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I’m in the process of getting used to my new W World, which is currently sitting on her mooring. I’m wondering if its just a feature of the design but she invariably heels to one side once there is any rainwater inside. Perhaps this is due to the raised floor level? It doesn’t look ‘right’. I also wonder if it looks particularly bad when the boat is full of snow which does not get the chance to drain out of the scuppers in the transom.
Is this normal World behaviour?I heard a story about a guy that just drilled a few holes in the bottom to let the water out.
No water, no list some sayThat would have been me, and drilled at the deepest spots so every last drop drains from the boat.
That and a set of Andersen Supermaxes.Well after a few months of inactivity I’ve put the World back out on a mooring. I think the heeling problem stemmed from a slow leak into the underfloor buoyancy compartment- almost certainly resulting from damage around the self-bailers where the two hull mouldings (inner and outer) join together. I’ve used liberal quantities of sikaflex to try and seal up the area but am not going to presume this is going to work. It is hard to see how I can do a really effective repair short of glassing over the whole area and going without self-bailers at all (the resulting hull thickness would be too great for bailers to fit properly).
So I am now considering the somewhat drastic step of an inspection hatch in the floor, probably to one side of the centreboard casing. This would allow me to pump out water from the lowest part of the boat, and might even allow sufficient access to the damaged area to effect a better repair.
Are there any stiffeners or stringers under the floor that I should know about? Has anybody else put in a hatch in this area?Thanks
So far I haven’t been able to identify the source of the leak, although due to the nature of the damage around the self bailers I doubt I can ever totally stop that leak. It is possible the keelstrap screws are also leaking- how would I go about fixing that? Just re-bed them with sikaflex?
I am very tempted to put an inspection hatch in the floor. At the moment I have only one access point (the hatch on the inner face of the transom) to the entire buoyancy compartment, so pumping water out of it, or even assessing how much is in there, is very difficult.
Had a look at the boat today (she’s been on a mooring for a couple of weeks). No trace of water in the forward buoyancy compartment, but a fair bit in the main section. So I doubt the keelstrap screws are the problem as presumably they would leak all along the length of the boat?
No takers on the idea of a hatch in the floor? I envisage something like a 4″ inspection hatch set underneath the thwart, port side. This should be close enough to the lowest part of the boat to allow me to pump her dry; it also seems like quite a protected spot that is less likely to be stood on. I am also somewhat hopeful of being able to effect a repair on the damaged part of the hull once I have this access point.Your assumption that they would leak all along the band is flawed as it only takes 1 or 2 to let in water, just a thought. 💡
Hoggy.
Good point! However I am certain that there is water leaking in at the self-bailers, so if it is coming in somewhere else it doesn’t make much of a difference.
To repair a leak from the screws, do I just need to flip the boat and put some blobs of sikaflex over the screw-heads?I would remove each screw, sikaflex in the hole and and put the screw back in. There should be enough sikaflex so that some oozes out all around the screw – as the screw beds down.
The screw will probably go in quite easily – and be careful not to apply excessive force and the grp is fragile.If the grp is very fragile you may want to use epoxy filler first – and try to beef up the area that the screw goes into. In which case it will have to be re-drilled once set.
Repairing the bailers is fairly easy – but you may find it difficult to remove the old bailer without damaging it beyond reuse.
Clear out as much of the old filler between the inner and out hulls as possible and then apply new.hope that helps
Ref your idea of a hatch in the floor, do not assume that the so-called water-tight hatches are in fact, water-tight. I fitted a new SeaSure one in the forward bulkhead and it failed the air-pressure test, smoke leaked out all around the seal. Only copious amounts of vaseline has sealed it to my satisfaction. Also be aware that cutting a hole may weaken the floor.
Bob- thanks for the advice, next time I have the chance to turn the boat over I will do this.
The damaged area is not the actual bailers themselves- I fitted those brand new last year. It is the hull around where the bailers are. The inner and outer mouldings come together at this part of the hull, and there has been some sort of impact damage at this point in the past. The damage was sufficient that the bolt holes for the bailers were cracked and if the bolts were tightened up the heads would just sink into the hull. I have had to fit the new bailers using big washers and pan-head bolts which will not do my racing chances any good! This is all a little hard to explain.Mike- thansk for that…. I do also have misgivings about cutting a hole in the floor in case the floor turns out to flex too much for the hatch to be able to work properly. Perhaps I could just install a little bung and bail using a pump with a thin tube attached, allowing me to reach the lowest point of the buoyancy compartment. But this will not help me fix the problem, which I think I can only do with some sort of access to the inside of the compartment.
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