Flooded Boat - Help!

[Siberian Sea]

Yes, the advice to install a garboard drain plug is without doubt the way to go. Imagine what might happen to a vessel that over time fills with water while halled out. The weight of the water might cause the support blocking holding the vessel upright to fail. Then the boat falls over and maybe even contacts the next vessel along side. What an expensive mess just because someone did not want to install a 15 dollar drain plug. Do yourself and other boaters a service and have one installed.

[wrwakefield]

I'm sorry to hear of their misfortune, and hope recovery efforts are successful.

Air circulation [fans at a minimum] and dehumidifier(s) the rest of the time will help dry it out.

For failsafe prevention, here is a brief article about installing the afore mentioned garboard plug.

We used a through-hull fitting with a valve instead. The valve has a plug on the inboard side as a safety when in the water. This allows us to repurpose the drain as a through-hull should the need arrise...

We jokingly call this our 'scuttle valve'... [But aren't all underwater through-hulls?...]

In your neighbor's case, they might want to hedge against a recurrence by drilling a garboard drain pilot hole now [to allow for drainage] and completing the install when they have time, or epoxying the hole shut before launching.

Best wishes resolving everything. Your neighbors are lucky to have you next door...

Cheers! Bill

[dgz3]

Being careful of the risk of FIRE..... you could try a propane heater, carefully adjusted to heat output, in combination with some fans to keep air moving and circulating around inside, and a partially open upper hatch with an exhaust fan to move the moisture laden warmed air out of the boat.
Crack open a hatch at the opposite end to allow fresh air in. They'll need a generator to move any significant amounts of air over any length of time. But using a propane heater means they can use a much smaller generator as fans need very little current. Electric heat needs lots.
The idea is; suck fresh dry air in, heat it and circulate it so it can absorb more moisture, then blow it outside, thus creating suction to pull more air in. Too much airflow will inhibit your ability to warm it enough. Too little will prevent you from moving the moisture out. Open the intake hatch on the upwind side and the output hatch on the downwind side so as not to fight mother nature. And open up and prop up and open everything inside.
Depending on ambient temperature and humidity, and local wind speeds, this can work better than just opening up all the hatches. Just blowing cold damp air over it may not help much.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by carlheintz

Great advice. This thing has been wet for maybe a month... hard to tell...
I guess I will have to get a generator and get some fans going... and maybe a heater to dry it out.

Any advice on the sole (floorboards)?

Move some air through her. It seems you have done everything necessary.

[Jerry Schwab]

We pumped out water with 110V auxiliary pump then successfully used a Bissel Spot Bot or Pet Cleaner to draw water from bilge and dry our sailboat using its hose attachment - long process but left everything spotless

[roland stockham]

Bin there, it happened to me in Aruba of all places! The good thing is that it is rain water not salt water. As people say you need to dry it out steadily with lots of air, not to fast or hot. Dehumidifiers will only work if you have big industrial ones. You do need to empty the boat both the improve air flow and salvage or junk water damaged gear. I will almost certainly have written off all the bilge pumps. Carefully check the engine and transmission and change all the fluids as water standing for some time will probably have penetrated the seals

[nautitrix]

Pull up the floor boards, get a wet dry shop vac and vacuum everywhere that you see moisture. Go to an equipment rentals place and rent some large fans they make special ones for drying out carpet. put the carpet one aimed at the bilge get two large exhaust fans and place them so one pushes air into the salon through a hatch get a bigger one to exhaust out the companion way. It is more effective to pull air with a fan than push it but in this case you want flow through. if all access and storage hatches are open you should see a huge improvement in 48 hours. Leave a dehumidifier on after the first attack and you will draw out the permeating moisture. Have your neighbours hire someone in the yard to check their boat from now on.
Good luck
BobV

[AbelCMann]

Leaf blower ( backpack kind) might be useful. Open everything you can for ventilation

[thruska]

Depending on the make and model and size it maynot be so terrible.
Our28 had some interior submersion. It did notreach the engine oil pan. 4" water mark in galley, that means bikge full and 4" deep on sole. We replaced bilge keel step , as incolumbia the step is 2 pc , short step in bikge and upper pc sole to deck. There were no other damages with bulkheads or cabinets,. But we suspect the bilge may have had water intrusion before due to the bilgestep condition.
Everyghing above sole was fine.
Does your boat have complete wood interior ?
Hoping its not particle board, marine plywood may survive but needs to be dry to reseal with epoxy to save it.
If brass and ss were used as joiners even better. If not you will see rust seepage eventually. Depends on the builder.
In some areas winters are dryer than summers. But getting soaked wood dry before freeze is important. Good luck in your efforts.
Good luck with the weather.

[JimsCAL]

Pulling the speed transducer and leaving it out can at least prevent major flooding of the interior. Just don't forget to put it back before you launch in the spring!