Drying out my fish

I have a 1999 Sunfish that has been fairly dry inside. I ported it a while back to keep an eye on things. Unfortunately, it's starting to leak a bit and I found about a cup or two of water in the hull after sailing recently. I'm still looking for the leak but I was wondering how best to dry the hull out.

I soaked up the excess water with a towel but it's very damp inside. I was thinking about storing it with a container of Damp Rid inside the hull. Has anyone tried that? Any concerns? Does it soak up enough moisture to help?

Thanks!

I opened up my inspection ports, put a dark tarp over the hull and ran a fan pulling air out of the hull for a few weeks.
Dropped my hull weight from 150 to 138. Put some screen over the ports to keep the critters from moving in.

gd_nc said:

I was thinking about storing it with a container of Damp Rid inside the hull. Has anyone tried that? Any concerns? Does it soak up enough moisture to help? Thanks!

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Even full of collected moisture, a Damp-Rid bag only weighs about 1½ pounds. If it was a single 6-inch port that you'd installed, consider running a vacuum hose (or larger diameter) as deep as you can push it, and direct a small fan at the outside opening.

I think my three older Sunfish leak somewhat at each of their daggerboard trunks. When I put them away for this season, I'll turn each Sunfish up-side down in shallow water, put some weight on it, run a soapy brush around the opening, and look for the bubbles that are likely to happen. (But I'll know exactly where to put the epoxy repair).

gd_nc said:

I have a 1999 Sunfish that has been fairly dry inside. I ported it a while back to keep an eye on things. Unfortunately, it's starting to leak a bit and I found about a cup or two of water in the hull after sailing recently. I'm still looking for the leak but I was wondering how best to dry the hull out.

I soaked up the excess water with a towel but it's very damp inside. I was thinking about storing it with a container of Damp Rid inside the hull. Has anyone tried that? Any concerns? Does it soak up enough moisture to help?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

You will need to find out how much water one container of DampRid can remove to evaluate if this product will work for your situation.

The damprid did a decent job of getting the hull dried out. It managed to extract about a cup of water over the course of a week. I would't recommend it for an extremely wet situation but it did a nice job of eliminating most of the ambient moisture.

One of my hulls leaks as well. Anyone have a link to fiberglass Sunfish plans? I'd like to get a better idea what it looks like inside. Thanks!