Princess 286 hull spray rail had a hole, soaked with water

[Domiac]

Hey fellow boaters! Bough a beautiful ~35 years old Princess 286, one year ago, it has otherwise excellent looking hull but one of its spray rails or running strakes has a small hole in the mid of the boat that got widened to 1x3cm hole after blasting crushed glass. From this hole, I drilled some more holes to lower / aft side of the spray rail and got 100-200ml clear, odorless water out.

This spray rail is square formed, surrounded by a 10mm fiberglass, it is hollow but filled with urethane, goes from bow to aft. We got freezing weather here, so during winterization gravity pulls water to aft through the square spray channel and I suspect ice has made tiny cracks to the inside of engine bay from which water, last summer as well, was seeping very slowly inside to engine bay, but only up to 1-2 liters as after that the pressure / level was in equilibrium with outside water level.

Comments appreciated on how to treat this?

Before I fix the 1x3cm and my drilled holes, should I

1. let it dry like this for couple weeks
2. run strong wire from aft to hole removing urethane and create an air channel, then use midly hot air fan to blow through spray rail for a couple of days
3. open it more aggressively with grinder first?

Urethane looks like new when it is coming out from inside the spray rail channel.

Video showing the crack, spray rail and water coming out from freshly drilled holes:
VIdeo showing how water seeps in from spray rail up to engine bay:

Many thanks for any comments!

PS. Will be doing some exciting microcontroller + industrial 1000nit 7" touch console based diesel engine upgrade to this boat, off goes the 30+ year old Volvo Penta electronics, will post news of this to this excellent forum later!

 

[alldodge]

Welcome aboard

Terminology issue, we call that the lifting strakes.
With water in that area, most likely the entire hull may need to be gutted. It won't dry out completely no mater how long its left open. The foam is most likely soaked and needs to be removed. Mold will start to grow and it will destroy the stringers

 

[Domiac]

Welcome aboard

Terminology issue, we call that the lifting strakes.
With water in that area, most likely the entire hull may need to be gutted. It won't dry out completely no mater how long its left open. The foam is most likely soaked and needs to be removed. Mold will start to grow and it will destroy the stringers

Entire hull, seriously? Why do you think other hull areas would have sucked any water? I suspect only the urethane, not fiberglass, inside lifting strake contains water roughly for 6 meter length but only 20 millimeters wide area, so why would I gut whole 9x3.4 meter hull for this?

Note that this single hole was initially only a few millimeters wide, in the pictures it has now been widened through blasting and a sharp knife. Hull is intact everywhere else. Fiber glass is very strong when I drilled those aft holes.

Boat runs like a charm and lifts well, water coming out was clear and there was no odor, I do not suspect this has been going on for long.

Cheers!

 

[alldodge]

Just what I have seen thru the years. Once water starts getting in, it doesn't take long. You could drill some test holes (6 to 8mm) in like the engine stringers and transom to see. The foam soaks up water fairly easy.

My cruiser started with a small leak in the water tank, and by the time I was done tearing out the wet wood, I had removed the fuel tank, part of the transom and engine stringers

 

[Domiac]

Just what I have seen thru the years. Once water starts getting in, it doesn't take long. You could drill some test holes (6 to 8mm) in like the engine stringers and transom to see. The foam soaks up water fairly easy.

My cruiser started with a small leak in the water tank, and by the time I was done tearing out the wet wood, I had removed the fuel tank, part of the transom and engine stringers

I drilled some test holes to higher / bow side, and the foam felt dry, same for some of the very aft side, but not all. Will do a few more drills more for strings that are connected to this string that has this hole.

Thanks!

 

[alldodge]

Drill test holes inside down in the bilge area down low

 

[Domiac]

Drill test holes inside down in the bilge area down low

May I ask your thinking logic here, what I am looking for with this? As there is no wood or other channel from the wetted area that would seem to allow water traversing all the way to the center of the boat, the bilge area?

The lifting strake area inside seems to be fiberglass inside in all its walls.

 

[alldodge]

The big IF. If its just in the channel then no harm, if its made it into the hull and the foam, then there is an issue. Water will work its way thru bottom pant, gelcoat and glass. Just should know if it did

 

[Domiac]

The big IF. If its just in the channel then no harm, if its made it into the hull and the foam, then there is an issue. Water will work its way thru bottom pant, gelcoat and glass. Just should know if it did

Thank you. Yes, best to inspect and find out how how local (or not) this issue is.

 

[Domiac]

Looks like the hull designers of Princess boats have done a decent job. Test drillings proved to be clean, fiberglass looks like new everywhere. Lifting strake was cut open and all urethane foam is now removed, there was a lot of it. This lifting strake was sectioned / contained which probably saved the hull, by this I mean this strake is not connected to boat "stringers". This separated strake is surrounded by 15mm fiberglass, so there is a double hull in a sense in this construction. In the strake, the lower part of foam was soggy and the lowest few millimeter part had some discoloration, a bit brownish urethane where elsewhere it is soliid yellow, upper part was not soggy but this probably has to be due to winterization (gravity without water pressure. I removed all of the urethane and the fiberglass looks like new everywhere. No discoloration, spots or stains or anything questionable, at least observable to the human eye. Note that some pics taken with extra light and some with ambient light, but the color and form of the fiberglass is identical everywhere, what do you guys think?

Please have a look at the pics, it feels dry already but will let it be open for a week and then I'll fill it with urethane and cut 20mm away so I can close it up with fiberglass etc.

Note some small stains of urethane still remains on the walls of the strake.

Many thanks!

 

[alldodge]

Looks good

 

[Domiac]

Looks good

Many thanks again for the time you took to inspect my post and photos, I appreciate it. A few people that work with boats had a look on this today and told me the same but forums and people like you, having that longer experience, are usually the best source.