Jim,
This could be a very serious problem. You need the entire hull surveyed with
ultrasound to determine plate thickness. You may very wll find this is the
tip of a large iceberg so to speak and the entire boat maybe unsafe. Please
take this seriously and pull it out of the water immediately.
Steve

wrote in message
...
Hi all,
No rush for answers on this one, but I'm sinking... I found a bit
of water in the bilges and put it down to something benign, but on
inspection, found a blister on the paint inside the hull, which when I
burst revealed a ~2mm square hole in the hull on the bottom of the
boat. I've plugged it with gaffer tape, rubber mats and bits of wood
for now, but has anyone got any neat ways of fixing this without
taking it out of the water (boat is a 20 tonne wrought iron/mild steel
dutch barge, and a proper repair job would be ~£700)?
I'm thinking a bolt with a big rubber washer on both sides and
liberal use of silicon sealant. I'm hoping the rot is very localised.

cheers

Jim
UK

Hi Steve,
Your advice is noted, and I am considering it... the thing is, the
boat was surveyed with ultrasound (at about 50 points) about 6 weeks
ago, and passed with flying colours - nowhere less than 5mm of steel.
Maybe he ain't the best surveyor in the world. Anyway, as a result I
am super-paranoid about it leaking again, and as I am still doing it
up and not living/sleeping on it, I'm going to risk it for now. It
also makes me aware that its going to be worth fitting some kind of
early warning system - possibly sectioning up the bottom (sealing
every few ribs) so that if it does leak again, I'll have a pretty good
idea where, and it should get deep enough to trigger a sensor there
without taking on too much water. And fit multiple bilge pumps.

Does that seem reasonable?

Jim

Steve Lusardi wrote:
Jim,
This could be a very serious problem. You need the entire hull surveyed with
ultrasound to determine plate thickness. You may very wll find this is the
tip of a large iceberg so to speak and the entire boat maybe unsafe. Please
take this seriously and pull it out of the water immediately.
Steve

wrote in message
...
Hi all,
No rush for answers on this one, but I'm sinking... I found a bit
of water in the bilges and put it down to something benign, but on
inspection, found a blister on the paint inside the hull, which when I
burst revealed a ~2mm square hole in the hull on the bottom of the
boat. I've plugged it with gaffer tape, rubber mats and bits of wood
for now, but has anyone got any neat ways of fixing this without
taking it out of the water (boat is a 20 tonne wrought iron/mild steel
dutch barge, and a proper repair job would be ~�700)?
I'm thinking a bolt with a big rubber washer on both sides and
liberal use of silicon sealant. I'm hoping the rot is very localised.

cheers

Jim
UK