Drying out a Sunfish.

Seems like the perfect solution with proper ducting.

And nice DS avatar :)

Cyane Mar 2013.JPG
 
Dsoc if you end up going this route, I'd love to see pics of how you did it. I'm drying out a hull with a fan and two inspection ports right now, but am on the hunt for faster way. Thought about some sort of dehumidifier, but figured it would be too much of a hassle. Let us know how it goes!
 
I am seriously going to try. I need to make a Plenum and seal it to the dehumidifier. Run a duct to the Sunfish, and seal it over an access port. I am thinking of a closed system in order to not pull moisture from my wonderful Maryland summer outside humidity. (makes for fun glassing also)
 
Dry air would be good but make sure the dehumidifier will be getting enough airflow itself. I prefer the volume of air method to dry out the hull. Some people use black plastic on the hull would be interesting to try.
 
A spare window air conditioner could be carried to the Sunfish, ducted to direct cold air through the hull, and accomplish a greater amount of drying than the dehumidifier.

It's just much cheaper and simpler with a fan or two. :rolleyes:
 
There's dozens of solar-powered fans available at Aliexpress.com. While they're not particularly powerful, they are sources of steady air change during daylight hours.

The Yagou brand is only $4.34. :cool:

Delivery (50¢) is about two weeks.
 
One of the best methods that we have done to dry out a sunfish is to cut an inspection port in the rear of the storage compartment of the cockpit and another in the front of the cockpit. Installing them there minimizes the visual impact and reduces questions from a potential buyer. We then take a small squirrel cage blower with a piece of 4" duct hose and circulate air into the stern section with the air exiting out of the front access port. The boat is then bagged complete in plastic and a humidifier is placed in the cockpit with the drain tube draining the collected water out of the cockpit drain hole. The humidifier runs inside of the bagged boat and the blower circulates the dry air throughout the boat.
When we first started doing this we weighed the boat every day and developed a Excel spreadsheet showing the water removed over time. We have successfully removed 50 pounds of water from a severely waterlogged hull over several weeks of 24/7 operation. This data that we developed allows us to weigh a boat, determine how much water needs to be removed to get it back to "factory" weight and know the time it will be on life support to obtain that goal. We charge accordingly for the amount of the the boat is on life support (bagged).
The boat needs to be in great shape to cost justify the process but we find many of our customers consider the boat as a family member and economic justification is often overlooked.
One of the issues we encounter is that often after the dry out process, pieces of the floatation foam become disconnected and tend to rattle around inside. One theory is as they become so heavy due to water weight over time they separate from the deck but are so heavy them seldom move. After dry out they now move about easily.
Dale Tanski
Obersheimer Sailor Supply
Buffalo NY
 
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