Hole in my 2005 260 SD

Mark260DA

New Member
Sep 19, 2017
10
Panama City Florida
Boat Info
Just purchasing a 2005 SeaRay 260DA, already own a 1972 Thunderbird Formula 233
Engines
350 Mercruiser Bravo III
I was out on my new to me 2005 260 SD this weekend and while checking the fluids in the engine I noticed water trickling down near one of the thru hull fittings. I looked closer and noticed where it was coming from. I took pics and attached them here.

A little history on the boat. I had purchased the boat from my brother in law who had bought the boat new in 2005. He has never had anyone do any work in this area of the boat.

It looks almost like when the boat was built someone cut out a hole in the wrong area and the piece of fiberglass was placed back as a plug and gel coated over and has been that way for 12 years until recently started leaking. Anyway I was just surprised to find this and also glad it didn’t pop all the way out since it’s about 1” in diameter and well below the waterline.
 

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It stay out of the water at a local marina so it’s safe. Saturday sucked because by the time I got back to the marina it was dark and the forklift/boat lift was already closed and everyone was gone home. So I had to leave it in the water overnight. I left the batteries on and checked the float switch and asked the security guard to keep an eye on it. The leak is very slow and even if the pump failed it would take days to sink. It was still a restless night
 
Wrong hole location - That is what it looks like... that needs to be fixed from the outside in. You may already have some core damage from the water ingress.
 
I was thinking the hull there would be just fiberglass 3/8 to 1/2 thick. Is there anything else there. From the outside there is no apparent damage just the same slight circular crack in the gel coat just less like a quarter around.
 
I would think that if the water is not leaking from directly on the other side of that "core plug", it is probably leaking in from one of the other thruhull/ seacocks adjacent to it and the core has been compromised and wicking the water to the old patched hole and weeping out.
 
Wrong hole location - That is what it looks like... that needs to be fixed from the outside in. You may already have some core damage from the water ingress.

Agreed that needs to be properly repaired from the outside before the boat is used again. A hole that size would be a big problem. Looks like someone drilled a hole in the wrong location and did a poor job repairing the hole. BTW I don't think there is any wood in the core in the bottom of that boat. Should be a fairly simple repair but needs to be done correctly.
 
That is a solid glass hull below the water line. Repair should be pretty straight forward.
 
The 260DA is a solid hull boat. If you have bottom paint, it is a $150 repair; without bottom paint, $300 because there is gel coat to block sand and buff out.

Not enough to get excited about..... but if it were me, I’d have at least $300 worth of fun out of my brother-in-law over the “implied warranty” for fitness and use” you grant when you sell a boat to a family member.
 
Not enough to get excited about..... but if it were me, I’d have at least $300 worth of fun out of my brother-in-law over the “implied warranty” for fitness and use” you grant when you sell a boat to a family member.

Or at least a couple cases of beer! :)
 
That is definitely not something that someone drilled. Your boat uses a fiberglass stringer system and "inner liner". In other words, when you step down into the bilge, you are not stepping on the hull. You are stepping on a completely separate piece of fiberglass that is then laid into and bonded to the hull. Put one on your hands palm up and then put the other on top of it, palm down. That's the general idea.

Downside... in this case, there is water trapped between the hull and the inner liner. It sounds like the boat hull (on the outside) received an impact damage at some point. I would only be guessing at what it was, but since the outside is not chipped like damage from the edge of a rock would cause, I would guess improper moving of the boat when on land. For example, the end/tip of a forklift arm contacting the hull because the arms were at the wrong angle. When the driver lifted the arms, that would have caused a point load on that area.

The stress cracks emanating from the seacocks nearby indicate a possibility of stress being placed on the outer thru-hull (by a forklift, for example), or it could just be naturally occurring stress cracks (possibly from improperly installed hardware). Granted, it would be hard for a forklift arm's tip to contact the hull since it's roughly inline with the thru-hulls, but it's not impossible. It's also possible that the boat was set down and there was something else in the way and the hull contacted that thing (again, point loading). But again, this part is all conjecture.

I do not know how far, if at all, the water has spread between the hull and liner - it's possible it didn't spread very far at all. It all depends on how the two pieces are actually attached in that area. Exploratory surgery is needed. But don't worry - there is a good possibility that it can be a relatively easy fix.
 
Looks to me as if Sea Ray screwed up and drill the hole in the wrong place and patched it. I don't own a Sea Ray anymore.
 
This is not a big deal. That is the hull bottom which is solid glass, not sure about this liner thing that was mentioned .When my electronic's were installed on my 300 I was there for the whole thing. I have seen the hole drilled in that general area on mine for the transducer. It's a lot thicker than you think. Just repair and don't worry about it. You're good, don't lose sleep.
 

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