Releasing Water Trapped In Hull by Drilling Hole

[Sharkbait]

Me again! Our (newly acquired) 2007 210 Outrage, as you can see (below), has a couple of dings on the hull side. The upper ding goes through to the foam and has been weeping the odd drip of water for the last three weeks at least. The lower ding has not gone through to the foam. I have no idea when this damage occurred and the boat used to spend quite a lot of time on the water so the amount of water it could have soaked up is unknown.

I think I've had less than [4-fluid-ounces] of water out in the five weeks we've had the boat. I'm worried that if there's water that high up that water may have soaked down through the foam to the bottom of the hull.

In about four weeks the boat is to go to the shop to have the bottom paint stripped and redone, and, I was thinking ,maybe I should drill a small hole on the underside to help any water escape (if it has managed to soak down that far).

What do you think? Leave it as it is to dry then repair for this year and look at it again in the autumn? Or go for it now before the bottom is repainted?

[Jefecinco]

Those "dings" should be repaired. I would not worry about the water in the hull. Undoubtedly you have some water present but the effort and expense to get rid of every drop would be unacceptable to me. Efforts to drain any water present in hulls seems to be mostly wasted effort from my reading on this and some other sites. A site search on this site for "water in foam" or similar may be informative.

Make the repairs, forget about the water, paint the bottom and enjoy your new boat.

[jimh]

I recommend just making a repair to the two areas of damage to the hull at port stern quarter, and not trying to investigate further with exploratory hole drilling. The upper area of damage is well above the waterline, so I would anticipate that water could only enter there by splashing or running in high seas. The lower area of damage has the outer laminate skin intact, so it should not have been possible for water to find a way into the interior of the hull at that point.

When the hull bottom anti-fouling paint is removed, you may find some other areas of interest or latent damage. At that time you can make a further evaluation about a change in plans for hull repairs.

[Oldslowandugly]

The wood under my deck was soaked with water from years of sloppy fasteners. I drilled 1/2" holes to let it out and left the boat out in the sun for an entire year. Lots of water was pushed out by the sun's heat. I also used a dry-vac with a small tube attachment to suck out a lot. When I was satisfied I closed the holes and painted the deck. No problems since. This year I suspected water down at the bottom. I drilled a small hole at the bottom of the stern and nothing came out. I am leaving it open all winter just in case.

[Phil T]

There is a big difference between under the waterline and above. Use Marine Tex repair kit and use the boat.

Given the age of the boat, I bet the water intrusion is minimal.