Cockpit cracks

[rnummi]

Hey Chris did you ever find your galley port light leak? I poured epoxy last night into portside pilot house bulkhead... Luckily my brother was pulling port lights simultaneously, he had the vinyl pulled away and gorilla taped. First pour and it was raining epoxy out of galley vinyl. Near as I can figure, there is either a wire hole or some other unseen opening in pilot house/hull junction that allows moisture/water from pilot house wall to seep into cabin over the galley. It dripped for about 5 minutes then sealed as epoxy kicked. BTB, I'm still finding my teeth every time I step on aft cockpit. Ive decide to deal with the crunching cockpit by drilling and filling. I'm dumping a gallon of epoxy into the pilot house might as well shot some into the deck at the same time.

[Sprig1]

I like your idea of pouring in the epoxy. Now you have me doubting what I did. I never found the leak both port and starboard where leaking on my boat along with everything else. I just used thickened epoxy and just kept pushing it in to form a dam. I know it's not going to come from the top again. I epoxied the pilot house cabin joint all the way around. I also did what you did on the pilot house Windows so it's not coming from there. The cockpit will be interesting I guess it will work but you are screwed if it doesn't. Will you have enough strength? You are wreaking the floor drilling all those holes in it. So why not put coring in. After typing all that just inject epoxy sand it smooth and then paint ithe whole cockpit with kiwi grip. That's what I plan to do after I fix all the holes and cracks. My coring was like mulch and it was rotted all the way under the threshold of the aft cabin everything was delaminated. I don't think injecting epoxy in mine would of worked to far gone. I ripped out the whole companion way to fix it. When I put it back I know it will not leak again.

[rnummi]

Let me pick you brain. If it's solid 1 foot out from threshold, 1 foot away from both benches, 1 foot aft of engine compartment, what if I used 1/2 inch drill bit spaced every 6 inches or so in effected area (theoretically keeping structural integrity). The 1/2 inch hole allows me to use an Allen wrench to ream and extract a fairly large section. First drill hole in middle of "crunch" allows me to assess. If it's just a mulched void, I stop and recore. If it's just skin delam, I keep drilling out (w/o hopefully going through lower skin), every 6 inches or so till I hit solid. I then pour very slow hardener West to wick into surrounding core and hopefully that works to reattach skins and restore "solid".

[rnummi]

Hopefully that description also explains my "can't I just plug in an access hatch" post. If I have solid core a foot out from everywhere...... Haven't started the "fix" yet... Just trying to think it through. I realize it would be an access hatch to nowhere. As I said. Your method is the 100% fool proof solution. I'm just figuring the odds that I can get away with a shortcut. There is no structural flex going on. Just the irritating crunch right smack in the middle.

[Jay Knoll]

I would drill and pour cover with wax paper and then put a lot of weight on the area to press the skin down to the core. If you put a piece of 3/4" ply on top of the repair -- spanning the bad area and resting on the solid parts you should end up with a nice flat floor. I think bags of sand/concrete might do the trick. Beats having to stand on the repair until the epoxy kicks.

[rnummi]

Yep, that's what I'll do. Mirrors what I have to do on the front of the pilot house where outward facing skin had delaminated completely from the core. the sandbag thing is a good idea. I was going to use cinder blocks on furniture pads.

[JT48348]

Couple of observations from this past weekend. As i began prep work for future painting I took a close look at the cockpit scuppers and the above waterline plastic thru-hulls.

1. My cockpit scuppers are 3/4" OD ninety degree fittings only 1/2" ID. They are assembled with a plastic nut on the underside of deck and then another on top. And it looks like someone cut the top threads off so they can sit under small stainless grates. They are nylon

2. All my thru hulls appear to be nylon. At least two broke during hose removal.

3. I have three below waterline thru hulls, all bronze. But I see no backing plates or bases.

I'm going to replace all the plastic thru hulls, any one replace their scuppers and if so what size?

[rnummi]

I second JTs query. OEM scuppers are useless. My add on to JTs post, see the screw holes in the pic? That's the source of my cockpit soft spots. In addition, I have no sealant around scuppers through deck. Remove and guess what? Balsa rot. Come on, all it would have taken is a little 5200 to bed them. Now I'm reaming and filling. It sometimes feels like Albin is working against me. I'm gonna see if a 1 inch OD will plug in. Observation #2: I don't see the need for the 90 degree bend do you? I've got clearance below each scupper to go straight down.

[tego]

Rick, My drains are 1 1/2" and are recessed slightly so the flange of the fitting is flush with the sole. The flange was curved and a little loose so it leaked into my drawer below so I simply faired it with 4200 so it's now a flush surface and definitely doesn't leak. I wouldn't go with anything less than 1 1/2". My drains were factory original at 1 1/2. Ben

[JT48348]

Ben: can you post some photos of your scuppers. I want to see how they set in the fiberglass. Do you have stainless covers?

If you have 1 1/2" scuppers than your hoses must be huge. What size are the thru hull fittings?

Maybe your scupper flanges are 1 1/2" but your scupper ID is still 1/2-1" ?

[sail149]

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Prehaps the fiberglass could be threaded and a fitting like this threaded on from below
http://www.mcmaster.com/#5218K81
The draw is right below the fitting so straight down would be interfere with the draw .

The thru hull is about 10" below the cotpit so it might be able to use a straight fitting if it was threaded on at an angle to clear the draw.

[JT48348]

A proper scupper has either a mushroom or flush flange. Without that it's pointless as you can't make it waterproof

[JT48348]

I'm not too concerned with the 90 degree angle. Only the scuppers at the aft edge of the engine room hatch need a 90 degree, primarily due to the bulkhead being right in the way.

The main concern is sizing up in inner diameter, yet matching or slightly increasing the corresponding through hulls. I think 1/2" is just too small. They should probably be 1" inner diameter. minimum.

[Jay Knoll]

I view mine as "rain drains" not for draining a swamped cockpit. Frankly if there was that much water in the boat, I'd be in serious trouble and the boat probably wouldn't be stable.

[tego]

JT, I'm not much for getting pictures on here, sorry. The ID of the drain is 1 1/2", with 1 1/2" hose running aft to the transom thru-hull. The forward units run aft thru a "T" under the aft drains and on to the transom. They do have a downward slope to the transom. The recess for the fittings (mushroom type) is about 5/16" deep in the sole. I filled the outer edge of the mushroom with 4200 so there's no recess around the drain fitting to catch crud, as the top of the mushroom surface is flush to the deck. I don't have any grille over the opening, as those damn things cut the drain area opening in half or worse. If I expect any horrific weather (like a hurricane) I'd put a screen sleeve into the opening that would project about 4" above the deck surface. This trick did me well when I was in the eye of three hurricanes in two years down in West Palm Beach on my 44' trawler. Ben