My boat is leaking

[glen]

About 40 rivits and the keel has a crack. I guess about a couple gph.   

I’m still ok to use it because I have a 750gph pump.  But I’m going to stay within 10miles of shore.  For sale one gentle used boat pick up on the bottom of the lake.  

With that many rivits loose I’m worried the boat might brake in half on a wave.    the hull has a lot of paint on it.  
so fill the keel crack with JB weld and paint the rivits again I guess.  
Any thoughts?

[wkrp]

Tighten up the rivets if you have access on both sides and 3m 5200 on the crack

[Cast-Away]

Hey Glen, if you want to have it professionally repaired let me know. I can recommend a place near London that fixed mine last year. Not cheap but it was done right.

[irishfield]

I know a guy, but he's on holidays! 

[Old Ironmaker]

I know a guy but he's retired. I can say with certainty if you can see 40 loose rivets there are another 40 you can't see. I don't know how old the boat is but like everything else boats have a best before date that after that date we start to throw good money at. It's odd to me that we are more than willing to lose money trading in or scraping cars and trucks  and buying something newer or new but insist that 40 year old boats and motors run like they are new.  I agree boats are toys and vehicles get us to work and back so we can buy more toys. 

edit: What's the 10 mile thing? You can swim 10 miles, man you should be in the  Fisherman Olympics. They are cancelled this year. 

Edited August 16, 2020 by Old Ironmaker

[glen]

I know there are different options. That’s why I’m really thinking.  I bought a brand new motor and had a custom trailer made to my spec.  I redid this boat about 15 years ago.  Trailering has been hard on the boat.  
If I pull the floor out now I can’t fish anymore this year.  But I want to redo the floor and change the layout a bit.  I have more faith in new rivits then tightening the old ones.  40 seems like a bit of work though.   
I doubt a new boat would take the pounding.  
 

Don’t you fell safer when you can still see shore.  (10 miles).  

[AKRISONER]

Do you mind sharing the make and year of your boat?

[glen]

1975 Starcraft kingfisher.  
Poorly treated. Rammed rocks.   I’ve trailered it about 60,000km over the years.  
 

mid season brake down blues.  

[HTHM]

15 hours ago, Cast-Away said:

Hey Glen, if you want to have it professionally repaired let me know. I can recommend a place near London that fixed mine last year. Not cheap but it was done right.

Please share, inquiring minds want to know. 

I was looking at JJ Marine services in Hagersville. 

[AKRISONER]

1 hour ago, glen said:

1975 Starcraft kingfisher.  
Poorly treated. Rammed rocks.   I’ve trailered it about 60,000km over the years.  
 

mid season brake down blues.  

Don’t feel nearly as bad, I was worried you were going to say 2005 “brand” which I’ve seen recently...

[Whitespinnerbait]

1 hour ago, glen said:

1975 Starcraft kingfisher.  
Poorly treated. Rammed rocks.   I’ve trailered it about 60,000km over the years.  
 

mid season brake down blues.  

Time for the Boat Graveyard...😉

[glen]

What are the paying for scrap painted aluminum?

[Hack_Fisherman]

43 minutes ago, Whitespinnerbait said:

Time for the Boat Graveyard...😉

I’d pay scrap value for it!!

OP; it’s tough to find any boats this year, I bought and sold one in a week, had several more disappear before I could inquire. (Within days of listing)

I say patch it up with 5200 and use gently for the rest of the season. Repair this winter.

if rivets are really bad, what about using closed end pop rivets wicked in a bit of 5200 as a temp repair?

[glen]

I see now that   Somewhere on the keel, water is leaking and coming out the keel rib drain hole. ( The boat has three ribs with drain holes.)As if 40 leaking rivets ain’t bad enough.  
10gph leaks total I guess.  

Come  on give me a break I want to go fishing.  

[Hack_Fisherman]

24 minutes ago, glen said:

I see now that   Somewhere on the keel, water is leaking and coming out the keel rib drain hole. ( The boat has three ribs with drain holes.)As if 40 leaking rivets ain’t bad enough.  
10gph leaks total I guess.  

Come  on give me a break I want to go fishing.  

I wonder if the keel plug (sealant in the keel trough where the hull begins to fold together to form the bow) is leaking. I had a tin boat where the caulking had shrunk and it was a pretty fast leak. 

[Cast-Away]

1 hour ago, HTHM said:

Please share, inquiring minds want to know. 

I was looking at JJ Marine services in Hagersville. 

Heritage Marine in London. They replaced 11 rivets and replaced the floor and carpeting. They did a great job.

[pics]

Its going to cost more that the boat is worth unless you strip it right down yourself.. then theres the rebuild.. 

[glen]

How do you measure the cost of lost fishing time.   

[Cast-Away]

My rebuild was $4,800 Glen on a 19 year old boat.

[irishfield]

Fish out the season Glen, then rip the floor out and bring it up to me....

[wkrp]

40 leaky rivets is no big deal 3 hour job once you have access. I would be concerned about the hull leak which if a crack is the culprit then a aluminum doubler repair would be required. 

[misfish]

22 minutes ago, irishfield said:

Fish out the season Glen, then rip the floor out and bring it up to me....

Be sure to deliver after 10 am Glen . Seems to be a rule about showing up early .. LOL

 

Nice offer Wayne.

[AKRISONER]

Not sure I’d sink a ton into a 1975 if you’ve got the outboard.

lots of aluminum hulls to be found with no motor.

especially any guys running those early 2000’s two strokes. They all blew and left the owners with no motor.

Edited August 16, 2020 by AKRISONER

[Fisherman]

On the humourous side, you could get a few cans of that flex seal and spray it shut,  buddy on the commercial does it with a screen door bottomed boat.   No screen doors were hurt during the commercial.

I'd be actively looking for another hull, fall is fast approaching and some don't want to store their stuff, good deals to be had.

 

[floater]

I have an open floor plan 14 foot deep and wide. It too was leaking from so many rivets it would sink in four days if I left it in the water. I removed the interior floors and everything and found most of the water was coming in from the bottom of the transom. I ended up replacing 150 rivets. I used the airplane rivets and a bucking block and it was actually very easy to do. Just very noisy. It took me about two weeks to do the whole job because it took awhile to find a place that sold the rivets. I say fix it.