Drain Leak Problem

[millz90]

Needs some help on how to get the inside foam to dry out? I believe this boat sat out side without a cover on it for a year. There is a drain hole from the storage compartment to the engine compartment which is constantly dripping water.

The leak is coming from around the drain hole and it will not stop. It has been in my garage for 4 months and it is still dripping.
I did replace a soft spot in the floor. When i cut out the fiber glass there was tan foam which was SOAKED with water. I vacuumed a lot of water out as well. So i imagine that is what is holding all of the water were the drip is now.

I tried to epoxy the hole around the drain but the epoxy will NOT harden and the water finds its way thru and is still dripping.


SO my questions are....if anyone can help

How do i get it to stop leaking so i can paint the storage area
Will the Foam ever dry out?
Should I be worried about anything else?


I took some pictures because its kind of hard to explain and make sense.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[millz90]

No ideas hu?:huh:

 

[Lazy Daze]

Be patient, Millz. If someone has an idea, they'll post it.

When you opened up the floor, you said you found wet foam. Did you let it dry out completely before re-sealing the floor? It's going to take a L-O-N-G time for it to dry out (if at all) with the only escape point being around the outside edge of the drain tube. You may want to open the floor up again and dig out all the old foam. Possibly... drilling some well placed holes to help the draining may be another alternative. But, depending on the depth of water intrusion into the foam, that may not even get it all.

The '95 175 was the first boat Sea Ray introduced with the floor liner system (kind of like uni-body construction in cars). Which means you don't have wood stringers.

 

[millz90]

ha...yea sorry!

Yes, i did wait for the foam to dry but it was only in a 1 foot by 2 foot area so im sure the entire foam didnt dry.

Do you think that much water would be from leaving the boat sitting out uncovered or should i be looking for a leak? Ive looked over the boat and there are no cracks or big chips which would leak so i just assume its from the rain and not being covered.

Is there any way to patch a hole when it is still leaking water? Im ok with what water is left in the hull i just want to get it to stop leaking so i can paint it and put the carpet in...lol

 

[Lazy Daze]

It's very conceivable to think the water is from rainwater. But, water should really not be getting to that spot - it should be sealed. Meaning, the more important question is how is water getting in there? If you seal it up, and don't stop the water from continuing to enter, you could very likely run into more problems down the road. For example... enough water enters that compartment that over the winter it freezes and cracks the hull.

If you don't see any cracks in the hull, then it's very doubtful water is getting in that way. Do you have a thru-hull transducer? Maybe that is leaking.

Just trying to think of some other things... IIRC, that model doesn't have an anchor locker, so that eliminates that possibility. But, maybe something's going on with the floor to hull joint.

It would be best to do some investigative work and find the leak point, fix it, then dry the area out and reseal the compartment again.

Do you have the boat on the trailer? You may want to jack it up and check for cracks above the bunks (or move it backwards on the trailer a bit if it's a roller trailer).

However, to answer your question, there are epoxy products than can cure in the presence of water. This is one example: http://www.pcepoxy.com/our-products/putty-epoxies/pc-marine.php (made in the USA, too!)