Bilge Water and Encapsulated Keel

[levante]

I drilled 60 holes into my keel sucked the water out of them. Filled the holes with acetone, let them drain and went back to them to remove excess moisture with the wet Vac, I 'm sorry for wording the advice wrong. No I would not suck pure acetone or any other Flammable liquid through a wet vac. Nor would I operate a wet vac inside the boat where I was useing Zylene or Acetone untill the boat had been well Ventillated. As for Acetone being contaminated were talking about the internal ballast of a boat here thats been saturated with years of dirty bilge water seeping into it.I do agree with the fresh water to dry the fiberglass out. A big question to ask is what was the substrate used around the Ballast. When you remove the bilge sole it's quite shocking what's underneath there. Mine was filled with concrete that encased the lead. Nearly impossible to dry out. Some builders foamed in the aft sections of the bilge for extra floatation then glassed over it. In theses instances the foam must be removed. If I had the resources at the time I would have drilled 10 or 15 1" holes into the outer keel untill I hit led. Rented two Torpedo Heaters and monitored my fiberglass temp to stop it from Delaminating and let the moisture weep from the holes till she was dry It would have been a whole lot faster than how I dd it.

[anjolain]

Thanks everyone for your contribution earlier! We are starting this project in January. I try to make a repair plan so I am prepared to discuss about it with the yard. As mentioned in my first post, the most likely culprit for the water in the keel is the uncovered spot in the back corner in the bilge. There is probably void there, which has some water inside. I also think, that water has seeped in the area under the bilge. HotVac can be used for the keel area, but the pads do not fit into the bilge. So one option is to use wet Vac inside the bilge.

But in which order should we progress? Start by drilling holes outside and use HotVac, or open the bilge and try to vacuum as much water as possible out?

[levante]

Your ready to start then I would deal with the void first. The yard guys can open the void up useing a dremel type cutter to remove a small section of the laminate and see the full extent of the damage. I suggest a dremel or an air compressed grinding tool their the only tools that really fit in the narrow aft section of the bilge. Suck out the water useing a wet vack. Then hang a lightbulb in your bilge 60 to 100 watts above the repair (note the 100 watt bulb gets hot and if you have any left over oily residue in your bilge this could be dangerouse so be mindfull of it) this will start the drying process. The yard should have a moisture meter if not most Surveyors have them check to see where the highest levels of moisture are located in your bilge 20% and above is usually a clear indication of saturated laminate sections or standing water (there is much speculation about moisture meters but I used one to locate wet areas of my bilge and the meter was accurate) I am not familiar with heating pads but the moisture needs to escape somehow. If the moisture is located in mainly one area hopefully it will be near where your void is. If this is the case when you engage the heating pads moisture may find it's way out where you cut open the section of fiberglass inside the boat. Use the moisture meter and visual obsevations to see if this is the case. If thats not working you'll need to drill some holes to let the water out. Hope this has been helpfull. Both jobs should be simultaniouse.