Wet Boat

Just had a survey on my 1996 SeaRay 450 Sundancer and the surveyor brought out what he called his magic meter. He tested the hull and said the hull was "wet". Asked what it mean't and he was very good at explaining. Boat is in great shape but now gives me great concern. Is the boat going to fall apart.? Dry bilge and no other evidence of moisture. Any advice is appreciated.

Just saying it was wet is useless. He should identify the specifics. How big of area? Where? Did he sound it as well? How long was the boat out of the water before the survey?

The 450DA has a fully-cored hull, which means the hull is a laminate of gelcoat, fiberglass and balsa wood. If water is allowed to penetrate the laminate, the balsa will absorb the wood and the surveyor may detect that. It's referred to as being "wet". I can't explain why he couldn't explain that though...

I'm helping a friend of mine boat shop right now. It's not going well because he's looking at old boats, and when he hears "moisture" or "wet" he runs. So far, we haven't found a boat that doesn't have some moisture. I'm not sure such a thing exists!

Moisture doesn't mean a boat will fall apart. It doesn't even mean that an owner practicing regular care, usage and maintenance will ever ever detect it. Again - some degree is entirely normal. It can however, cause structural issues if it's in a critical area, and it certainly is a cause for concern during a sale.

A wet transom in an I/O powered boat for example, can sink the boat! Wet stringers in an inboard can flex and put the engines out of alignment, which threatens the transmission, shaft, shaft packing, struts bearings etc.

I recommended a 450 owned by a friend of mine to another friend of mine 10 years ago. The surveyor found moisture on each side of the hull, basically on each side of the master bed. The likely source of intrusion was the deck scuppers, but the needle fell off near them?! The sale was canceled. The next surveyor passed the boat. Don't trust every opinion - even by "experts".

This is very unusual on a 450DA. There is very limited access points to the hull coring because the coring is sealed at the top and bottom in the mold, and the hull vents are above the rub rail. Sea Ray customer service personnel call the 450 hull their "Ice Breaker Hull" because there were very, very few warranty claims on them.

First, just a report saying the hull is wet is almost useless. The surveyor should identify the wet areas in pencil on the hull so you know what you are working with. Also, moisture meters are notoriously inaccurate and require some knowledge of the structure beneath for the results to be useful. This is because the hand-held moisture meters work on recording a change indensity from one area to another because a wet core area is more dense than a dry area. Similarily, the location of the stem, the stringers, and the bulkheads are more dense than flat areas out in the structure of the hull, so they may read high on the moisture meter.

On the 450DA if you do have moisture in the hull, it is from one of the following:

1. Docking lights in the bow below the rub rail -(usually dealer installed and the core was not resin sealed before the lights were installed then sealed with silicone whose bond has broken loose. Bury the bow in seas and you can easily get water in the core.)

2. A transducer of hull fitting installed in the wrong place without resin sealing the core. (Sea Ray glasssed in a solid area in the hull bottom in the forward bilge sump for installing transducers, and in the aft bilge sump where the engine intakes and seacocks are located. Any hole put in the hull should be in one of those areas that is solid. Sometimes and electronics guy will put a transducer somewhere else in the hull without realizing this is a cored hull boat and if it leaks, you have a wet hull.)

3. Previous damage. (A 450DA with prior hull damage that was not thoroughly dried out before it was repaired can fail a moisture test well after the repair was completed. The hull may look great, but moisture sealed up inside only gets worse.)


My advice is to get the boat to a qualified boat yard who is competent to repair a wet core and have them evaluate it before you get too excited. Sometimes small areas are easy to fix.

In the meantime, the boat isn't going to fall apart, but you do need to get someone qualified in repairing a wet core to evaluate it. I've only heard of 2 wet hull 450DA's......one was from leaking docking lights and the other was from hurricane damage in NW Fla that was not thoroughly dry before it was sealed and re-gelcoated.

Good luck with it.........

Clip, there is a 450DA in the area with a less-than-stellar maintenance history. If you're convinced that the boat you're looking at always been well cared for, then no bother. If it looks however like recent work was done, feel free to PM me.

clip616 said:

Just had a survey on my 1996 SeaRay 450 Sundancer and the surveyor brought out what he called his magic meter. He tested the hull and said the hull was "wet". Asked what it mean't and he was very good at explaining. Boat is in great shape but now gives me great concern. Is the boat going to fall apart.? Dry bilge and no other evidence of moisture. Any advice is appreciated.

Click to expand...

Did you mean he was or wasn't very good at explaining?

MM

Oh - Thanks Mike. I read that as "wasn't".

I am looking to buy a freshwater 450 with 3196 V drives, and sent the HIN to the factory and they told me the hull was solid FG below the waterline. 400 hours on engines.
Anything in particular I should watch for? If I get to the point of having it surveyed, the surveyor I use taps with his hammer instead of using a moisture meter, he does not trust them at all. And he pays particular attention to the engine stringers because if they are soft, walk away.

Maybe 3126?

I've owned a '96 450DA since 1997, and whoever told you the 450 is solid below the waterline was wrong.

The 450DA definitely has a fully cored hull. There are 2 solid fiberglass pads, approx 2' x 2', in the bottom at the bilge sumps so that thru-hulls and transducers can be mounted in a solid area.

Also, the 450 never had 3196 engines.

You are looking at a 23 year old boat so there are going to be a few issues. Look particularly at the deck area around the windlass, the mid-deck rail mounts on the forward deck, the area near the windshield, and the hull mounted docking lights (if the boat has them).

The 450 is a great boat, extremely efficient and handles wonderfully in tight spots, but by today's standards their cruising speed is a bit slow.

Yes it is a 3126 ...my typo.
It was the Sea Ray factory that told me in an email that it had solid glass below the waterline.
I sent them the HIN# and they replied. The message came from Tom Claybaugh at TClaybaugh@Searay.com

All wood cored boats that sit in the water (slipped) for decades are “wet”.

Meters are important because insurance companies allow up to a percentage of moisture for insurability. A hammer cannot quantify how wet.