Sloping the Bilge?

[Extemporaneous]

Originally Posted by bmiller

I just did this on a much smaller scale. My boat is a Com-pac 27. The ballast is concrete. The bilge is made by placing a plywood form in the keel and the concrete is poured around it. The whole thing is then glassed over. Over the years water made it's way into the plywood and it was rotting out. I tore out the old bilge and plywood form which left me with an issue, rebuilding the bilge with the proper slope. Since the surface I was working on was laready concrete I used grout, sand/cement mix and built a very smooth and well sloped bilge. Then the whole thing got reglassed with epoxy resin. The majority of the shape was very cheap and easy to work. If it should encounter water intrusion it wont rot, rust or delaminate. It'll just be damp concrete. On top of the e-glass it got two coats of bilgekote.

For your project why wouldn't something like that work? You can even get admixs for the grout that make it bind to most anything, however a little flex might be a good thing.

I think that I've decided that I won't be doing that much buildup (possibly 1") and considering that thickness it's not worth a different material as a filler that would have to be covered with epoxy/fiberglass anyway.
Regarding the Bilgekote, did you look at the AwlGard?
Or any other type of Bilge paint?
Are you happy with your paint?
Was it difficult or temperamental to install?

Thanks,
Extemp.

[bobfnbw]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

Bob, did you take pictures of the gunk in your tank? It would be great if you could post pictures of the stuff here or the "Fuel Polishing" thread. Thanks

I have not, but still have the bag sitting in my yard. I will post it when I can. What a mess it was.

I took one of my aluminum tanks to a company the other day, they will sand blast it, then a local welder will put on a new top. I am going to use permacoat for the inside of the tank. One day I might replace this tank with a new aluminum one for fuel, but in the mean time, I'll keep it for water.

[Extemporaneous]

Thought I'd share what I did to slope my bilge.
It took some work, but I think its worked quite well. Since I've got sooo much going on (total refit of the interior) this wasn't any more disruptive than the overall pain in the ass that that working in a boat must always be.
Anyway, I took everything that was of any density at all and either took it off the boat or moved it to the stern. I then filled my water tanks (aft of center) adjusting their capacity to also make the boat level from starboard to port (anal I know).
This put the bow considerably higher then it will be when the boat will be loaded properly. At this point I just used epoxy and let it self level. I did use layers of fiberglass in the thicker areas.
It has created an almost perfectly flat slope that will have enough slope to get any water to drop over the edge into the sump.

Regards,
Extemp.