about using the last seasons mix; this time I put it all in one (plastic) tank with a conditioner, but to no avail. The fuel filter / separator arrived this morning..from this supplier.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182425973243? ... EBIDX%3AIT
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Fasten bra straps and remove dentures...

Diomedea
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Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2011 8:36 pm

Re: That sinking feeling

Post by Diomedea »

Thanks for this solution.
Do you use steel mandrels to avoid corrosion or stainless steel?

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Rapier
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Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 5:16 pm
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Location: West Glos

Re: That sinking feeling

Post by Rapier »

These are they, from Rivetwise, wasn't too picky about the length..AD62AH - Closed End Low Profile Domed Head - 99.5% Alu/Aluminium x 100
Fasten bra straps and remove dentures...

Diomedea
Posts: 158
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2011 8:36 pm

Re: That sinking feeling

Post by Diomedea »

For what it's worth, I've done a lot of prep work to use their ask aluminium/aluminium rivets.
Please an order for loads yesterday, which was accepted by their system, good apparently in stock.
Got a mail this morning saying that they no longer sell them.
No good words to describe this.
Had a good moan at them.
Sorry for the rant!

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