Water - and more! in the hull

NDel868

New Member
Our Sunfish sounded pretty sloshy when we took it out of the lake last weekend so we opened the inspection ports to pour water out and was amazed at all of the things that came out in addition to water. Acorns, orange plastic, leaves, small sticks, dirt, etc. What the heck? We've been over the boat looking for anything obvious and are completely puzzled by, first, how the water's getting in and second, how could three large acorns and everything else could have gotten in. Any ideas? sunfish gunk.jpg
 
Among my treasures, i've stumbled on a round plastic inspection port cover that is factory-screened. Alas, it only fits 3-inch inspection ports. :(

Here's a sailor who makes his own screened ports:

 
#1 the water could be getting in through the port ring or port cap, those are big holes in a boat. You can do an airleak test to see where else water is coming in, fun places like the deck/hull seam or bailer hole seam.

Air Leak Test
 
Chipmunk.

They have two warning calls: a "chip" call for aerial threats and a lower "munk" call for terrestrial threats. (Usually "relayed" from other chipmunks' alarm calls--and often accompanied by alarms from songbirds). Chipmunks will relay these alarms from the armrest of the chair I'm sitting at!

I once raised my sail and had a pound of birdseed slide off into the cockpit. :confused:).
 
Our 1982 AMF MADISON attracts critters. She was out of the family for a few years and stored without the inspection cap. When we bought her back not only was she full of 4 years worth of leaves, pinecones and rat poop, when we went to lift her on the trailer the current tenant came skittering out! Skipper was a trooper though, she didn't drop the boat.

Fast forward a few years when we left a sail on the boat for a few days, a squirrel thought it best to start a new nest. We found it quick but there was still some pine staining on the new sail. MADISON recovered though, and was the star of 2 fashion magazine photo shoots at Seaside, Florida. If you zoom in on this photo you might see the squirrels contribution. The photographer said not to worry, they planned to change colors on the sail anyway.

MADISON Seaside.jpeg
 

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