Drying out a wet 'fish

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
 
Alan,
Check Wind Line Sails (http://www.windline.net/index.html), Mike Kilpatrick (http://mikekilpatrick.homestead.com/dollies.html) and the Yahoo Group Sunfish_Sailor Files (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sunfish_sailor/). They all have articles on getting your hull dry. It will take time and you should be able to get the weight down to a reasonable level (145# or maybe less) in 6-7months. Any method to keep the hull warm and introduce dry air into the hull will help. The black tarp will let the sun warm up the hull during the winter, I would be careful in summer. Do not let anything that generates heat remain in contact with the hull or foam. After the ports are installed (leave them off until the boat is dry and any interior repairs are made) and you start using the SF, leave them open when not in use (don’t forget to close them if it looks like rain if deck up). A little bit of water will not hurt if you empty the boat right away. It is the water vapor that has condensed inside the foam that is causing the weight. Wind Line has a spot on fibeglass repair also and so does West Sytems (www.westsystem.com). Hope this helps.
 
I had the same problem. We got the boat (renamed Jenny Craig) down under 150# with the help of an old furnace blower and a 100 watt drop light inside the hull for heat source. I used a piece of dryer vent hose to get the air flow into the hull. Good luck.
 
You may want to think of putting a flap you can pull down on your wind intake port or stuff a rag in it when wind and snow will be present.

I live in Vermont and went to school at SU and know that you can fill a car up with snow if you leave a window open in the right conditions. :eek:
 
Dunebug,
Definately not recommended unless you want to trash your hull. Due to the way the the hull is "glued" together, the top flanges, foam blocks, mast and daggerboard wells and cockpit, you will more than likley cause more damage to the hull than you could readily and cheaply repair. Install the ports, get air flowing thru the hull and time will get your hull dry. It is the cheapest and most efficient way to do it (even if it does take time). Check the articles listed in my previous post for more info. Yahoo Groups Sunfish Sailor also has an article on drying out a Sunfish.
 
Thanks for all the replies about how to dry out a wet 'fish. I ended up going to Home Depot and buying a 6" galvanized adjustable heater duct elbow that fits nicely into the 6" inspection port on the stern just forward of the transom. Then I installed a 120 volt 6" duct fan inside the elbow to maintain a constant flow of air through the hull and out the other 6" port aft of the splashrail. The little fan moves a lot of air and it literally rushed out the exhaust port. Last I did put a 40 watt light bulb centered inside the hull as a heat source. It seems to be working but the major problem has been ambient temp. (minus 24 f. last week and barely in the + double numbers this week - Central NY is cold, folks.)

Come spring we will see how it worked.

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
 

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