So I was gearing up for my trip to Superior today and thought I'd give my M15 a good once over. I looked in the bow locker (which I almost never use) and noticed that there was a swollen bit of the hull about 5 inches from the aft edge of the locker. Not only was it a bit wet in the locker, but the swollen bit (about 5 inches across, running laterally) had pushed up what appeared to be a fiberglass patch pretty significantly, cracking it open and exposing what looked to be rusting metal. Upon further inspection, there were some holes at the joint where the aft locker wall meets the hull - no rusty metal there, but it was unclear if they were supposed to be there as they were irregularly shaped.. Seeing as the boat was salvage from the bottom of the ocean in TX, I figure salt water got in there and is slowly destroying whatever in between the layers of fiberglass. I'm going to put off the trip to take the boat out and see if water is actively getting in there and how. My questions are these: 1. Is it rusting metal that I see? 2. What can I do about it? 3. Should there be any openings into that locker? perhaps for water to get out? or to the bilge? I had my brother shine a light up into the keel to see if it was open to that, but didn't see any light. The hull seems sound - I've been sailing it for years with no problem, and have patched anything remotely like a crack from the outside, so it's a bit of a mystery to me how water is getting in there. Thanks for the help/advice! On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 10:01 PM, bownez@juno.com <bownez@juno.com> wrote:
Jerry,
Thank you for the enlightenment. (again).
Bones
____________________________________________________________ Keep your hair. Click for permanent solution to hair restoration
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTKuxJsol7WCOMM67b0kwEQGJh5...
_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!
-- Chris