Water under cockpit floor

So if the drain needs a 1 1/8" hole, start with one size bigger bit, just to cut through the gelcoat, and then drill the hole with the 1 1/8”?

Cover the area with masking tape first.

If it's not cored, do I need to use epoxy or sealant to protect the inside of the hole?
 
curioustraveler":1mmtvxb5 said:
So if the drain needs a 1 1/8" hole, start with one size bigger bit, just to cut through the gelcoat, and then drill the hole with the 1 1/8”?

Cover the area with masking tape first.

If it's not cored, do I need to use epoxy or sealant to protect the inside of the hole?
Click to expand...

I use a hole saw the correct size (I suppose you could use a 1/2" drill and then step drill to 1 1/8"...If you need a little more room, then a drum sander on the Dremel tool will remove the very small @ of material. However most hole saws actually are slightly bigger than the bit size. I always run the hole saw backward until it scores the gelcoat, then forward, slowly..

No epoxy seal necessary if cutting into solid glass. Theoretically it would be nice to put some undiluted epoxy around the cut, but unless I am doing some core project, and will be mixing epoxy, I don't seal uncared glass.
 
The 1 1/8" hole saw worked great. I drilled the hole 6" off center. Glad I did. When I felt around inside the hole, towards mid-line, I felt some thicker layers of glass like I might have been right at the edge of where glass was building up to where a stringer was laid. Pictures in my album.

There's definitely water in there but it's not up to the bottom of my hole opening so it didn't drain out. My shop vac wouldn't run off my cigarette lighter inverter so I have to jury-rig a hand pump to suck the water out. Hopefully once it's out, I can close the drain and won't have to access it anymore.

Thanks for all the advise.
 
curioustraveler":2bt162cl said:
The 1 1/8" hole saw worked great. I drilled the hole 6" off center. Glad I did. When I felt around inside the hole, towards mid-line, I felt some thicker layers of glass like I might have been right at the edge of where glass was building up to where a stringer was laid. Pictures in my album.
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Click to expand...

This suggests that you might need to put another drain offset to the other side to get on the other side of the center stringer (if it divides the underfloor area in two).

You could also try elevating the front of the boat (jacking or propping the front of the trailer up).
 
If there is a stringer, it must not divide the area in 2 because hearing the water flow from one side to the other is what tipped me off that there was water in there. We're planning on taking her up to Annapolis for breakfast tomorrow so I'll plow with the bow up high for a bit to see how much of the water drains out.
 
Enjoyed a nice afternoon out on Curious Traveler today. Getting the bow up definitely drained most of the water out from under the floor. I still plan to rig a pump to make sure I suck it all out but so far the drain seems to be working.
 
On my 2006 I found the same thing. Under the porta-potty was a plastic cap which, when removed, let me see and touch water!

I adapted a router guide to let me use the hole from the plactic cap as a center and rout a circle in the floor there, to fit a 6 inch inspection port (they're common on sailboats and are well sealed when closed). There are photos of this on the Pangur Ban photo page. Once the hole was routed there was some wet foam to remove.

After installing the port, just to get it dry for sure, I set a 6 inch duct fan (Home Depot) in the open port and left it on (with 120 volt extension cord) a long time to dry the under-floor area completely. Now I can check it when I like.

A good boat cover has done a better job than my old tarps keeping the boat dry during the winter season. I seldom find mousture under the floor now. But you're right, the joint where the cabin meets the cockpit floor shows cracks. Also, the joint where the rear cockpit floor folds down to the hull liner (just in front of the gas tanks) is cracked the same way, and may be the worse problem.

Richard
 
Glad you're making progress and congrats on your good drain idea. Here's an extra thing to check: When installing my inspection port under the porta-potty it rained, and suddenly there were active leaks under the fittings for the factory's front rails and bow cleat, and also around portlights, windlass and antenna cable added by the previous owner. Clearly they'd been leaking rainwater for a while. Removing and re-bedding all those fittings (mostly with butyl tape sealant) was a (sort of) fun project and fixed the leaks. With that and a good boat cover (try Empire Covers), the under-floor area has stayed dry. So take a good look for leaks ... the water may be coming from above, not below!

In fact I discovered wet core around several of the fittings, which gave me another opportunity to excel....

Finally, to answer your question about installing things in anti-skid, it's safe and easy to grind down the anti-skid nubs with a Dremel until you have a flat surface exactly where you need it, then install bedding and the item itself.
 
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