Hole in hull under engine help please

[foilled]

87 larson delta 250 sport cruiser. i found a quarter sized hole under the engine. its right on the floor in engine bay. under side of boat looks fine just some bottom paint missing. looks sanded down maybe from beaching on sand. any ideas how i could have a hole only inside boat. pressing hole is spongy and some water comes up. heres a video. how should i go about preventing any further damage and what should i do about this in general? idk why but its yellow around the hole

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,.... Video requires a sign in,......

 

[foilled]

Ayuh,.... Video requires a sign in,......

should be good now

 

[AShipShow]

The floor in that area looks flat... hard to tell from the video tho. If its flat under the engine, there is probably some wood coring in that area. I'm not sure why there would be, but it sure looks like rotted and soaked wood.

 

[foilled]

The floor in that area looks flat... hard to tell from the video tho. If its flat under the engine, there is probably some wood coring in that area. I'm not sure why there would be, but it sure looks like rotted and soaked wood.

yes perfectly flat under there. the hole bilge is mainly this plastic white covering everywhere. anything i should do to fix this. idk how a hole could be there but im thinking the only way it fills up with any water is from any excess water in the bilge not sea side

 

[Grub54891]

As stated, it looks to be a cored hull. You may have to pull the engine, grind out the area till you get clean/dry core material. The area could or probably will be several feet in diameter. Its been wet for a long time by the looks of it. That core material is like a sponge when exposed to water. With help in the restoration section of the forums, you can succeed!

 

[Scott Danforth]

cored hull

pull motor

plan on spending a lot of time grinding, cutting, etc.

looks like you will be re-coring after you cut out all the rot.

think of this as 1.5x the work of a non-cored hull restoration.

 

[Bondo]

As stated, it looks to be a cored hull. You may have to pull the engine, grind out the area till you get clean/dry core material. The area could or probably will be several feet in diameter. Its been wet for a long time by the looks of it. That core material is like a sponge when exposed to water. With help in the restoration section of the forums, you can succeed!

Ayuh,...... Balsa wood rots quickly too,.....

 

[foilled]

Ayuh,...... Balsa wood rots quickly too,.....

im really not into restoring a wood boat and engine was pulled before this season to replace gimbal housing. could i just cover hole from the top so no more water gets in and forget about it?

 

[wahlejim]

You COULD do whatever you want. However, failure to address the rotting now will make it worse. It doesnt just stop if you put a bandaid over it. Wood is not self healing, and more importantly, water doesn't stop moving. Putting a patch over it will only trap the water in and it will continue to migrate and get worse. Fix it correctly now and go boating without worrying about it.

 

[emoney]

Only way to stop the rot is to cut it out. There was a reason the core material was there in the first place, so that means anything you cut out needs to be replaced with new. Having said all of that; most folks looking at this are thinking odds are the rot goes a lot deeper than you're prepared for it to go. At the very least, it's time to pull up anything you can to get a look under that floor and to test the transom while you're at it. If the bilge has been holding water long enough, the rot could've extended to your stringers as well. Not trying to be a doomsdayer, but covering that hole isn't an option. With that said, we're coming into a great time of the year to trade boats!!