Holes in the Hull

Well, okay, maybe not "holes" in the hull although one remedial repair did involve the one intentional hole in the hull - the slot for the dagger-board.

In late January of last year I was fighting against a self-imposed deadline to get the boat ready to launch by the second of February. I rushed some of the work and am now repairing the results of that hurried work.

When I taped the seams along the chines and the transom, I applied fiberglass tape to those seams but did not have enough time to fill the weave of the FG tape. The boat leaked along the chines the day of the launching. In the weeks following the launch I filled the weave along the chines but did not pay any attention to the transom seams. I thought I had "fixed the leak." In mid-March I took the boat rowing in Richmond and had no indication of any leak. I was convinced I had fixed the leak.

Later in the spring I cut the dagger-board slot in the hull. This is always nerve-wracking - cutting a hole in a perfectly fine hull! What was I thinking? Well, the boat needs a dagger-board and the dagger-board needs a slot, so the hull had to be cut. Hey, this is all part of the design, right?

In mid-June I returned to Richmond for a day of rowing and a sail with a borrowed rig. Mike and I launched the boat. I pushed the boat toward the dinghy dock, maybe 15 yards away from the ramp. In the two minutes that it took for Mike to walk over to the dinghy dock, the boat was taking on water through the seam between the dagger-board case and the hull because the case had not been properly installed. The water was coming in at an alarming rate. We took a couple of photos for posterity and promptly pushed the boat back toward the ramp and pulled the boat out of the water.

I didn't complete the repairs last year because I decided to focus on my upcoming retirement and move. The boat has dried out and is now stored upside down in a very nice, dry barn in Central Michigan. Work has resumed.

The edge of hull where the slot is cut was eased with a router, a round-over bit and some sandpaper. The gaps between the case and the hull were filled with thickened epoxy and overlaid with 4" FG tape. The tape was well wetted out and allowed to cure. After washing with warm water, dried and sanded, a second coat of neat epoxy seems to have filled the weave of the tape. The seam between the case and the inside of the hull will be sanded and filleted with thickened epoxy to finish the repair. I am reasonably confident the slot will not leak once the repair is complete.

The tape on the original transom seams was showing signs of poor installation: Unfilled weave, obvious gaps and bubbles where the tape had not adhered to the hull, and unfilled gaps in the joins - particularly between the hull sides and the transom.

I sanded away the original tape. Rounded-over the edges to give the new tape a softer contour for a better fit. The gaps in the joins were filled with thickened epoxy followed by 4" FG tape (the original seams were done with 2" tape). Once cured, the epoxy was washed with warm water, dried and sanded. A second coat of epoxy filled the weave. These repaired seams will be sanded and faired before the hull is repainted.

While I do not know for certain the transom leaked before, I am now confident it will not leak with these repairs.

The holes in the hull have been - until proven otherwise - have been repaired.