Alan Glos
Active Member
I may be about to come into possession of a 1973 Sunfish hull that weighs about 220 lbs. It has two holes in the port chine and the boat was often sailed (with the holes unpatched) and then drained at the end of the day. On the assumption that the boat in new condition weighed about 130 lbs, the hull is now 90 lbs overweight representing about 10 gal. of water in the hull. As there is virtually no standing water in the bilge, this means that the interior foam has soaked up about 10 gallons of water over the life of the boat.
If I get the hull, following standard practice, I will put two 6" inspection ports on the deck, one just aft of the splashrail and the other on the deck centered just forward of the transom. My plan would then be to put the boat outside, deck down on sawhorses covered with a black tarp with screen over the open ports (to keep out mice and other critters) and then to fashion a 6" PCV elbow attached to the forward port and aim the open end of the PCV pipe into the prevailing winter winds to scoop a good flow of air through the hull cavity. I might also put a 40 watt lightbulb in the interior of the hull to keep the water in the foam from freezing and to speed up the evaporation process.
My question is: How much water weight will the boat shed over the next 6 or 7 months? Also, will I ever get back to near the 130 lbs point or is there a point of diminishing returns in this process? This is my first try at this task - unfortunately, I have no indoor, heated storage option (which I know would speed up the drying process.)
Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
If I get the hull, following standard practice, I will put two 6" inspection ports on the deck, one just aft of the splashrail and the other on the deck centered just forward of the transom. My plan would then be to put the boat outside, deck down on sawhorses covered with a black tarp with screen over the open ports (to keep out mice and other critters) and then to fashion a 6" PCV elbow attached to the forward port and aim the open end of the PCV pipe into the prevailing winter winds to scoop a good flow of air through the hull cavity. I might also put a 40 watt lightbulb in the interior of the hull to keep the water in the foam from freezing and to speed up the evaporation process.
My question is: How much water weight will the boat shed over the next 6 or 7 months? Also, will I ever get back to near the 130 lbs point or is there a point of diminishing returns in this process? This is my first try at this task - unfortunately, I have no indoor, heated storage option (which I know would speed up the drying process.)
Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY