I used to attach a fishing line to a bolt and draw it up through the hole on which I could fit a grommet, washer and nut. To accomplish this you will have to lower a for instance 5 mm nail through the hole to about 1- 2 meters beneath the hull. Press a cork in the hole to stop the flooding and clamp the fishing line. Retrieve the nail and line with a boat hook or trawl for it.
Prepare a suitably sized bolt with a tapped hole at the thread’s end and insert a threaded pin with a ring at the top which must be fastened to the retrieved fishing line with a washer and grommet against the head of the bolt.
Drop the line and bolt and pull it up through the hole. The bolt will shoot into the hole with a clang and will probably be held in place by the hydrostatic water pressure. Remove the fishing line and ring insert and put on a grommet with washer, screw on a nut and tighten. Job done, leak fixed.
Good advice Dutchie.
My problem is that the hole is in the bilge, directly below a transverse frame, right in front of the engine.
The bottom planking is fitted directly to the underside of the frame and the leak is at the bottom of a drain hole through the frame; the drain hole is about 2" in diameter.
Access is extremely difficult as it is at arms length but can only get one hand down there and 3 fingers in the hole (snigger, snigger).
The keel is only about 2 feet off the bottom which is soft mud so don’t fancy crawling under there with a flooding boat on top of me! That also will prevent me from trying to fish around for a line with a boat hook.
Anything that I drop the hole will just get blown straight back in again.
I don’t want to apply to much pressure as, if it is a piece of caulking that has dropped out, I could make it worse.
I have all the stuff that I need to stop it, (bungs, wet use seam sealer etc), just can’t get it in the hole (snigger etc.).
Hoping to get a diver in next week to have a go from the outside, once we have pulled the boat into slightly deeper water.
Yes, I am getting the picture, that is an unlucky location for a leak to develop! The services of a diver is then indeed the best solution to solve the problem.
Another possibility is, if it is a boat with a mast which it is probably not, to pull the ship over until the leak is above water. Already centuries ago they used this method on the big spice runners, for instance if they had hit the rocks in these unknown and uncharted waters.
Nope… Beautiful spacious ship! The word is careening, that’s the word I was looking for, lost it over time. In Dutch it is ‘krengen’ and by the looks of it these words had the same origin: k(a)re(e)ning.
It originally stems from the French “cariner”, literally "to expose a ship’s keel, in Latin carena is the keel of a ship.
Built in 1962 by Broom in Norfolk (UK) as part of a fleet of 8 berth hire cruisers.
Single engine and screw, none of those fancy bowthruster thingies so handling when it is windy is entertaining to say the least.
There are still 3 or possibly 4 left around so they were well built, apart from the odd perforation to the hull here and there.
Another stop-gap (best term or pun?) sailor’s trick is to drag a sail under the hull with lines to cover the affected area. You could do something similar with an old pair of foulies. It’s best done with multiple lines and some assistance to keep the fabric spread flat as possible until the point of ingress is covered. Try to keep it off-plane on the way to deeper and cleaner water for diving:
Nope, that was rot; cost a bleeding fortune to get it fixed!
Capndirk; ‘off the plane’, that’s a good one.
2.5 litre, 4 pot BMC diesel, maybe 40 hp. max chat is about 7 knots downhill.
The hole is directly below the chromed coolant pipes, right in the bilge.
I’d thought of dragging something under the hull but helping hands are in short supply most of the time.
I’m going back to check it on Tuesday and then off to work for a 2 weeks after that; 3 auto bilge pumps should take care of it.
Not sure if you’re inland or on the coast. But if the latter consider running aground mid tide. You may be able to stick a balloon in the whole and then inject epoxy or some other quick setting compound into the balloon. You’d need to set it up so as to be able to force the material into the whole vs forcing the balloon back out. The balloon would need to be compatible with the epoxy.
Thanks Barry.
Non-tidal waters plus running aground kind of goes against the grain.
Especially the wood grain as it will probably cause more damage.
I’m arranging for a diver next time that I am home to bung it up from underneath and then I’ll whack some Davis Slick Seam Compound in from the top once the water flow has stopped.
I have used the stuff before and it is the dog’s danglies, does a good job but stays flexible so won’t crack.
Then it is down to the boatyard in August as none of the local lot will touch a wooden boat.
Beautiful spacious ship! The word is careening, that’s the word I was looking for, lost it over time. In Dutch it is ‘krengen’ and by the looks of it these words had the same origin: k(a)re(e)ning.
