Leaky Boat - Finally diagnosed

[mo2vation]

I bought a couple of boats (Prowler 15's - the newest at the time) from Allen's several years ago.

My wife's boat is dry - mine was leaking. Badly.

Badly.

I live in LA - so I made the haul back down to SD to Allen's and OK replaced it.

The new one leaks, too - but it leaks less than the original.

Wife's boat is still bone dry. I'm a little bitter about that, but I'll get over it some day.





Fast forward 5 years or so to present day. I'm doing more long touring, and spending more time on the water (diving from the boat now, etc.) and I'm not comfortable about the amount of water and I'm taking on.

After reading through several excellent posts here I decided this weekend to give it a go and see if I can find the darn leak. Of course, the scuppers are the first suspects.

I rack the boat and put several inches of water in it. Nada. I decide to move the boat to more sturdy supports (saw horses) so I can put in more water - and as I move it, the water tips to the stern.

And now one of the rear scuppers is leaking.

Really leaking.


This looks like a trickle - its really pretty bad



Its coming out pretty good now




This puddle is after only about 2 minutes or so. Imagine 3 hours...



The leak is way up there - where the two halves of the boat come together. No way to get the traditional welding tools up in there.

My local OK dealer recommended that I bead and tool some Lexel into the area where the leak is occurring (he said about a 1/8" bead should do.) It's easy to see how this happened - the halves of the scupper holes don't line up well (understatement) and there's a leak. I can't see daylight as its the smallest and deepest scupper on the whole boat (tank well.)

I got the snot in there, tooled into place and its curing now. I'll check it out when I get home tonight. I'll get the boat in the water Tuesday night after work - just a paddle around Marina Del Rey for an hour. I'll know if it worked when I get back to shore, and I'll post a note here.

This forum is the best. I love Kayak fisherman - they consistently show themselves to be the smartest, most savvy, most MacGyverest, most hard core, finest SOT kayakers on the planet. I'd rather spend 10 minutes talking with a Kayak Fisherman than an hour speaking with some over-educated, under-experienced, multi-color, pretty smelling, sunny day perfectly coiffed club paddler.

You guys rule.

Thx


-Ken

[Jimmyz123]

If that doesn't work you may want to look into installing a small bilge pump. I've thought about that with mine just in case, but haven't made the jump yet.

[mo2vation]

Originally Posted by Jimmyz123

If that doesn't work you may want to look into installing a small bilge pump. I've thought about that with mine just in case, but haven't made the jump yet.

Before the pump I'll stuff the foam practice golf balls into there from the bottom. They work great in keeping water out of the seat scuppers - I'm sure they'd significantly slow (and possibly eliminate) the on-take of water, as well.

Fingers crossed the snot works. Lexel is nasty stuff that is super gooey. I'm pretty confident it will grab hold. It just depends on if I slathered it onto the right place.

I marked the drip location with a sharpie as best as I could.

We'll see tomorrow night when I beach it and tip it.

Looking for a "drip drip" not a "slosh slosh"





-K

[old_rookie]

I was going to suggest that, but more of joke...
I thought kayaks were a single formed piece and not two halves welded together - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckN8Ot6lWRE - but not all kayaks are made the same way.

[mo2vation]

Originally Posted by old_rookie

I was going to suggest that, but more of joke...
I thought kayaks were a single formed piece and not two halves welded together - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckN8Ot6lWRE - but not all kayaks are made the same way.

The OK's are roto-molded, I believe. Just like what the vid probably shows.

There was a period of several years when their scuppers didn't line up. Its wacky, I know - but true. Serious leak points. A buddy just bought a new old-stock red Scupper Pro TW - and you look into the scuppers and they're not at all lining up (her's is bone dry, tho...)

Roto-molding isn't perfect. There will be times when the fill isn't distributed evenly, inconsistencies in flow, etc. Some people have reported leaks in the most unexpected places.

I just got unlucky twice.

-K

[old_rookie]

In that case, it could be the two halves of the molds that don't line up very well. I wonder if you could put a sleeve down in the scupper with a bunch of marine goop on the outside of the sleeve before sticking it in (sounds wrong) - it would make the opening of the scupper smaller, but if the leaks stop who cares.

[Iceman]

With pin holes in the scupper I like to hit inside and out if possible with marine goop after completely drying and possibly scuffing the surface with 80 grit sand paper.

Too hard to weld.