I own a 16 foot marine plywood sailing dory. I have tried to fix the
leaks on the seams of the boat with Life Caulk but after a season or
two I am back to bailing as much as I am sailing. Are there any other
inexpensive do it yourself options for my boat? The boat is on a
trailer so she is easy to work on. Any suggestions would be
appreciated. Thanks!

Hunky Dory

fungod@g wrote:
I own a 16 foot marine plywood sailing dory. I have tried to fix the
leaks on the seams of the boat with Life Caulk but after a season or
two I am back to bailing as much as I am sailing. Are there any other
inexpensive do it yourself options for my boat? The boat is on a
trailer so she is easy to work on. Any suggestions would be
appreciated. Thanks!

Hunky Dory


I suspect you have or will soon have some serious problems when things
begin to rot but if caulking is a remedy you are satisfied with then
try a product called Lexel

http://www.sashcosealants.com/Home_I...ent/Lexel.aspx

I've used it around the house for several years, it has yet to fail
anywhere it was used.

I removed and reinstalled all my deck fittings and ports three years
ago. I used Lexel to seal all the screw holes and fittings to the
fiberglass deck. Not one leak yet.

Sometimes though, you just got to bite the bullet and fix it right.

LdB

fungod@g wrote:
I own a 16 foot marine plywood sailing dory. I have tried to fix the
leaks on the seams of the boat with Life Caulk but after a season or
two I am back to bailing as much as I am sailing. Are there any other
inexpensive do it yourself options for my boat? The boat is on a
trailer so she is easy to work on. Any suggestions would be
appreciated. Thanks!


In my younger days when almost all boats still had wooden hulls, early
spring weekends EVERY YEAR were spent replacing any rotten wood,
caulking, sanding and varnishing. That's just what it took to maintain a
wooden boat and the reason few people want to own wooden boats any more.


--
Peggie
----------
Peggie Hall
Specializing in marine sanitation since 1987
Author "Get Rid of Boat Odors - A Guide To Marine Sanitation Systems and
Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor"
http://shop.sailboatowners.com/boat_odors/

On Jan 13, 1:21*pm, "fungod@g" wrote:
I own a 16 foot marine plywood sailing dory. *I have tried to fix the
leaks on the seams of the boat with Life Caulk but after a season or
two I am back to bailing as much as I am sailing. *Are there any other
inexpensive do it yourself options for my boat? *The boat is on a
trailer so she is easy to work on. *Any suggestions would be
appreciated. *Thanks!

Hunky Dory

its a ply 16 foot dory. build a new one. gently take the one you have
apart lay the hull sections out fair them, draw on the replacement
ply, cut, fair, stick back on hull and epoxy.
if you want the same boat you have all the patterns you need to build
a new boat that is just like the old one.
but i prefer wood boats to any other material so a little fixing now
and again is not to hard a thing.