> But there is no gelcoat under the v-berth where the majority of
> this water is standing. I will not have the luxury of a warning. Since
> the water stands just forward of the mast, I have a fear of the mast
> dropping through a soft spot in the hull, swamping the boat.
The Gougeon Bros were talking about exterior gelcaot blisters that occur to
indicate water infiltration. The surveyor website I referenced addressed
exactly your point -- that water accumulating inside the boat can
potentially/maybe cause damage structural over a long time, and that you don't
always get gelcoat blisters on the outside to warn you there's a problem
>
> I should explain that this standing water is coming from rain
> and condensation. My boat is docked in a marina, year 'round,
> uncovered. I get standing water without ever sailing, so it is not the
> old leaking CB trunk issue.
>
> Since I cannot mop it up every time it rains (it is an hour
> drive, one way, to the marina), I need to find another solution:
>
> 1. continuously running fan / heater to aid in evaporation
> 2. find some way to make a liner in the unlined low spot
> 3. bilge pump (doesn't seam to make sense, my boat doesn't have
> a bilge per se)
>
A bilge pump doesn't sound AT ALLcrazy to me, if you keep your boat in a
marina far away from home. With a few good rains, and a leaking cockpit drain
fitting, an automatic bilge pump could prevent that most dreaded of phone
calls, "Hello, this is the HarborMaster. I'm sorry to say that your boat sunk
last night" : ^ (
I don't plan on installing one, but I do plan on keeping the boat covered and
running a forced air heater that turns on at whatever the average dew point
it. And I have the day/night solar powered fan stuck in where the original
cowl vent on the foredeck used to be. We just moved the boat out of dry
storage (without electical service, so we couldn't run a heater) to our side
yard, where we just installed a new wide gate. I need to get the boat really
dry before I tackle the fiberglass work to fix the "bilge" problem.
Have you considered moving some of the heaviest gear aft while the boat is at
the slip? That way the water would puddle further aft, out in the open air.
It seems to me that if you're going to have water condensing or leaking in,
you want it to puddle in an area that's exposed to the open air, so you can
evaporate it with a fan/heater.
Fair Winds,
Judy B.
Judith Blumhorst, DC
P-19 Fleet Captain, Potter's Yachters
WWP-19 #266 "Red Wing"
SF Bay Area, CA