Best Insulation for Bow Thuster Compartment.

[cuthound]

Every year I remove 10-15 litres of water from my bow thruster compartment, which lies directly under the well deck locker, between the gas locker and water tank.

 

I'm sure it comes from condensation because the underside of the deck and hexaboard cover are dripping wet.

 

See attached photos.

 

I intend to Vactan the bottom of the locker and put another coat or two of Danboline Bilge Paint inside the compartment.

 

However a long term solution would be to insulate the compartment, bow thruster tube and associated weed hatch.

 

I am thinking of the silver foil bubble wrap or possibly pieces of gym mat cut to size.

 

What does the team think will be the easiest to fit and most cost effective insulation

 

 

Edited July 7, 2019 by cuthound
To change "trustee back to wot I wrote and checked, "thruster"

[MHS]

I’m very interested also to hear people’s thoughts. We have the same issue and before someone says “it’s probably the tube leaking” the water drips onto the top of items stored on top of the thruster tube. 

[cuthound]

Blimey, still no responses. Looks like I've  got the forum stumped. ?

[Tumshie]

1 minute ago, cuthound said:

Blimey, still no responses. Looks like I've  got the forum stumped. ?

It seems like that best minds of the GSD community are on the job so so long as nobody throws a tennis ball....... ooh ball........

[Clodi]

Years ago I stuck gym-mats onto the sides of a bow locker in a steel De-Groot 45 motor cruiser which suffered similar damp problems. It was an oldish boat then, long before bow-thrusters had made their way into the leisure market. I assumed damp was a mixture of condensation and the usual damp on uninsulated steel

I stuck the mats on with the black undercoat stuff we used to plaster underneath cars & at a chance meeting with the present owner I was amazed to hear the locker is still dry and the mats are still in situ, not bad for a bodge job really.  

[Dave 2]

The builders used spray-foam in my bow locker before they fitted the bow thrusters, I’ve never had a problem with condensation.

[mrsmelly]

1 hour ago, cuthound said:

Blimey, still no responses. Looks like I've  got the forum stumped. ?

Cut the tube out with a gas axe and replate nice and flat and install further water tank. That way some use would be made of the space.

[cuthound]

41 minutes ago, Clodi said:

Years ago I stuck gym-mats onto the sides of a bow locker in a steel De-Groot 45 motor cruiser which suffered similar damp problems. It was an oldish boat then, long before bow-thrusters had made their way into the leisure market. I assumed damp was a mixture of condensation and the usual damp on uninsulated steel

I stuck the mats on with the black undercoat stuff we used to plaster underneath cars & at a chance meeting with the present owner I was amazed to hear the locker is still dry and the mats are still in situ, not bad for a bodge job really.  

 

Looks like I'll have to spend the summer hanging upside down, bat like, in the bow thruster compartment, rustproofing, painting, cutting and sticking.

 

I'm really looking forward to it, honest. ?

 

 

3 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Cut the tube out with a gas axe and replate nice and flat and install further water tank. That way some use would be made of the space.

 

That might be a possibility, the bow thruster hasn't worked for a couple of years, and having been boating for 46 years I have learnt how to steer. However it does come in useful for tricky reverses.

Edited July 8, 2019 by cuthound

[ditchcrawler]

I have the same problem under the stern deck above the weedhatch, the lid of the weed hatch is often running wet in the winter

[blackrose]

I insulated my bow thruster tunnel with fire rated spray foam from cans. The rest was already insulated. You've just got to make sure you don't get any over the motor, cables, etc so wrap them up first. If the area is already damp it will help the spray foam to stick. For the underside of horizonal surfaces you're going to have to support a piece of plywood or something else just underneath and spray into the gap otherwise the foam will just fall off and make a mess. Either that or just stick a piece of cellotex or kingspan onto any flat surfaces with foam from a can. Apply the foam carefully and not too much as it expands more than you think. To prevent foam sickling and make it easy to remove from areas you don't want it, smear with Vaseline first. Don't try to remove uncured foam, let it fully cure and cut it away.

Edited July 8, 2019 by blackrose

[Machpoint005]

1 hour ago, cuthound said:

Looks like I'll have to spend the summer hanging upside down, bat like, in the bow thruster compartment, rustproofing, painting, cutting and sticking

 

How's your echolocation?

[Detling]

My compartments bone dry, it does have a bolt down watertight top in the well deck though.

[ditchcrawler]

6 hours ago, Detling said:

My compartments bone dry, it does have a bolt down watertight top in the well deck though.

Mine is not leakage, it rains from under the stern deck in some weather conditions, even if its not raining outside

[cuthound]

21 hours ago, blackrose said:

I insulated my bow thruster tunnel with fire rated spray foam from cans. The rest was already insulated. You've just got to make sure you don't get any over the motor, cables, etc so wrap them up first. If the area is already damp it will help the spray foam to stick. For the underside of horizonal surfaces you're going to have to support a piece of plywood or something else just underneath and spray into the gap otherwise the foam will just fall off and make a mess. Either that or just stick a piece of cellotex or kingspan onto any flat surfaces with foam from a can. Apply the foam carefully and not too much as it expands more than you think. To prevent foam sickling and make it easy to remove from areas you don't want it, smear with Vaseline first. Don't try to remove uncured foam, let it fully cure and cut it away.

 

Tried to put a piece of Celotex down there. The is very little free space, what with the BT tube, battery box and the hull curving in, so need something more flexible.

 

 

[David Mack]

You need to stop moist air getting to the cold steel surfaces. So any permeable insulation (rockwool, fibreglass) will be pretty ineffctive. Likewise loose slabs of insulation board unless all the joints are tight and either filled with spray foam or taped over with auminised tape. Given the curves and limited access sprayfoam sounds best to me.

[cuthound]

8 hours ago, David Mack said:

You need to stop moist air getting to the cold steel surfaces. So any permeable insulation (rockwool, fibreglass) will be pretty ineffctive. Likewise loose slabs of insulation board unless all the joints are tight and either filled with spray foam or taped over with auminised tape. Given the curves and limited access sprayfoam sounds best to me.

 

It is not possible to prevent moist air getting into the BT compartment. It contains the BT batteries and is thus ventilated to comply with the BSS (and common sense given that batteries evolve hydrogen and there is an electric motor controlled by contractors in there!) ?

[David Mack]

Exactly. So you need to stop that moist air getting to the cold metal surfaces.

[blackrose]

On 09/07/2019 at 18:38, cuthound said:

 

Tried to put a piece of Celotex down there. The is very little free space, what with the BT tube, battery box and the hull curving in, so need something more flexible.

 

 

 

Well sprayfoam from a can is quite flexible!

[cuthound]

6 hours ago, blackrose said:

 

Well sprayfoam from a can is quite flexible!

 

Potentially messy too!

 

Woke up this morning and remembered I'd used a product called "Armaflex" on a chilled water project back in 1985. And cheap too unless there is a minimum order.

 

Still available and comes as sheet and preformed pipe sizes.

 

https://www.pipelagging.com/pipe-insulation/sheet-insulation/armaflex-sheet-insulation

 

I'll investigate further.

 

Edited July 11, 2019 by cuthound
Spillung

[Clodi]

1 hour ago, cuthound said:

 

Woke up this morning and remembered I'd used a product called "Armaflex"

Brilliant, I have been trying to remember that product for ages, we used it when converting buses, great stuff?

[Mad Harold]

On 08/07/2019 at 21:09, blackrose said:

For the underside of horizontal surfaces etc.

 How do you prevent the foam sticking to the piece of ply used to spray the underside of a horizontal surface?

[WotEver]

3 hours ago, Mad Harold said:

 How do you prevent the foam sticking to the piece of ply used to spray the underside of a horizontal surface?

Cover it with cling film?

[ditchcrawler]

When my boat was spray foamed they masked the batons with that shiny grey parcel tape

[blackrose]

9 hours ago, Mad Harold said:

 How do you prevent the foam sticking to the piece of ply used to spray the underside of a horizontal surface?

Smear it with Vaseline. I think I mentioned that in my post

[blackrose]

9 hours ago, WotEver said:

Cover it with cling film?

That would work too.