I just finished sealing the hulls on my 2001 Wave and decided to share some information.

Last year my Wave started taking on 2-3 gallons of water in 1 hours of racing @15-20kts on sheltered water so I decided it was time to seal the hulls. I pressure/soapy water tested the hulls and found:

1) a tiny hole(<1.0mm), on the bow. Looks like I was hit by or hit something sharp.
2) the portholes had pulled away from the hulls in several places. I don't think they were installed properly, just lots of silicone.
3) almost all the holes for the tramp rail were leaking
4) 3 of the 4 ports under the hull pads were leaking.

I fixed these by:

#1 plastic welding rod and a soldering iron

#2 replaced the portholes. I bedded them with 5200 and then used 5-6 clamps to make sure the porthole was touching the hull and just left it there for a week. Before I removed the clamps, I installed 3 screws.

#3 pulled the tramp and rails off and found the sealant had turned to powder, I resealed everything with 5200. WARNING -THERE ARE 4 ALUMINUM BACKING PLATES. LEAVE AT LEAST 1 SCREW NEAR EACH END OF EACH BACKING PLATE. If you forget, take all the screws out and the backing plates moves, it takes hours to get the damn things back in place.

#4 the sealant had deteriorated in all the ports under the pads. Only one was not leaking was, I think, because the pad was sealed to the hull with 3M trim adhesive. I cleaned out the old sealant and resealed them with 5200 and for extra protection used lots of 3M trim adhesive to seal the pad to the hull to act as a gasket.

Lessons learned. I was surprised by the hole in the bow. Whatever sealant they used to assemble the boat does not last forever. Always check for backing plates before you take all the screws out.

NOTE: I don’t know that 5200 will stick to the hulls better than anything else but the 3M trim adhesive and the 3M 77 spray really seem to stick and last. I am going to check into a sealant with similar chemistry. The trim adhesive is what auto mechanics call “gorilla snot” and they use it to seal gaskets to engines and I have even seen it used as a temporary gasket by itself.