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Bow Thruster Tunnel Leak - Repairs Macclesfield Canal Area


Troyg

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1 minute ago, IanD said:

That foam really needs something to confine it when it expands, the leak hole will be too small to inject it though and if you just squirt it into the open tunnel it'll probably expand out of the open end. Might work, or it might look like it has and still leak...

Rubbish, if injected into the middle of the tube through a hole big enough to fit the plastic tube into, even with water pouring out it will expand where it is injected and expand outwards to the tube ends.

This stuff expands under water to 40 times its can volume.

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1 minute ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Rubbish, if injected into the middle of the tube through a hole big enough to fit the plastic tube into, even with water pouring out it will expand where it is injected and expand outwards to the tube ends.

This stuff expands under water to 40 times its can volume.

I tried it three times and it leaked every time. Is your experience different?

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I've got pretty good access to my bowthruster tube. I think I'd have some large jubilee clips in place around the tube and some sort of flexible plate, or firm plastic, of about 10 square inches and a big tube of grease. Or butyl. 

 

 

 

Edited by Higgs
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5 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Wheel barrow tyres.

A sinking Springer.

Raising sunken boats, fill every gap and hole whilst pumping out.

Blocking the core of a wrecked radiator on a rally car.

 

Any more?

How about drain bungs if you can get the guards off?

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5 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Wheel barrow tyres.

A sinking Springer.

Raising sunken boats, fill every gap and hole whilst pumping out.

Blocking the core of a wrecked radiator on a rally car.

 

Any more?

Nope. Just wanted to check you'd used it, not just read the back of the tube ?

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10 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Good idea, lateral thinking is wonderful.

Its the swimming around getting those guards off. On mine one side was welded and the other bolted, now both sides are easily removable if you are in a dry dock, I wouldn't want to try it in the cut especially this time of the year. However being removable makes sure it gets well blacked

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36 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Its the swimming around getting those guards off. On mine one side was welded and the other bolted, now both sides are easily removable if you are in a dry dock, I wouldn't want to try it in the cut especially this time of the year. However being removable makes sure it gets well blacked

Mine (if I had one, which I obviously wouldn't admit to on here) doesn't have any guards, which makes blacking inside pretty straightforward. I use one of those long handled angled window brushes.

 

I've never had any issue from having no guards, so I'm not sure whether any advantage they do bring isn't outweighed be ease of access and improved flow. Mind you, the "girly button" gets pressed as part of pre sailing checks, but not a lot otherwise.

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4 hours ago, Higgs said:

 

I've got pretty good access to my bowthruster tube. I think I'd have some large jubilee clips in place around the tube and some sort of flexible plate, or firm plastic, of about 10 square inches and a big tube of grease. Or butyl. 

 

 

 

I think I'd do the same thing but with a load of Stixall. I fixed a leak in a steel dinghy which had rusted though once using a small piece of carpet covered with Sikaflex backed with a small piece of ply which was wedged into place. It worked fine.

 

Edit: that was fixed with the dinghy in the water while water was still coming in. Sikaflex, Marineflex and Stixall go off underwater.

Edited by blackrose
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14 minutes ago, blackrose said:

I think I'd do the same thing but with a load of Stixall. I fixed a leak in a steel dinghy which had rusted though once using a small piece of carpet covered with Sikaflex backed with a small piece of ply which was wedged into place. It worked fine.

I fixed a rotted-through passenger footwell in a Vauxhall Chevette (our first car) with plywood, screws and underseal, 'cos I didn't have any welding gear. Still there when the car was scrapped by a friend of my BIL many years later...

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Thanks for your comments so far everyone. Interesting points about Kerridge, Bollington and Bullshead. I will certainly follow those up. I don’t recall a slipway or dry dock at Bollington though?

The hull is a Liverpool boats build around 2002. As people have mentioned here the tube is thinner material than the hull. Unfortunately before I got the boat it had been neglected and obviously not blacked frequently. I have since blasted amd applied Jotun 2 pack a couple of years back. I got inside the tunnel with a brush on a broom handle to get as much blacking in as I could but could already see evidence of pitting so I am certain that is the cause for this issue now. The hole has appeared a few inches away from the propeller so this confirms that the pitting is most likely caused by aeration etc. of the thruster. 

While I could survive ok without the thruster, it would be a shame to lose it as most of the time I am on my own cruising and it’s nice to have that little extra help when needed in those wet and windy winter days! My thought is if I have to get the boat out of the water to seal the ends I might as well go the extra and change the tube if time allows. It will also help the resale value of the boat in the future. 

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2 thoughts on this

If you renew the tube I believe Vetus may use a non standard size tube and you may need to buy the replacement from them.

Could you access the outside of the tube sufficient to clean it down and encase in fibre glass rein/epoxy effectively creating a new tube on the outside of the old one?

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14 minutes ago, Phoenix_V said:

2 thoughts on this

If you renew the tube I believe Vetus may use a non standard size tube and you may need to buy the replacement from them.

 

I might be wrong but I didn't think Vetus supplied steel BT tunnels? I thought it was just GRP.

Edited by blackrose
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14 minutes ago, Phoenix_V said:

 

Could you access the outside of the tube sufficient to clean it down and encase in fibre glass rein/epoxy effectively creating a new tube on the outside of the old one?

 

I think that might be a waste of time if water is coming through. Or did you mean as a permanent repair? I wouldn't be happy with that either.

 

How about wrapping the tunnel with self-amalgamating tape! ?

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