Holes in hull ?!?!

[Billybob]

The marine tex idea would probably work, and so would the 5200 idea, but here's what I would do.Take all your holes (take the ducer out), clean in and around them with acetone,patch from the inside with glass cloth and resin,patch it again from the inside with a little bigger glass and resin, now fill you holes from the outside (I used an Interlux bottom fairing putty), let dry, sand, and paint.O.K.,maybe it's a little more trouble, maybe I'm just anal - but even little match-sized leak can be a problem.

[largoman]

I've taken delivery of the 1979 23' cuddy. Now the, uh, "fun" begins. I finally was able to crawl all the way under the boat only to find a few holes that need fixing.

1. The previous owner had installed a float switch in the bilge with a screw and put it right thru the bottom of the hull (tip is barely poking thru the paint.

2.I also found another small hole nearby (3" away) which has what appears to have some type of flexible rubber material extruded thru it from the inside and and hanging out a bit. Perhaps an attemp to plug/seal it.

3. There is also an old thru hull transducer on the other side of the kell center line that I'm suspicious of. It appears to be installed thru "fairing?" blocks inside the hull and out to to keep it shooting straing down. I'm unlikley to get a new thru hull transducer due to their cost (probably get a transom mount) and am willing to just leave the old thru hull transducer alone unless it will be a problem (e.g., leaks, etc.)

Any thoughts on this old thru hull transducer are welcome.

The immediate concern is the screw hole and its sidekick. I've gotten a couple of repair advice opitions

A. Use Marine Tex from the inside and push it into the holes (with a match stick or similar) until it comes out the bottom, allow to cure, then sand and paint the spot on the bottom

B. Drill the holes thru and counter sink them on the outside, install a pan head bolt in each from the outside with 5200 adhesive and a washer/nut on the inside.

Does anyone have advice/opinions on these options or others? Just so you have all the details, the holes are not large in diamiter (diameter of a match stick or 1.5 match sticks. Also the hull is painted but just regular paint, not bottom paint.

Thanks in advance, Largoman

[Bigshot]

I like 5200.

[Briguy]

Billybob gave pretty good advice. However I would drill the holes out with a 1/4 bit, glass from the outside and then take a bit of resin and pour or inject it into the drill hole from the inside and let gravity do the work. It will be fixed forever. I would never ever ever fill in a FIBERGLASS hole with a caulk. Fiberglass and resin were made for each other. Polyester resin is cheeper and should do fine since that's what the boat was made with.

[Standing Room Only]

Use West Marine Epoxy, slow cure hardener. Mix in Cabosil (West Marine Colloidial Silica) or WM structural filler (?microfiber?) and mix until a paste consistency. Don't add too much. Add in WM barrier cote. tape outside of hole after drilling. Get a syringe injector and inject into the hole. Do this from the inside of the boat, retracting the injector so that no voids exist. Slap a small patch of biaxial glass over the hole and wet with resin. Sand/grind the inside patch a bit when done to fair. I had a few of these in mine and would never trust a soft sealant, even 5200. I find Marine Tex too brittle.

[ October 10, 2002, 02:30 PM: Message edited by: Standing Room Only ]

[Tom]

(just to clarify, WEST Marine does not make epoxy, additives. or the WEST SYSTEM. Wet Epoxy Saturation Techniques were introduced to the mass market by Jan and Meade Gougeon "the Gougeon Brothers" in the midwest in the '70s. They were pioneers in the lightweight use of wood materials and cold molding. Some of their early projects were large iceboats, inland racing scows (A's and E's) a whole bunch of offshore race boats, and the actual renovation of a number of Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural masterpieces). Don't give West Marine too much credit...