87 Int. Express source of water in bilge at bow and salon

RWS · Post by **RWS** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 1:10 pm

Dave,

There is a small hole in the liner at the bottom of the lazarette.

The rear bilge pump is mounted to the liner, making evacuation of all the water impossible.

When I had the fuel tank out, I cut out the liner at the rear in order to mount the aft bilge pump against the hull, allowing it to remove more water, otherwise there is always a bit of water between the liner and the hull.

Regrding the struts, when mine was first surveyed the surveyor wrote the lack of nuts up as an issue, however research indicates that the backing plate is THREADED, explaining the lack of nuts.

If that's the source of your leak it might be a good idea when you are out of the water to rebed that strut or even or rebed all four struts.

I don't know anything about this process but you might get some good answers here on this forum or at Boatered.com

RWS

reelfishin · Post by **reelfishin** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 7:40 pm

This is an interesting topic, We are checking our boat for leaks. We do every year about this time for summer. One never knows what a hose clamp or hose can do over the winter.
I will do some checking on the plates you are talking about. I believer ours do have nuts on them or a cap screw. I will check next time at the boat and post a picture.

RWS · Post by **RWS** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 6:13 am

As I recall, the enlarged exhaust holes were sealed with the WEST SYSTEM EPOXY MIX.

RWS

davescarrs · Post by **davescarrs** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 11:58 am

heated up the strut nut area on the exterior side with propane torch. backed out the strut nuts from the exterior side bottom. They are threaded thru the stainless steel plates on the interior side (expalins why no nuts). Filled holes with 4200 and tightened them down again. Hope this solved the problem. The old caulk was in bad shape and I can see why a leak may have started.

salmonbound · Post by **salmonbound** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 7:50 am

i have the same thing going on what support brace are you talking about

RWS · Post by **RWS** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 8:58 am

The ten meter Express Cruiser (not the mid-cabin) has four struts, two per shaft.

These support the shafts under the vessel.

The International series utilized threaded backing plates, sandwiching the hull between the strut and the backing plate.

The threaded nature of the backing plate is unknown to most surveyors, and they will call the lack of nuts a defect.

On Dave's boat, seawater was seeping into the hull around the strut/fastener bedding material.

It's not a place one would normally consider looking for a leak, but Dave's detective work certainly paid off on this one !!

RWS

davescarrs · Post by **davescarrs** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 11:31 am

The stainless steel backer plate for the strut attatched to the prop shaft wiill be on the interior side and will be towards the back of the boat. The hollow fiberglass stringer (no wood) had a square hole cut in it for access to strut backing plate. It may be different for you if your boat is not International. If you have a different type of Trojan also check the rudder packing. Good Luck! Will put boat back in water Wed, April 29, 2009 hopefully problem solved.