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This Monday we finally hauled Windsong out of the water to begin the long rebuild/refit! One thing that I have been trying to figure out is how to keep water out of the bilge while on the hard. I've read here and there that you can just drill a hole in the bottom of the bilge to drain the water, then epoxy it closed when ready to splash again. Has anyone tried this or another method on a DE 38? Where on the keel would I drill and how big of a hole?
Here are photos of the haul out and all the fun stuff I discovered on the bottom: http://picasaweb.google.com/EV.....kg7aHpAE
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Sorry to see that Windsong has to pox, or are those just paint blisters. Either way it looks like you've got your work cut out for you. Drilling a hole to drain the bilge is an interesting idea. I suppose you'd want to measure inside the boat from some thru hull reference point like the raw water intake to the bottom of the bilge and then go out side and measure that same distance and drill. If you're going to be grinding and filling a bunch of blisters, then one more hole isn't too big a deal huh? Still I'd be very carful filling that hole when you're done. You'd want at least a couple of coats of new glass over the top to keep you plug/epoxy in place.
As an alternate solution when I left Bodhran down in Mexico in an area subjust to hurricanes and torrential rain, I just pulled my knotmeter transducer. The bilge would still fill up most of the way, but the transducer hole would prevent any of the vital areas from being flooded. Of corse you've got to put bronze wool or rolled up scotch brite pads in the hole to keep the bugs from coming in. I'm leaving my boat here in Fiji in a couple of days. I'm leaving one solar panel attached to the batteries to run the bilge pump and expect everything to be fine, but it's the beginning of the dry season here so it shouldn't be a problem.
Jason
DE32 Bodhran
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Not pox thank goodness. I had anticipated on a boat full of blisters based on what I felt while diving down. But its all just paint blisters, and what you see is most of them popped after the pressure wash. After I began to scrape yesterday I found that they didn't go any deeper than the paint. There are a few blisters for sure, but all of that crap you see is just chipped paint.
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