Questions about (a) leakage around a rudder bolt; (b) can and should I install a new drain in the transom?; (c) where should I cut into the Sailfish deck to install inspection ports?.
These are the details. (a) While working on the topside of my new-to-me 1962 Mark 2 Super Sailfish I discovered that there is some water inside the hull, as the boat happened to be tilted while I was working on it, and I noticed water accumulating on top of the upside-down plastic bucket the stern was sitting on. Looking to see where it was coming from, I found moisture around the head of the forward rudder-mount carriage bolt, that goes all the way through the hull and deck. I think this is a retrofit of some kind, since that bolt and its topside wingnut are galvanized steel, not bronze like all the other rudder hardware.
So I took that bolt all the way out, to let the water drain more quickly, and put a pan underneath to catch the water so I could clock the outflow. With the bolt out, it seems to be about an ounce per hour, for the past few hours, totalling a cup or two since I've been measuring it. I have no idea how much might have already leaked out before I noticed this, as the boat was sitting on these uneven supports for some time before I noticed the water leaking out. I was surprised to not find any kind of seal or gasket where this bolt went through the hull, since obviously if water can leak out it can also leak in, while the boat is in the water. So obviously whatever else I do, I should seal that bolt head better to the hull. So, question (a), can I just put in a couple of rubber washers or gaskets, one between the bolt head and the bronze bar, and one between the bar and the fiberglass hull?
(b) Then, realizing that I had water in the hull, I took off all my extra gear and weighed the hull on a bathroom scale and it weighed 130 pounds, so it has 30 extra pounds of water weight, whether as liquid water or as waterlogged foam. The previous owner had said that this boat normally took on some water during sailing, which he always drained out through the topside drain on the bow. He wasn't sure how much water, or where it was coming from, and evidently didn't view this as a problem since he had had the boat for many years, but hadn't sailed it much recently. I was hoping that it might be getting in through the screw holes of the side-rails, which were loose, so that this would stop once I filled those holes, as I have now done. The first time I sailed it after that I turned it over and got just a trickle of water out of the drain hole, which I hoped was left over from the previous owner. But it was a lot of work to turn it over, especially with my additional gear mounted on the topside, so I haven't done that the three or four more times I've sailed it.
That leads to question (b): can I just install another drain plug in the transom? It would be a lot easier for me to drain water out of the hull just by picking up the bow, rather than having to turn the boat over.
(c) But I presume that most of that extra 30 pounds of water weight must be waterlogged internal foam, especially since this boat evidently has a long history of having had liquid water inside the hull, even if supposedly it was always being drained out again after every outing. And so I presume that means that I will have to go through the process of drying it out by blowing air though inspection ports that I will have to install, that I have heard about but not yet tried to do. The one reference I've found for doing this on a Sailfish is this thread here from 2016: Super Sailfish MKII Inspection ports, including this very useful picture of the guts of a Mk 2 Sailfish:
Based on that, I'm thinking I should try to put one 4-inch port in the back corner, behind the foam block and beside the rudder, which then might be handy for installing a drain in the transom, as proposed in (b). And then another one forward and to the side, midway between the gunwhale and the midline foam block which Signal Charlie says in that thread would also be there. ("There also would have been a block centered in the bow area, probably 18-24 inches long and 3-4 inches wide.")
(c) So, is this a good plan? I picked 4 inches just because there was a cheap price online for two of those, and it says somewhere on this forum that you should use as small a port as will serve the intended purpose. I guess you cut into the deck by drilling some holes in a line until you can fit a jigsaw blade in, then sawing forward from there? And what kind of blade is good for fiberglass, i.e. coarse teeth or fine? I'm ordering a jigsaw on-line just for this purpose, along with a set of blades, so I will have a choice on this. Thanks for any advice on this.
These are the details. (a) While working on the topside of my new-to-me 1962 Mark 2 Super Sailfish I discovered that there is some water inside the hull, as the boat happened to be tilted while I was working on it, and I noticed water accumulating on top of the upside-down plastic bucket the stern was sitting on. Looking to see where it was coming from, I found moisture around the head of the forward rudder-mount carriage bolt, that goes all the way through the hull and deck. I think this is a retrofit of some kind, since that bolt and its topside wingnut are galvanized steel, not bronze like all the other rudder hardware.
So I took that bolt all the way out, to let the water drain more quickly, and put a pan underneath to catch the water so I could clock the outflow. With the bolt out, it seems to be about an ounce per hour, for the past few hours, totalling a cup or two since I've been measuring it. I have no idea how much might have already leaked out before I noticed this, as the boat was sitting on these uneven supports for some time before I noticed the water leaking out. I was surprised to not find any kind of seal or gasket where this bolt went through the hull, since obviously if water can leak out it can also leak in, while the boat is in the water. So obviously whatever else I do, I should seal that bolt head better to the hull. So, question (a), can I just put in a couple of rubber washers or gaskets, one between the bolt head and the bronze bar, and one between the bar and the fiberglass hull?
(b) Then, realizing that I had water in the hull, I took off all my extra gear and weighed the hull on a bathroom scale and it weighed 130 pounds, so it has 30 extra pounds of water weight, whether as liquid water or as waterlogged foam. The previous owner had said that this boat normally took on some water during sailing, which he always drained out through the topside drain on the bow. He wasn't sure how much water, or where it was coming from, and evidently didn't view this as a problem since he had had the boat for many years, but hadn't sailed it much recently. I was hoping that it might be getting in through the screw holes of the side-rails, which were loose, so that this would stop once I filled those holes, as I have now done. The first time I sailed it after that I turned it over and got just a trickle of water out of the drain hole, which I hoped was left over from the previous owner. But it was a lot of work to turn it over, especially with my additional gear mounted on the topside, so I haven't done that the three or four more times I've sailed it.
That leads to question (b): can I just install another drain plug in the transom? It would be a lot easier for me to drain water out of the hull just by picking up the bow, rather than having to turn the boat over.
(c) But I presume that most of that extra 30 pounds of water weight must be waterlogged internal foam, especially since this boat evidently has a long history of having had liquid water inside the hull, even if supposedly it was always being drained out again after every outing. And so I presume that means that I will have to go through the process of drying it out by blowing air though inspection ports that I will have to install, that I have heard about but not yet tried to do. The one reference I've found for doing this on a Sailfish is this thread here from 2016: Super Sailfish MKII Inspection ports, including this very useful picture of the guts of a Mk 2 Sailfish:
Based on that, I'm thinking I should try to put one 4-inch port in the back corner, behind the foam block and beside the rudder, which then might be handy for installing a drain in the transom, as proposed in (b). And then another one forward and to the side, midway between the gunwhale and the midline foam block which Signal Charlie says in that thread would also be there. ("There also would have been a block centered in the bow area, probably 18-24 inches long and 3-4 inches wide.")
(c) So, is this a good plan? I picked 4 inches just because there was a cheap price online for two of those, and it says somewhere on this forum that you should use as small a port as will serve the intended purpose. I guess you cut into the deck by drilling some holes in a line until you can fit a jigsaw blade in, then sawing forward from there? And what kind of blade is good for fiberglass, i.e. coarse teeth or fine? I'm ordering a jigsaw on-line just for this purpose, along with a set of blades, so I will have a choice on this. Thanks for any advice on this.