1993 Aquasport 250 Explorer - Newbie

[Capt. Bob]

Dan,
I think you'll find that is a large part of your cabin water.

Forget the control panel removal idea. There is a bulkhead that blocks the view (on mine anyway).

Do you have carpet on the bunks? Do the cushions set on top of the carpet or do you not have them in the cabin?

After crawling around in my cabin today, access to the starboard thru-hull is via a removable black cover over the starboard bunk (as pictured in an earlier post today).
That was Rick's cabin but mine is about the same.

Hummm? If I'm seeing carpet on the bunk ( ) is it removable? Have you removed it and if not, might something be hiding under there

[RickK]

The pic Bob showed are of my 230s cabin.  Your's is much different.
I will see Dave tomorrow and will ask him about his thru-hulls.

I was hoping that you had access to the boat after it is put away.  :cry:  I would take a water hose to it and have someone inside to see what happens.  But if it gets put away wet, that may not be a good thing. Filling the anchor locker without a way to evacuate the water will be a pain - maybe it won't take much water to show a leak?

As for the anchor locker I would think about a couple things: Instead of lining it, maybe re-gelcoating it and drilling a 1/4" hole in both aft corners out through the hull and putting the cap I mentioned earlier on them.  They face aft so as you cruise or cut through waves the caps cover the hole.  I'm not sure what the caps are called but I can find that out too. Like a vent or something.

Another thing - do you not have a "pie-plate" access to the bilge at the bottom of your steps into the cabin (in the lowest level floor)?  I have a drain hole and an access plate there in mine.

[FisherDan]

Hi Guys

The inside of the cabin is pretty much fully carpeted, and the carpet is glued down. If you look at the picture showing the forward part of the cabin, you will see that the carpet is on the ceiling, walls, over the bunk area. Carpet is basically everywhere except the floor and the sides of the bunks that go down to the floor. I have blue cushions that then sit on top of the carpet, but took them out for those photos.

I do not seem to have any hatches through the bunks as shown in your photos. If they are there, then they are under the glued carpet. I knocked around and felt the surface to see if I could feel something through the carpet, but could not feel anything that I thought might be a hatch. I am not sure if the carpet is original or not, but I think it is original because it is worn, looks old and has a lot of water stains.

The floor of the cabin is solid. There is no pie plate or other access hatch. The only thing on the floor inside the cabin is the slot for the table post to go into. It is a round metal slot. I looked around that and it is screwed in, it does not seem to be meant to be removed.

I am going to test the anchor box with water tomorrow. I will just use a little at first, just enough to cover the bottom and then add slowly. I will take a big cup and some towels to bail the water out afterwards. The water won't matter for storage, because the boat will be stored indoors and does not get sealed in shrink wrap. It remains open and can dry, we even open the hatch to let the cabin ventilate. So it would be no different than what happens with rain, in fact it will finally have a chance to really dry out!

New gelcoat and drilled fittings inside the anchor box could definitely be the way. I figure if we do that, as well as fix the windshield, the rub rail, and fill/seal all other screw holes, then I just cannot fathom where else water could get in. But I am still very interested in that starboard side, forward discharge port.

Regarding those caps, are they sort of like clamshells? Or do they have a flap like a scupper? If you could get a picture or two of your buddy's boat, that would be great.

Thanks again
-Dan

[FisherDan]

Hi Guys

I poured about 1 gallon of water into the anchor locker to see what would happen.

First, I do in fact have a drain, on the port side corner, that I hadn't seen in the evening light the other day. It is very small, actually elevated a little above the very bottom, and drains out a small port near the port bow. The direction of the sun was such that it showed up well today:



This is a photo of the discharge port, looking down from the bow



Second, the water drains from the anchor locker into the cabin faster than it pours out the drain! In the time it took me to walk into the cabin after pouring in the water, the forward section of the carpet (right where the water stains are) was completely soaked. It was dry before the test. The water then also runs down along the starboard bunk, right where it edges up to the wall. This leads straight to where it seems to run over the bunk onto the floor and collect. So this seems to be the major part of my water issue. You can see the water coming in from this photo



Third, I took the board off behind the control panel and looked at the wiring. There is a wire on the terminal strip that is labeled "Forward Bilge." Because there is wiring for it, and I have that mystery discharge port forward near the starboard bow, then I assume it is there. But I still cannot find any sort of access hatch. I felt all around on the carpet over the bunks, and cannot feel anything except where there are the round holes used to fill the foam in.

Here is a photo of where the head used to be, now it is a storage chest and we have a cushion that fits on top of it. There is no access hatch inside of there except one that was put in as part of the modification (you can see it up against the wall), that only accesses a different part of the chest and does not access a bilge



This next photo is the chest of drawers that was put in where the sink used to be. The discharge port for the sink is behind there but capped and does not appear to be leaking, although you can see some dark staining behind the top shelf that I am pretty sure is from the missing windshield screws:



So, it appears to me that my biggest issue is the anchor locker. Given the amount and rate of water coming into the cabin, I think what I am going to do is drill a second drain on the starboard side, a little lower than the original one. I am also going to re-seal the walls of this locker somehow. I think Rick suggested gelcoat...I am thinking maybe polyurethane because I can lay on good sealing coat? Any thoughts?

Thanks again for helping me work through this.

-Dan

[Capt. Bob]

 But I still cannot find any sort of access hatch. I felt all around on the carpet over the bunks, and cannot feel anything except where there are the round holes used to fill the foam in.

Round holes? Do you feel a hole similar in size to the finger hole in the hatch cover in the pic below?



Here is a photo of where the head used to be, now it is a storage chest and we have a cushion that fits on top of it. There is no access hatch inside of there except one that was put in as part of the modification (you can see it up against the wall), that only accesses a different part of the chest and does not access a bilge



When you lift out that hatch cover shown in the back (the rectangular one with the finger hole) what do you see?


-Dan

[RickK]

I went over to my buddy Dave's house yesterday and talked with him about his thru-hulls and they are identical to yours.  He has only one thru-hull on the starboard side and it is large (like yours) and is for the head.  His is located in the same place as yours.  The reason it is a little farther forward of where the head is, is because the discharge plumbing requires a special loop or hanging so that there is like a "trap" in the line.  He also has one thru-hull on the port side for the sink.
Looks like you've solved you mystery leak.  Dave also said to check the windshield screws, his leaked there too.
He said that he has no forward bilge pump but also has a switch for both.  He has no pie-plate access in the sole in the cabin.

[Capt. Bob]

He said that he has no forward bilge pump but also has a switch for both.  He has no pie-plate access in the sole in the cabin.

Maybe Aquasport originally felt that the "Deltaconic" hull's slope didn't require a forward pump unlike the other EX models. Interesting.

[FisherDan]

Hi Rick and Bob

Bob, the "round holes" that I feel under the carpet are perhaps 3 inches in diameter, and I can feel that they seem to be filled with foam. They are the same size as one that is under the drawers, that I can see is filled with foam. So they don't seem to be hatches.

Inside the hatch installed where the head was, there are wooden bulkheads on both sides. I suspect they were installed as part of the modification; and the bulkhead towards the bow is a prime target for me to remove and take a look. It has a couple screws holding it in place.

Rick - Thanks for talking with your friend, that insight helps a lot. I did a little research last night online about marine heads (remember - first boat for me, so a lot to learn!). It seems they usually have a through-hull discharge as well as a pump-out port and vent that come up on deck somewhere. It would make sense that they needed some space for the plumbing. I also saw drawings of the trap you mention. I have no idea where the pump out port or vent may have been, I looked all over the deck for some evidence of a repair if one was removed and could see nothing. Also good insight about the double rocker switch and wiring on your buddy's boat.

Well I definitely have my work cut out for me for the spring. But I love the boat, it is a great fishing platform so I am going to make the effort and get her in shape. Any of you guys make it up to the Jersey Shore area, make sure to look me up and we'll go fishing. She gets pulled out for the winter on Monday (a sad day, and I hope in Florida you don't have to deal with).

Thanks again! And let me know if you get any more bits of wisdom for me.

-Dan

[RickK]

Hi Dan,
Dave just called me and was looking at the topic here - he'd respond himself but he can't remember his login name and password (plus he can't type worth a hoot   ) - check your PMs - I shot you his cell # - call him - it's easier than him typing.

Anyway, he said that the front of your cabin is a fake bulkhead made of wood.  Pull that off and you'll see 1) it's rotten and 2) exactly where the leak is.  The locker has multiple problems - the glass was laid up by hand and water can get between layers of glass at the bottom so you need to seal that up.  The wood there is a temporary block that was used to attach the bulkhead or bottm of the locker or something like that and is not really needed anymore but needs to be sealed.  He says to put drains on both sides of the locker and you need to change the type of vent cap they used because the type on there right now will let water in when you go thru waves.  He said he 5200'd the heck out of his locker to seal it up.
He also said to pull your windshield and seal it up the right way.
He saw some other issues where leaks might be but it's easier for you to call him.  You can talk to him about the head vents and stuff then.

[FisherDan]

Hello Again!

It is finally spring here and we just got the boat back in the water. Not much going on here with respect to fishing so it is a good time to fiddle with things. But before taking the boat out of the warehouse, while it was still nice and dry and stored indoors, we had a few things fixed as we discussed on the board last December:

Anchor box - Cut out the wood bulkhead out of the rear (the back wall that forms the forward bulkhead of the cabin), it was quite soft as I already knew. Replaced wood bulkhead and reglassed the entire box. Also put a few extra layers of glass on the bottom, to raise the bottom up to be very close to the drain hole. We opted not to install a new drain; we decided to try this fix now and see if it works before drilling more holes through the hull.

Windshield - Unscrewed the windshield and lifted it up, cleaned the surfaces, everything looked good there. Placed the windshield back and installed new screws, and then replaced the neoprene-like gasket that sits in the groove where the screws are.

Rub rail - Removed the rub rail, also cleaned up that surface, filled old screw holes, and reinstalled. Replaced the nylon rope insert (which had shrunk and popped out around the anchor pulpit) with a non-shrinking poly rope.

Result - We had a big rainstorm on Thursday night and Friday morning, just two days after putting her back in the water. With great trepidation, I went down to the boat late Thursday morning...and the cabin was completely bone dry!      :sunny:

Now I am ready! Even caught a couple fish on Saturday: winter flounders. Small and boring but it is all we have around here this time of year and it was a great excuse to get out on the water.

[Capt. Bob]

A bunch of little things can make a big change.

[RickK]

Sounds like your efforts paid off - congrats