10 year old Evans boat pitting

[moggyjo]

One of my neighbours has just taken his boat to boatyard, they pressure washed it, then said it was badly pitted both sides below the water line but didn't think it needed over plating, mainly because of the age of the boat. He has been in touch with a surveyor on the phone, he said, he didn't think there would be any need for a survey, again because of the age.

Now his boat has been sat on the mooring for 10 years only moving about 3 times (to turn round) and once 6 years ago to get boat out of the water.

Is it right that the electrolisis his hull has suffered has nothing to do with the 7KVA generator he runs from the land (in a shed) daily and 2000watt inverter? I was always led to believe that this would effect the hull also the fact of it being constantly static would not help.

The surveyor did say that he would go and have a look at it today and see if he thought it needed a survey doing.

 

This thing about the boat not needing a survey because it is only 10 years old and the fact it is 10/6/4 I find a bit strange. In the past a surveyor told me of a boat needed replating when it was only just over a year old.

[LEO]

Hi,

 

 

How long is the boat, did it have anodes fitted, and any boats around it fitted with mains electric?.

 

Albi

[moggyjo]

Hi,

 

 

How long is the boat, did it have anodes fitted, and any boats around it fitted with mains electric?.

 

Albi

Hi Albi,

 

The boat is 62ft. It did have anodes fitted either 6 or more than likely 10 years ago, they have worn down to just the metal strip, how long ago they wore out god knows, No just a BT line

 

Wendy

[smileypete]

Hi,

 

Is it normally moored in a marina/basin, on the cut or on a river?

 

Also do you know if the pitting was mostly near the waterline or all over the sides?

 

And were the pits 'open' or covered by rust?

 

cheers,

Pete.

Edited July 25, 2008 by smileypete

[moggyjo]

Hi,

 

Is it normally moored in a marina/basin, on the cut or on a river?

 

Also do you know if the pitting was mostly near the waterline or all over the sides?

 

And were the pits 'open' or covered by rust?

 

cheers,

Pete.

Hello Pete, on line piled mooring on Canal, It is on the waterline and below, when the boat was in the water, you could see lots of bright orange splodges just below the waterline.

Wendy

Edited July 25, 2008 by moggyjo

[LEO]

Hi,

 

Sounds like lack of maintenance to me, I re-black every 2 years or 3 at the most. Check anodes and add to or re-new as necessary.

 

Galvanised steel cold water tanks used to rust just the same (on boats or in houses) unles they were painted.

 

ALBI

Edited July 25, 2008 by LEO

[smileypete]

Hello Pete, on line piled mooring on Canal, It is on the waterline and below, when the boat was in the water, you could see lots of bright orange splodges just below the waterline.

 

runs outside to check for bright orange splodges....

 

Sounds like oxygen is playing a big part if the rust is bright orange and near the waterline.

 

The only way it could be the generator is if: the earth conductor in the cable is connected to the hull via something at the boat end, and to the ground via something at the generator end.

 

Coating the hull around the waterline with coal tar epoxy or zinc epoxy should help stop pitting there. Bitumen based blacking can get softened if there is any oil on the surface of the water.

 

Also anodes can be hung in the water on wire rope as long as the rope is electrically connected at the anode at one end and to the boat at the other end.

 

 

By the way is your alternator starting OK now or does it still need 'flashing'?

 

If so you could try getting a 5 watt 12 volt lamp and connecting it across the alternator warning light on the instrument panel.

 

No guarantees it would fix the problem at all, but it might be worth a try.

 

 

Edit:

 

If you still need to 'flash' from B+ to D to get the alternator started, try flashing it with a 12V 20W lamp on a lead.

 

If that works OK try a 10W or a 5W lamp.

 

If a 5W lamp works OK just connect it permanently across the alternator warning light.

 

cheers,

Pete.

Edited July 26, 2008 by smileypete

[alan_fincher]

We have a 13 year old Evans & Son boat, and a survey 3 years ago showed the hull to be in excellent condition.

 

However we have seen a near identical Evans and Son boat of similar age being overplated because of bad wastage.

 

Fairly obviously both started life similarly, andwith similar quality steel, I'd assume.

 

This really is a question of how well looked after, I feel.

 

So just because something is 10/6/4 and 10-ish years old, don't assume it should not be surveyed.

[blackrose]

One of my neighbours has just taken his boat to boatyard, they pressure washed it, then said it was badly pitted both sides below the water line but didn't think it needed over plating, mainly because of the age of the boat. He has been in touch with a surveyor on the phone, he said, he didn't think there would be any need for a survey, again because of the age.

Now his boat has been sat on the mooring for 10 years only moving about 3 times (to turn round) and once 6 years ago to get boat out of the water.

Is it right that the electrolisis his hull has suffered has nothing to do with the 7KVA generator he runs from the land (in a shed) daily and 2000watt inverter? I was always led to believe that this would effect the hull also the fact of it being constantly static would not help.

The surveyor did say that he would go and have a look at it today and see if he thought it needed a survey doing.

 

This thing about the boat not needing a survey because it is only 10 years old and the fact it is 10/6/4 I find a bit strange. In the past a surveyor told me of a boat needed replating when it was only just over a year old.

 

When you talk about whether a boat needs a survey or not, you have to be a bit more specific about the reasons for a survey. Is it being sold? I'm sure any prospective owner would want to commission a survey. Are you talking about the need for a survey for insurance purposes? Or are you just asking if the current owner needs to commission a survey to ascertain how deep the pitting is for their own peace of mind?

 

If it's the latter I wouldn't bother - it's a bit of a waste of money. The owner can estimate the depth of the pits fairly easily by themselves and subtract that figure from the original steel thickness. Instead of overplating, the pits can be filled with weld and ground flat - or someone on the forum the other day proposed filling pits with some sort of epoxy which I'd never heard of before. Not sure if that would work?

 

Anyway, despite never moving, in future the owner needs to pay a bit more attention to the hull and get it out the water every few years if they want it to last.

Edited July 26, 2008 by blackrose

[GSer]

Worth noting that if the pitting is treated (cleaned well and then painted) there is no reason to believe the same pit will continue to develop

 

On my hull, i've now blacked it three times, at the first blacking I 'mapped' the worst of the pits (none were bad enough to worry about) during subsequent blackings none of the pits "reopened"(?)

 

Paul