How to sink a boat

[DeanS]

How to sink your boat.

 

 

1. Wait until your shower pump gets blocked one night while LongSufferingwife is showering.

2. Tell her...dont worry....you'll nick the pump out the engine room temporarily.

3. Forget to replace the one in the engine room.

4. Wait a few weeks and paint the engine room with nice grey floorpaint.

5. Check your weed hatch to see if there's plastic packets etc round the prop.

6. Replace the weed hatch, nice and tight.

7, Go for a cruise.

8. Start to sink.

9. Press bilge pump button. No pump. SINK.

 

In my case...it turned out differently.

 

7. Go for a short cruise to fill with water.

8. Move a short distance and moor up for the night.

9. Open the engine bay to inspect lovely new paint.

10. See water on top of the paint.

11. Oooh heck.

12. Get mop and bucket.

13. Mop out all the water.

14. Inspect water trail...see wet weed hatch cover.

15. Inspect weed hatch tightening bolt thread. Find a worn section.

16. Job for tomorrow. New seal on weed hatch, and new design for tightening it. Not one central bolt, but possibly 2. One on each side.

17. Order new bilge pump for engine bay.

18. Repaint engine bay for the 2nd time.

 

Close call.

Edited May 7, 2013 by DeanS

[Pykebird]

very lucky! No doubt some expert will be along with a witty remark soon!!!!

[loubyscooby]

Lucky escape............. Good luck with repainting

[madcat]

Glad you didn't sink ,take care and have fun.

[Guest User]

What colour paint have you chosen?

[ditchcrawler]

Two things,

1 you are over tightening it if you stripped the thread, how many times have you had it off?

2 I find you get a better seal if you use a piece of sheet closed cell foam and not tape round the edges. I think mine was an old sleeping roll that campers have. I had to cut a hole in the middle to get it over the baffle plate.

[Guest]

Two things,

1 you are over tightening it if you stripped the thread, how many times have you had it off?

2 I find you get a better seal if you use a piece of sheet closed cell foam and not tape round the edges. I think mine was an old sleeping roll that campers have. I had to cut a hole in the middle to get it over the baffle plate.

That is interesting idea; like a big gasket?

[alan_fincher]

how many times have you had it off?

What kind of question is that!

[ditchcrawler]

That is interesting idea; like a big gasket?

Yes, not my idea, a friend put me on to it, but it doesn't leak a single drop

[Boat&Bikes]

After we brought our first boat and i joined this forum i became paranoid about weed hatches,fitted a clamp both ends of it supplementing the central screw and also brought a water alarm.Just in case....

 

Ian.

[DeanS]

Yes, quite possibly overtightened it...causing some thread damage.

I could cut off a little of the end of the bolt, which would mean it tightens at a different area of the thread length.

Yes, going to make a proper gasket.

I chose a nice grey for the engine bay....I was going to go for bright yellow but it would have clashed..lol.

The reason I posted this experience was to warn others that even though you THINK you've tightened your weed hatch...you may not have.

[Tuscan]

Yes, quite possibly overtightened it...causing some thread damage.

I could cut off a little of the end of the bolt, which would mean it tightens at a different area of the thread length.

Yes, going to make a proper gasket.

I chose a nice grey for the engine bay....I was going to go for bright yellow but it would have clashed..lol.

The reason I posted this experience was to warn others that even though you THINK you've tightened your weed hatch...you may not have.

As others have said tighten down onto a gasket. Good idea to have a quick look sometimes before setting off but when in gear.

[DeanS]

After we brought our first boat and i joined this forum i became paranoid about weed hatches,fitted a clamp both ends of it supplementing the central screw and also brought a water alarm.Just in case....

 

Ian.

 

I've always been paranoid about the weed hatch, which is why I'm kicking myself, while at the same time counting my blessings that I hadnt gone off on a 2hr cruise.....all I did was a 30min bit, and there was enough water to keep me busy emptying it for an hour. The mop got all full of paint, my hands too from squeezing the mop....aaarghhhhh.

 

 

As others have said tighten down onto a gasket. Good idea to have a quick look sometimes before setting off but when in gear.

 

guess where I store the nice big gennie when cruising.....right over the little floorboard that lifts up to look down on the weed hatch. doh. It actually does have a gasket (new boat) but obviously the economical version.

 

 

ETA....that prop must force a LOT of water upwards....the weed hatch wasnt exactly loose at all....and water still got through.

Edited May 7, 2013 by DeanS

[Biggles]

I have a single central bolt on my weed hatch but it is a 20mm bolt. I would struggle to strip that with the toggle bar.

 

I like that camper roll idea. Mine does leak a tiny but but only on VERY hard reverse

[DeanS]

I have a single central bolt on my weed hatch but it is a 20mm bolt. I would struggle to strip that with the toggle bar.

 

I like that camper roll idea. Mine does leak a tiny but but only on VERY hard reverse

 

Mines a 20mm bolt.

Beware

[blackrose]

I think I overtightened my weedhatch clamp on Sunday night while I was preparing for the Bristol channel crossing. I reckon I've damaged the female thread as the male thread on the bolt looked ok, but once it's tightened it's not easy to undo and just feels wrong. In the end I just tightened it and tugged on the handle of the hatch which seemed solid enough. No wonder I couldn't sleep on Sunday night! I think I'll put a bolt through each end of the clamp as you suggest.

[Guest]

This thread has reminded me to put one of these on either side of the hatch as backup:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Girder-Clamp-Malleable-Fittings-Part-Number-GGCM12-/230969837642?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item35c6e0084a

[Starcoaster]

Lucky escape Dean! I suppose you must be thankful it didn't happen when your son was steering or he may have never wanted to do it again!

Edited May 7, 2013 by Starcoaster

[LoneWolf]

Blimey Deano, glad there was a happy ending.

Weed hatch integrity was quite far down my list of things to worry about maybe i'll promote it

[keble]

This thread has reminded me to put one of these on either side of the hatch as backup:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Girder-Clamp-Malleable-Fittings-Part-Number-GGCM12-/230969837642?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item35c6e0084a

Thanks for that, I've just bought the last one!

[alan_fincher]

Blimey Deano, glad there was a happy ending.

Weed hatch integrity was quite far down my list of things to worry about maybe i'll promote it

I thought that, until I found a slow leak from the hatch was wicking its way back along the insulation on the swim, and the patches in linings in the engine room that were feeling a bit "squidgy" were not because I had been dropping too many mooring stakes and lump hammers on them, but because they were rotting from the back outwards!

 

I now take it a bit more seriously - but not hugely more, or I would have been back to check that the replacement linings are not also taking a dowsing!

[DeanS]

Just a reminder that ANY water in your engine bay is not normal. Clean it out, and if water comes back, dont just assume it's rain water getting in....which it shouldnt if your rain runoff grooves are cleaned out. I have seen some boats recently with more than a puddle down there......naughty naughty......clean it out

[system 4-50]

May I venture a conflicting opinion?

Many problems with weed hatches are due to overtightening not undertightening.

 

Typically a nervous person tries too hard and tightens a perfectly working hatch too hard and either

1. The hatch cover distorts making a poor seal that prompts even more overtightening next time.

2. The bolt thread weakens or fails prompting even more overtightening next time.

 

If the sealing gasket is in poor condition or has bits missing then again there is a temptation to try and overcome the problem by overtightening - this will NOT work. The only good cure is to replace the seal.

 

A weed hatch in good condition does not need to screwed down super hard.

 

Ideally the length of the wrench supplied, or handle fitted is meant to provide the right level of tightness when reasonable pressure is applied. If you end up using an extra lever or every ounce of grunt you possess then you are overtightening it.

[DeanS]

May I venture a conflicting opinion?

Many problems with weed hatches are due to overtightening not undertightening.

 

Typically a nervous person tries too hard and tightens a perfectly working hatch too hard and either

1. The hatch cover distorts making a poor seal that prompts even more overtightening next time.

2. The bolt thread weakens or fails prompting even more overtightening next time.

 

Yes....THAT was me. I screwed it down so hard that I threaded the bolt. Now I know. New seal, and less power required.

[bizzard]

Many boat builders seem to have great difficulty with their measuring up and design of their weed hatch lids and anti cavitation plates, often way out of alignment with each other and with the cav plate often a bad fit and well short of being flush with the uxter plate, requiring careful jiggling and nudging about to ensure its properly down, level and solid when replacing it. Also the lid is often made of too thin warpy unbraced plate with a mean piddly centre screw and weak bendy bracket holding it down. Ideally this centre screw needs to be of large diameter with the much stronger square thread section of probably the two start variety, like a lathes lead screw and nut and kept nicely greased. I reconstructed mine like this and its now totally accurate, solid and trouble free.