Leaking garboards

[Andreas Wiese]

It has been a while since I last visited the forum....but now it seems that I am in dire need of some advice before my holiday turns into a bilge-pumping nightmare!

My 1935 carvel pitch pine on oak sailboat is leaking in the seam between the oak keel and the bottom planks (8 weeks on the water since spring launch). I have to sail her round Norway's southern coast from Oslo to Bergen to her new berth before I can get her on dry land again so the question is: Is there a temporary fix to this problem while she's in the water? Will releasing fine sawdust under her keel be sufficient?

Thanks,

Andreas

[Donn]

Andreas, the sawdust fix worked for me. I picked up a crab pot on my starboard wheel a few years back, and developed a small leak at the shaft strut. I inverted two coffee cans of sawdust under the offending spot, and the fix worked for 2 years, until my next haul.

[Victor]

Wow Donn, that's incredible! Sounds like something Jack Aubrey would do. But would you sail around Norway with this fix?

[Donn]

"This fix" was on a power boat, not a sailboat. I take more water over the transom in following seas than the leak provided, but I have 3 big bilge pumps aboard, so yes, I'd take the cruise from Oslo to Bergen. I put more hours on the boat during the two years in question, than it would take me to make the cruise.

I looked at the route, and it looks like a gorgeous cruise, scenery-wise. All those fjords would be mighty tempting.

[Paul Scheuer]

Andreas: Can you tell if it is a local leak, or the full length of the seam ? If it's local, you could add some internal structure to contain it, until you do a proper repair. Sort of like a fish well.

An expanded damage control plan might also be in order, extra pumps, etc. I recall a kind of fabric patch that could be rigged overboard to cover the area of a pierced hull. I know it has a specific name, but it doesn't come to mind at the moment.

[Andreas Wiese]

Sorry I didn't check in before - busy schedule, am bringing in stockfish in the north of Norway at the moment.

Sawdust is on my list, but I should probably install a more capable bilge pump than the one currently in the bilges just in case...or a bucket maybe?

Paul, since it is a local leak I am curious about how I could create an "internal containment well", it being so moist and all. Epoxy perhaps?

As for the cruise I can heartily recommend it to anyone visiting Norway with a yacht - excellent sailing in sheltered archipelagic coastline most of the way + wonderful scenery of course. A bit like New England I'd imagine.

Thanks again,

Andreas

[Dave Fleming]

Another 'guick and dirty' fix is to, get a piece of lead or copper sheet and smear 'bear ****e' on the seam and tack the sheet metal over the seam.
Starting at top edge and 'rolling the sheet metal' into the leaking seam' bedding it well in the 'bear ****e' and then tack the ends, fore and aft and bottom edge.

Risky lad risky. A 70 year old sailing vessel with leaky garboards on a leeshore and weak bilge pump/s?

Who knows what other seams are working too?

[paul oman]

there are a number of underwater epoxies and epoxy pastes you might try. I can personnally say they've saved a few boats from sinking!

Pls contact me directlyl if you want specifics. p.oman@iix.netcom.com

paul oman

[Andreas Wiese]

I have actually caulked all the seams but this one (it looked fine...), so I'm not too worried about them...yet. I freely admit to being an amateur caulker so I am bringing with me a strong friend, rather than my pregnant wife, to man the two manual pumps just in case!

Underwater epoxies sounds interesting, but will they be flexible enough so as not to damage the planking??

Andreas

[boatlover]

Has anyone heard from Andreas since June ?

Regards,

Ed R