Fresh water submersion

L

Lugnutz

Member
Aug 3, 2009
97
Tacoma, Washington
Boat Info
300 Sedan bridge
Engines
Twin GM 350 Merc's
I did a bit of looking around and couldn’t really find anything solid. So, I thought I would bounce the question off of you guys. I have been told about a 1990 Sundancer that partially submerged in fresh water at the dock and it’s up for sale. I have not seen it yet but, supposedly a hose was draped over the side into the water and it siphoned water and filled the engine bay up and into the cabin.

It’s at a marina and the yard is doing the engine pickling and whatever else they do to it.
So, my question is, is this something that a person should run from or not. I have mechanical background and I understand electronics but I am curious about the hull. Is there any way to dry them out? And is there anything else that should be considered?
 
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Your major problem isn't the hull or even the engines, if they were properly pickled. The real worry is that every electrical connection and harness on the main bulkhead was submerged. Many will need to be replaced, others can be saved by cleaning and drying them............do you know how many electrical connections there are on the bulkhead ? Big job, but doable.

Then every major electrical component on the engine has to be replaced......starters, alternators, solenoids, trim pump, outdrive trim pumps, generator, etc. Again, big job, but doable.

The hull is sound and won't sustain any damage.
 
Alot of Sea Ray's have foanm filled hauls if the water got into the foam it would be a big mess to fix.
 
There are a lot of used boats in this area that probably would be less money by the time you replaced all the damaged parts on a sunken boat not to mention all the time spent fixing it. Water damage to electrical wiring can show up months later with more headaches.
 
Unless you get it for near free, my guess is that it probably won't be worth fixing up. On the other hand, you might be surprised how the engine might be ok. When I was a kid I remember one spring in particular when my dad uncovered our Sea Ray Amberjack only to find it full of water. Due to a flash freeze after a rain, the drain plug iced over and the bilge filled with water and submerged most of the motor. The starter, alternator, dip stick–everything was submerged. After we got the water out of the bilge, my dad checked the oil. There wasn't any to be seen. It had floated to the top of the crankcase because the engine was full of water! He drained it out and refilled with fresh oil. To his astonishment, the boat started right up at launch and we had many more seasons without any issue.

A 1990 I think is still a solid bottom and probably solid hull sides as well. It was the years between 1995 (and maybe some 94's) – to about 2000 that had fully cored bottoms and would be a major concern. The area of the hull that I would look at for water damage is the foam-filled areas that run parallel to the chines. Sea Ray boxes in the outermost stringer to the chine which is why there is that shelf there that runs all the ray up to the forward berth. There is all kinds of equipment and tanks screwed down to these shelves, leaving dozens of holes which were undoubtedly left unsealed by dear Sea Ray. Depending how long the boat was underwater, I think there may have been potential to fill those compartments with hundreds of gallons of water. Due to the amidships bulkhead dividing each of the two longitudinal foam-filled hull structures, there may be four of those areas to check. It just depends on if the bulked is tabbed onto them or through them.
 
Lets not get confused on cored hulls vs. the expandable foam Sea Ray uses s a sound deadener. Coring is structural while the expandable foam is not. Further, whether or not a hull is cored has more to do with the factory that produced the boat than the year the boat was made. Some factories never had the process capability for cored hull construction while factories used coring on a regular basis. To confuse the issue even further, almost all decks have some balsa coring in them.

I don't understand the concern expressed for a cored bottom on a partially sunk boat anyway because the bottom of a boat is submerged all the time anyway.
 
fwebster said:
Lets not get confused on cored hulls vs. the expandable foam Sea Ray uses s a sound deadener. Coring is structural while the expandable foam is not. Further, whether or not a hull is cored has more to do with the factory that produced the boat than the year the boat was made. Some factories never had the process capability for cored hull construction while factories used coring on a regular basis. To confuse the issue even further, almost all decks have some balsa coring in them.

I don't understand the concern expressed for a cored bottom on a partially sunk boat anyway because the bottom of a boat is submerged all the time anyway.
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Thank you for clarifying what I wrote above. I should have put my comments about the foam-filled compartments in another paragraph to avoid confusion for the reader.

I could be wrong Frank, but I don't think I have seen any Sea Rays that had fully cored bottoms outside of the date range I mentioned above. During those years Sea Ray was upselling it as a feature, just as Cruisers Yachts and Doral Yachts does today. I had thought that Sea Ray moved to cored bottoms for most of their line up during that time, at least for the bigger boats.

The merits of cored hulls aside, I think if it were me buying a sunken boat with a cored bottom, I would want to look over the hull carefully. It's not the exterior hull that would concern me, but rather the hull from the bilge side. Judging from my observations, Sea Ray hasn't been very good about carefully sealing all the holes they drilled. I notice this is especially true in areas that are above a normal bilge water level. In the boats I've observed from the 80's and 90's (ok, not a scientifically large enough sample size) there were many holes drilled for wire harnesses, hose brackets, mounts, et cetera that were not sealed at the factory. Most are just drill, zip in a screw, and done. Ostensibly the logic here was, why bother when these holes will rarely get wet? When a cored-bottomed boat is submerged though, water is likely to infiltrate the core via those dozens of breaches. Add all the hydrostatic pressure and I think there's a reasonable chance of water getting in places you really don't want it.

The boat bottom we're talking about however, is not cored, so obviously this won't be an issue. Just the foam-filled compartments could fill with water.

Justin
 
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Ken
So your saying Sea Ray got smarter and decided not to use foam in later years?
 
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The boat bottom we're talking about however, is not cored, so obviously this won't be an issue. Just the foam-filled compartments could fill with water.
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That would be a big concern of mine. Doing a transom rebuild on our 270DA I found foam in compartments under the batteries waterlogged and the water had no way to drain out. Any area that a bulkhead or stringer may not be totally glassed in can allow the water to enter. Definitely worth a surveyor's review and moisture meter check if interested in it.
 
I would never ever consider a sunk boat at any cost. You will just have too many problems and they will get worse the longer you own the boat.
 
I had a bowrider years ago that partially filled with water, covering at least half the engine. The marina mechanic said the starter would fail due to the submersion. Several years later it was still going strong, and I had no other ill effects from the submersion. Of course, this was only a partial submersion, but the fact that it was fresh water I'm sure made the difference.
 
I went and looked at the boat. As I understand it the owner was having issues with the bilge pump and he installed another pump and ran the hose over the rail until he had more time to deal with it. Sadly, the hose end was in the water and it created a vacuum and sucked lake water back into the boat and flooded it. You could tell he felt sick about what happened and he was pretty pissed at himself for it.
It was not fully submerged and it leaned to the port side. The helm, all the electronics, and even the main fuse panel down below were dry. It had an oil line around the hull and the vents for the fuel tank were also dry. Anything that could be taken out to dry was already out by the time I got there. The marina was working on the engine and had it filled with diesel. They planned to fire it off after the weekend and pull the outdrive.
I talked with one of the technicians that was working on it and he mentioned that they have dealt with submerged boats before. He mentioned several that were cleaned back up and are still in service.
I went to look at it for a friend of mine that asked me to because he is specifically looking for a Searay boat. In the end, he wants something smaller and more of a turnkey package. Ya never know until ya check something out, and I appreciate everybody’s information and opinions.
 
Hey, at least you may have prevented a similar situation for another boater, after reading this thread. I would never have thought that the bilge line overboard would suction back into the boat, not that I would ever do it. He's probably still kicking himself in the butt for not taking the time to do the job right.
 
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