Posted by fitz73222 on 08/22/16 - 2:22 AM
#9
chawk25 wrote:
Are you saying that once BW gets saturated with water there is no way to dry it out? Did anybody else had that problem and how did you deal with it? You would think that putting some sort of hole, opening, drain plug in the bottom and keeping the boat in dry shelter would solve the problem???
Hey chawk25,
This problem is not unique to Boston Whalers by any means, but what is unique is that the foam is a structural component to the hull strength hence the unibond design so cutting out the floor, removing the foam and refoaming is not going to work. How much water is in the foam? When I bought my 1968 13 to restore, my first concern was the hull weight since mine had all the classic signs that the foam could be wet but to my delight was dry as a bone. I borrowed a scale from work for weighing machinery, picked up the hull with an engine hoist connected to the scale and she came in at 280# without any interior which is where it should be. So weigh the hull first. Verify from the Whaler specs for your model and see what she weighs. If she's heavy, look at drawing 15013300 which is the wood locating diagram and look at the transom end view that provides the sectional view of the foam and transom wood configuration. Now this is what I was going to do if my hull foam was wet; above the hull bottom and below the floor I was going to drill a 1" diameter hole above the strakes on each side of the transom wood trapezoid, jack the bow up high or stand the hull up transom down of course and let gravity drain the foam over some period of time. I also considered drilling a 1" hole up in the original fill port where the foam was injected originally to allow air to enter as the foam drains. The holes can easily be filled and reglassed after the hull is drained. This process to me was the least invasive way to dry the hull out, it's just an idea that made the most sense that I was going to do if I had to.