Help appricated

L

lufbralaser

New Member
Hi

I have recently discovered some delamination on my laser, quite serious as well, the hull and deck have actually seperated!!! I have the boat in dry storage now and am drying the boat out. THe delamination has occured on the starboard gunnell about the cockpit end of the boat, also a little bit at the stern by the rudder pivots. tonight i removed the bung housing and have been looking inside the hull. From what i can see there is a cube box and it is half filled with water!!!!!!!! It has a screw lid on it but there is no way of getting to it to empty it.

What is this box??? is it a boyancy bag or something? and why is it full of water???

Would would people suggest on how to get the water from the boat? at the moment i have a rag poked in between the hull and deck at the stern to release the water. (see pic below)

img.jpg


img2.jpg


Thanks very much.

Rich
 
That sounds suspiciously like the bouyancy bag. It could have acquired the water by means of too much air pressure, and over time, sprung a leak & any water the may have leaked into your boat may have also made its way into the bouyancy bag. Just a theory... :D
 
maybe you can just make an hole int he boyancy tank.. it's not big deal your suposed to hav 5 other one... & it's only in case your sinking...
 
Hi Rich,

I have just aquired a laser from a friend and I have noticed that I have the same delamination problem with my boat. It has seperated in aproxamatly the same spots that yours has. I was wondering what type of repair do you plan on making? I'm not sure if an epoxy will fix the seperation. If you think it will, what type of epoxy are you using.

Thanks for any info you can offer,
Adam

lufbralaser said:
Hi

I have recently discovered some delamination on my laser, quite serious as well, the hull and deck have actually seperated!!! I have the boat in dry storage now and am drying the boat out. THe delamination has occured on the starboard gunnell about the cockpit end of the boat, also a little bit at the stern by the rudder pivots. tonight i removed the bung housing and have been looking inside the hull. From what i can see there is a cube box and it is half filled with water!!!!!!!! It has a screw lid on it but there is no way of getting to it to empty it.

What is this box??? is it a boyancy bag or something? and why is it full of water???

Would would people suggest on how to get the water from the boat? at the moment i have a rag poked in between the hull and deck at the stern to release the water. (see pic below)

img.jpg


img2.jpg


Thanks very much.

Rich
Click to expand...
 
well... what I would do is take like a knife or a flat head screw driver & put it in the crack so it opens bigger... then I would let it dry (or take an hair dryer).. after that I would just fill it with epoxy then remove the screw driver (or whatever you used) then clean up the mess & let it dry...
 
yeah i just did this sort of thing with the derelict i'm reviving, there was water in the hull which didn't seem to want to run out of the transom drain hole , plus a wrecked gunwale and split transom join... i rebuilt the gunwale (another story) and sorted the transom by drilling holes into the deck/gunwale curve to let the water out - the boat was upside down and inclined towards the transom btw - then drying with hot air, filling with epoxy and clamping up. seems ok so far...
once the hull was sealed i installed an inspection port by the daggerboard case and put a couple of crystal-type dehumidifiers inside, which have been brilliant so far - i might even continue with one inside when i'm not sailing her, to make sure the inside of the hull is dry.
 
To dry out an old laser that was heavy I put an inspection port just forward of the mast and a second one on the aft deck aft of the traveller cleat. I then used an old fan heater with a bit of ducting made out of a ice cream container taped over its outlet and a piece of 90 mm plastic pipe taped to that to blow cold air into it at one end and out the other. It was a bit Heath-Robinson'ish but after two weeks of it the boat was noticeably lighter. Note I only had the fan running on cold as I was afraid of it over heating - probably on a low heat setting the results could be quicker / better.
 
Martin Williams said:
To dry out an old laser that was heavy I put an inspection port just forward of the mast and a second one on the aft deck aft of the traveller cleat. I then used an old fan heater with a bit of ducting...
Click to expand...
A shop-vac also works well as a source of air (most have an exhaust outlet you can attach the hose to). Since most shop-vac's use the vacuum air to cool the motor, it's also just slightly warm, with no chance of getting too hot.

In "Laser Sailing for the '90s" and the "Complete Book of Laser Sailing", Dick Tillman suggests a way to dry the boat is to install ports in the bow and stern (just like you describe), and cartop the boat with the ports open.

Cheers,

Geoff S.
 
L-P Gauhtier said:
well... what I would do is take like a knife or a flat head screw driver & put it in the crack so it opens bigger... then I would let it dry (or take an hair dryer).. after that I would just fill it with epoxy then remove the screw driver (or whatever you used) then clean up the mess & let it dry...
Click to expand...
There's a more extensive description of this process at drLaser (including :
http://www.drlaser.org/plfHtoD.html

Also, IMHO the best epoxy for this kind of thing is WEST:
http://westsystem.com/
In the US, you can get it at many boat-stores and some high-end lumber yards or woodworking-supply stores.

Cheers,

Geoff S.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top