hull leaking

[Stephen]

I have an 1980 23, I noticed it was taking on water about a month ago. While on the trailer my friend told me to plug all the holes and fill the bilge until it starts to leak out, so we did and found a small leak down at the bottom front. Now I read to never fill your boat with water on land because it could cause major structual damage. Has anyone ever done this?

[castalot]

i did years ago with a 69 chritchfield 20 cuddy to find out that too many beachings woreout the bow a couple layers of glass and the boat is still running with no damage even survived a rearend accident on the highway

[Rainmaker]

Thats interesting, I have never heard about water in the bilge causing issues. I have put water in mine as part of hurricane preperation in order to add some extra weight. Hopefully that was not bad.

I have done this for 10+ years to 6-7 boats. No issues that I know of. I did not fill them though, just enough to keep them from moving.

[Stephen]

Thanks, I thought that was kind of odd, but I saw it in a couple of posts about how to find the leak in your hull.

[Stephen]

Thanks, I thought that was very odd myself. I saw it a couple of posts on how to find your leaking hull.

[ReelToy]

Wow that really is a kicker all boats are going to get water in them at some time. I fill mine with water if a hurricane is imminent when on trailer but try to get it out as soon as possible to keep from putting a hook in the hull.I doubt it is going to hurt for a short period unless your trailer really sux.

[4x4BLazer]

A not so bright neighbor of mine once left the drain plugs in during the winter. The boat filled with a lot of water and the weight of the water caused the hull to crack really bad where it rested on the cinder blocks. It wasn't covered and it wasn't self bailing so it filled until it began to drain over the transom. So were talking a few thousand pounds of water. I think you would be fine if you were just filling the bilge.

[76Red18]

If your close to your max trailer capacity, I'd block up the trailer to avoid stress on the axle assembly.

[Tiny]

Considering a lot of our boats are 30-40 years old and depending on how often they were fished, how the trailer is/was set up and the amount of beachings, they will wear through the keel to the keelson (the wood inside the boat that is glassed over)...either way it's nothing a some grinding and glass can't fix...I found it's best to leave the boat parked nose down for a days to let the water drain out, then nose up for a day...then do some grinding...then lay up some 1708/1808 in reverse order...from your largest piece to your smallest, rub area to receive glass with acetone good a couple times to remove some water...then paint with some more resin, and apply patch...not to hard or to expensive...good luck :-)