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Here's a good article on rot, rot spores (Silentpardner) and treatment.
http://www.acbs-bslol.com/gadgets/d97woodrot.htm
I winter in Ft. Myers and summer in St. Joseph, Michigan. It’s now about 12 years since I’ve joined this group. I gave my 1972 whaler to my daughter and sold the 17’. Bought an O’Day 28 sailboat and sailed on Lake Michigan. Yesterday I bought a 2005 130 Sport.
Things may be looking up on the wet transom, all but the bilge thru hull opening appear to be quite dry now, after airing out for only 5 days. Hoping that the water concentrated around the failed sealing compound of the various thru hulls, and is isolated to these areas rather than the entire transom. I'm guessing that I wouldn't be able to confirm this without drilling more holes, which I don't plan on doing. The lowest bilge opening is still quite wet though..
One trick I've heard for getting some of the water out is to saturate the area with acetone. It readily mixes with the water and evaporates fast. I don't really know if it works but it sounds good and won't hurt anything.
Edited by wing15601 on 05/15/14 - 5:17 AM
I winter in Ft. Myers and summer in St. Joseph, Michigan. It’s now about 12 years since I’ve joined this group. I gave my 1972 whaler to my daughter and sold the 17’. Bought an O’Day 28 sailboat and sailed on Lake Michigan. Yesterday I bought a 2005 130 Sport.
If you have as much access to the boat's interior exposed as possible,(drain tubes removed, any open holes exposed, etc) I suggest placing the boat in some type of tent enclosure or a small garage or other enclosed space and running a dehumidifier for as long as it takes to dry things out. You would be amazed at the amount of moisture that can be removed in this manner.
"It's just a forty eight year old Whaler but it's all mine"
Joseph R Palmieri
Thanks for all of the suggestions, plan on giving all of them a try, boat is tarped on it's trailer right now, with a black poly tarp, which is keeping the temperatures elevated, may put the dehumidifier in it this weekend and see what happens. Built a new garage to handle projects like this... 45 foot deep bays, but didn't account for a Magic Tilt trailer that is 9' wide. Thank you everyone for all of your suggestions and feedback, feeling better about this boat/project now, 180 degrees from where I was when I pulled the thru hulls.
Tom Clark once mentioned the use of calcium chloride. Calcium chloride is used as a concrete accelerator removing moisture from the mix (pretty aggressive with concrete sometimes). Might be worth getting a bag and use with the dehumidifier.
Garris
I think it's an absolute truth in nature that water is king- there really is almost nothing that it can't permeate, given enough time. Fiberglass is conveniently light, strong and impervious to it in the short term [25-50 years]
I posted my thoughts and remedy about Montauk bilge drains a while back on the "other" BW site.
The brass tube system seems a little 'cave-man' and, from my pov, could be improved by installing a fiberglass tube, faired into the transom and bilge sump walls. I did this on my 1987 Custom 17 in the bilge and splash well drains too.
The only difficult part was to find an ID of f/glass tube that would accommodate a standard drain plug [7/8 to 1"]. I ended up using 1/8" wall tube that measured about 1" ID, and since it was faired in with Westsystem, the 1" id got reduced to fit a 1" plug perfectly.
The tube source was from a small company in Santa Ana, CA that makes fishing accessories: Pacific Marine Products.
In this case the company makes gaff handles from the 1" tubing.
It required an oversize drill thru of the original drain hole, then f/glass cloth wraps around the tubing ends to set it structurally into the transom and sump walls. The rest is just fairing w/thickened Westsystem, then sand and finish. By making this mod, I'll never have to think about that nifty brass tube design BW implemented way back when.
In my case, I intended to leave this hull in the Pacific and knew it wouldn't take long for the salt water and stray electric currents in the marina to waste those nifty brass tubes- maybe 6 mo's.
When I executed this modification, I had the great surprise of drilling into dry foam at the drains, even though the deck had at least 50 screw holes, both made by PO and BW when they first rigged this 1987 17' SuperSport. Add to this that the deck gelcoat was spider web cracked in several locations from standing water.
This hull must have been kept somewhere hot, inland in So Cal. for the foam to be so dry.
Eventhough I sanded, primed and Epoxy barrier coated the hulls' gelcoat before bottom paint, it wouldn't surprise me if the hull develops gelcoat blisters in less than ten years in the Pacific [if not, then BW laid up a great f/glass laminate schedule].
The good news is that I know how to fill, fair and recoat those issues when they develop in the future, since we all know water will always win- it's just a matter of time.
Joe
Boston Whaler, the unsinkable legend. These boats are legendary because most everyone thirty plus years in age remembers when Boston Whaler boats stood out from the rest. The chromed brass, polished stainless steel, teak and mahogany, all complimenting the beautiful tan gel coat. They also had as good or better and drier ride than other less attractive boats, and they are unsinkable. But the unsinkable part was an attribute that is also its Achilles heel. The sun and the rain would weather away and erode their ability to keep the elements from doing irreversible damage.
I believe Boston Whaler boats have to be taken care of with more regularity than with other brands because they don't take neglect very well. It's not just the softer gel coat and teak and mahogany, because of the foam filled construction, more care has to be taken to keep it all dry.
Not sure I agree 100%, but whether theyre higher maintenace depends on use and location too. For example- I'm sure my '87 Custom would have waaay smaller and less frequent maintenance on a trailer, but I'm willing to trade that for convenient of use- and I might pay again on resale. I accept subject to all that.
In retro, there may be better ways to execute bouyancy, lightweight, reasonable cost, but to date, few have put it all together and stayed in the biz.
I'm no marine engineer/architect, but seems like a void should have been designed along the keel to collect and drain incidental water, where no foam is installed; to offset that small amount of bouyancy, maybe the foam could have been relocated vertically along the length of gunnels.
In the case of a Montauk, that may have been near impossible, but having an actual narrow bilge could have also accomodated a 'chase' for either fuel line or mechanicals- but all that would have certainly increased build costs.
I like these early designs b/c theyre so unique for their time. No doubt they can be a PITA to maintain, but even the most new designs have big issues.
Hullinthewater, I agree. I just think that people, me included didn't know about how imperative it is in keeping the drain tubes maintained back then, not knowing the damage being done and the effect it would have on these wonderful classics.
