Leaky Boat- What would you do???

[MarkNY]

hi, here is the deal. i have a 16' starcraft jupiter that is leaking pretty bad. taking in maybe 2 1/2 gallons of water per hour! 2 1/2 gallons too many. im in the process of completely rebuilding the boat. after i stripped out the old floor and foam i floated it and found two leaks. i had them fixed professionally. the guy used nuts and bolts to replace the rivets in the bow area. so i thought i was all set. ive since put in a new floor. 3/4" with deco dot vinyl over top. its a $250 floor. its a permanent floor, screws recessed into ply before vinyl was laid down and the floor is glued down with 3M 5200. ive also added alot more weight via the motor, gas tank, two mini consoles, electronics etc. i think that what has created my new leak(s). maybe adding stress to some loose rivets? the leak seems to be coming from the center keel and the right side keel. its hard to tell exactly where as water just comes out the sides of the keel and runs back. there is only weep holes on the keel in the very front and none in the back which i find kind of odd. as a test, i sealed the edges of the keels where it meets the hull with 5200 to see if it would help. it seemed to help the first time but now it doesnt matter. ive got about 5-6K into the boat now and a couple hundred hours invested as well. i need an absolute dry boat. what are my options to fixing this problem? one thought i had is to rip the floor out and remove all three keels. put a good bead of 5200 where the keel meets the hull and fasten the keels down with SS nuts and bolts. then gluvit the entire inside. any other ideas? think my idea would work? please help, im at a loss. this leak is very discouraging but i love the boat so im hoping to fix it. thanks alot, mark

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Leaky Boat- What would you do???

Gluvit.

You should still have access to the side double riveted seams from the top......

Gluvit may be applied to the exterior and I would plan on flipping the hull and doing the rivets from the outside.

Starcrafts are made with one sheet of aluminum for the lower hull. Concentrate on having the hull upside down and doing all the seams and rivets that the gluvit will flow "downhill" into. The next day you tip the hull and do it in the other direction.

Once you have used the gluvit on the outside ..... please paint it. It lasts longer since gluvit has no UV inhibitors.

The BEST choice is to bite the bullet and remove your decking and do the gluvit from the inside.

The weep holes in the keels are okay since if water stayed inside they would freeze and burst. There are no seams under the keels.

 

[MarkNY]

Re: Leaky Boat- What would you do???

hi bob, thanks for the reply. im pretty sure that most of the water is coming through loose rivets on the keels. nothing is obvious though. i want a permanent fix, i dont want to rely strictly on gluvit. how would i go about changing the rivets from the outside? best, mark

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Leaky Boat- What would you do???

Well the true solution is to remove the decking and re-buck the rivets. They can be tightened and it also gives you proper access to apply the gluvit. I would NOT suggest replacing rivets that are still installed when all they need is a whack from a hammer (while being backed on the other side with a bigger mallet).

 

[MarkNY]

Re: Leaky Boat- What would you do???

id really appreciate some more thoughts/ideas on how to deal with this problem. thanks alot, mark

 

[Shife]

Re: Leaky Boat- What would you do???

Anything other than what Bob has already covered will be no more effective than lighting dollar bills on fire. There is no magic solution to fix her. I know it's a hard pill to swallow, but you'd really be best served by pulling up the deck, re-bucking the rivets, and sealing it with Gluvit. And ditch the "professional" repair and do it right with either the proper solid body rivets or structural blind rivets.