My blade is taking on about 1 GAL of water in each hull sailing thru rough seas? Any thoughts on how I can test where the leak is?

It also seems that the port holes are a weak design (tiny rubber gaskets) any ideas on improving this area?

Asim

Tks

Weak vacuum in reverse. you don't want to make it too tight because you can damage stuff. Soap down the hulls and see where it is coming from. Most likely it is from the ports themselves. Mine doesn't take on water unless I have capsized and then the water almost definatly comes in through the vent holes on the rear ports. I guess if I were really concerned I would just cover them up with a piece of vinyl tape. If the pressure builds too much then it will still "pop" the tape but not allow any water in when capsized. Other place to check is the beam/hull joints.
After that it is all the through-hull stuff like cleats, etc. If your blade is like mine, it is possible it is coming in through the fittings that keep the track on the hulls where the tramp attaches.
If you are worried about the cheap o-rings in the ports then goop them up a little with petroleum jelly and that should make them tighter. You can replace them with different ports if you want to go that far.

Thanks, Patrick. I will try your suggestions.

I am concerned about your comment regarding the Tramp attachment. Why does your boat leak there? Is this a factory defect or a design issue and should we get Matt to respond?

Mine doesn't leak. To find where yours is leaking, soap all the joints and suspected spots. Hook a wet vac up to "blow" and pressuize the hull. TAKE IT EASY! Minimal pressure will blow lots of bubbles.

My money is on the "o" ring in the ports. Replace the ring, it has probably hardened and lost its elasticity.

Asim:

We use to use a hair blower set on no or low heat. Have son hold it by drain hole. Don't want to build up to much pressure so hold/move away - hold/move away. Get a squirt bottle full of very soapy water. Spray all over boat connections and hulls. Where bubble shows is a leak. If a bleed hole leave open. But look for cracks. My Mystere 4.3 was taking about 1 1/2 gallons in starboard hull from small cracks. I used some PC-11 two part epoxy from Kemah Hardware and and a cheap puddy knife and now not a drop. Cheap $5 fix.

Hope this helps and when will we see you at Dike again?

Doug

My boat doesn't leak there, I was just suggesting that it could be a spot where leaks could develop. When I said "like mine" I meant with that type of attachment. I am not sure if there are any baldes with different attachments though. Not sure it is more prone to leaks than other methods of tramp attachment.
Dougs suggestion of using a hair dryer is a good one.

Sounds more like water being pressured between the beams and hulls to me. Are your bolts tight ? Have you fitted the beams with a little bit of sealant around the bolt holes ?

But then again 1 gallon (4 liters) is ALOT. Normally you should get about 5 squeezes of a large sponze in rough conditions but no 4 liters.

One other area to check it the little holes in the bow were the spi lines go through. I know of one boat that came out of the same batch as yours, Asim, that had a leak there. The bow tip had been insufficiently filled with resin to make these holes watertight.

But in all it should be relatively easy to fix.

Wouter

Check the fin cases.

I've modified a spare hatch cover by inserting a car valve in the middle of it. Simply cut the valve out of the tube leaving some excess rubber around the base, drill a neat hole in the cover and push the valve in from the underside. It's a good idea to fit a second valve with the valve mechanism removed and attach a balloon to it. This will insure you don't over pressurise the hull which can cause catastrophic problems and it doesn't take much pressure to do damage so be careful.

I stand corrected! I did pick up a little water in the port hull yesterday. I'll apply my own remedy and let you know what I've found.