I teach
marine fire fighting and how to stop vessels from sinking to
Navy, Coast Guard,
Washington State Ferries and the
fishing fleet.
You can make these yourself to use aboard your vessel, to whatever size you want and have them ready for an
emergency.
First is the folding plate patch. Take a piece of
plywood or metal and cut a 3",4" or 12" circle, the size is up to you. Now drill a 1/4" or 1/2" hole in the center. Now cut the piece in half, now put the two pieces back together with piano hinge. You now have a circle that folds in half. Where you drilled the hole is where you place a piece of line to length of your choose, tie a
knot and put it thru the hole. The folding plate patch is designed to fold up as you put it thru a hole, once thru it will open, you pull on the line to bring the patch up to the exterior or the hole. Most folding plate patches have sheet rubber glued to them to make a better seal. This may slow things down enough for your blige
pump to keep up or slow it enough to make some sort or epoxie
repair. You do not have to go over the side of your vessel to apply something like this. This will slow the water down considerably. You can ever put rags or small pieces of
clothing around the edges to slow things down ever more.
Another way to stop a leak with out having to go over the side. Fist have something that will fit thru the hole and it must float. Attach a line to this floating item you are putting thru the hole from the inside of your vessel. Have someone outside reach over and grab the floating object or use boat hook. Pull the floating line up to the vessel. Now the things you can attatch to the line to pull back under the boat from the piece of line that is still inside your boat are endless. You can punch a hole thru a pillow with a knife, grap a cubbie hole lid, that may or may not have hole in the center all ready. Now put your line thru the pillow and then the wood lid, tie a big
knot. Now some one inside pulls the line, which pulls the pillow with wood backing plate up to the hole in your vessel. Pull tight, use a tounniquet, what ever it takes to slow this water down.. Now someone should be doing whatever it takes to stop water from coming in while things are being put together. Use a wood
plug, pillow, whatever it takes to slow it down.
Sometimes a wood
plug will not work from the inside. Again float a line out the hole to topsides for some someone to grab. Have eyebolts in all your wood plugs. Attatch line to eyebolt and pull the plug up to the hole, or a bucket or can. Something to give you time to get off or allow you time to get rid of the water you have, with very little coming in now, you can re-group and figure out what to do. Of cours a Mayday should have went out a long time ago. If your
repair will work you can call it off and just check in as needed.
Another option is a Box Patch or a Bucket with T,J,L and folding tee bolts. These are wood,
steel, or welded sheet metal boxes made to the size you want and they do not have to all be square. We use mostly wood with 3" to 6" sides. So the box can be as deep or shallow as you want and as small or as big as you want. The T,J,L bolts are made from all thread. Thats a steel bar completely threaded. Cut off one or two foot lengths of all thread. On one of them heat it up and bend a J shape, you now have a piece of all thread that looks like the letter J. To make the T and L hooks just cut small pieces and weld them to the end of the all thread to make the letters T and L. Once you have made your hooks it is time to drill a hole in the center of the box patch, pass the all thread thru the hole in the box/bucket. Now put a piece of rubber over the all thread and a washer, now thread your wing nut one. Box patch is now complete. Now put the box patch with T,J,L bolt over the bole or crack in your hull. (Type of damage determines the type of bolt in the box patch) Put the T,J,or L bolt thru the hole, spin it around to it will lock onto the outside of the hole, Tighted down on the wing not to bring the box patch up tight to the hull. This will stop almost all the water, You can use an ax to make the box patch shaped like your hull or you can put wood wedges around the edges to stop more water. Rubber can be put on the box patch endges as you are makeing it. You can use them inside the vessel without ever having to go outside. If it will not work inside it make work outside for you. You will not spend a much time under water putting one of these on.
They truely do work and may give you the time you need to get back to shore or the time you need to get more off the vessel before having to leave it.
My wife and I
live aboard our
Ericson 39B here in Bremerton, WA. Any questions or if you want to visit my
school. It looks like a ship inside our burn building and the
engine room is what we flood out. E-mail me at
mtinder@olympic.edu , have a great day.