Aquasport 22-2 Rebuild Log

[compcrasher86]

After I got home from NH I invited a couple people out on the boat. When we got out there the back was sitting very low to the water and water was flowing in and out through the back drains on the top deck. I had everyone go up front to balance weight better and I checked the access hatch. I opened it up and found a ton of water in the bilge and my pump floating on top. Luckily the pump wasnt on because the float lever is built in and it was on top of water. Unluckily, the pump was not on the bottom of the bilge. I held it in place and it turned on and ten minutes later the water was gone.

So then we're all set, we got some drinks out and I go to Neutral throttle for warm up. I touch the throttle and a second later my hand is off and flailing around, the darn thing shocked me. So I took it apart, looked for a short, re-wrapped a couple bare wires and tried again. Three seconds of cranking and we were off and ready to go. In the end, it was a fun day.

I really need winter to come though. My pump needs to be screwed to the bottom of the bilge... (Before I bolted the pump to some plexi-glass and epoxied it to the bottom of the bilge but that didnt hold for long) And I need to install a thru-hull fitting (Right now, its a hose stuck out the metal vent on the port side aft with a clamp to make sure it doesnt fall back in.) I considered tying into the Ice box drain but thats too much of a hose run/incline for a bilge pump.

The only thing about a new thru-hull is that I would need to find a 90 degree model because the only place I can physically put one is by the metal vent plate at the back on port and even there I only have like 4 inches of depth. Does anybody have any experience/pictures/ideas installing bilge pumps in a 22-2 with thru-hulls?



A diagram in photoshop showing the only place I think I can put a thru-hull

[compcrasher86]

Something I really realized today may become a problem in the near future. Although my boat rides quite well and looks like it is in good shape. I am starting to have doubts about the condition of the hull. Today I got to my boat and pumped out a half-full bilge (I pumped it out the night before as well right before I left). Then I used it and did a full day of boating in some pretty rough seas (6-7 foot waves) Not once was my ride uncomfortable, my boat just plowed through the waves, although I did get drenched by spray many times. At the end of the day I checked the bilge and found a good amount of water, just as much as I had in the beginning of the day, if not a little bit more. So I pumped it all out and brought it back to the mooring.

Another thing I have ignored until now but I know I should really ask... I have periodically been finding chunks of foam floating in the bilge every so often. Some times they are the size of a quarter, other times they are the size of a large apple. I have been holding onto that foam and just leaving it in the bilge or putting in a bag. Of course the foam is wet and I just want to know if this is a problem I should be worried about and If it is, how I should go about fixing it.

So I have two fairly major problems to figure out:

Why does my bilge area fill up with water so quickly?

Why are chunks of foam showing up in my bilge?

On the positive side, I got my gauges lit up and set up an Engine/ignition status light. With a red and green LED assembly, a blank gauge plate, and some wire, I set up an Engine status light. Whenever the key is truned to "on" the green light glows. This is simply wired to the 12v accessory wire on the ignition. This tells me if I left my key in the on position (to play stereo, check volts, etc) The red light is wired identically to the engine buzzer. So, it blinks when I turn the key and lights up whenever there is something wrong (i.e. low oil/overheat/overrev/etc.) It looks cool at night and the red light gives me peace of mind because I dont trust that old 1987 buzzer. Heres a pic:

[Marcq]

Hi compcrasher86, I had the same problem with lots of water in the bilge when I first got my boat, couldn't figure out where it was coming from. What I have learned is that it doesn't take a big hole to let lots of water in. This spring I decided tackle the problem and found four water entry , bilge access hatch, drain plug,  one hole where the wires for bilge pump was going through the waterways near the transom, and another small hole on the deck near the waterways. So I installed a new Garboard plug and sealed the holes, now I get maybe a cup of water in the bilge after five hour of boating and it's coming from my access hatch which I'm going to change eventually

You shouldn't leave that floating foam in the bilge, don't want it to clog the pump. And I wonder if that foam is not coming  the fuel tank area !

I like your Engine/ignition status lights

Marc..

[compcrasher86]

Thanks for the response Marc

I just thought about the water entry issue and now that I think about it, when I was spraying down my boat, I saw water in the bilge flowing down from the front so I am going to try and find the entry point(s).
As for the foam, I imagine it is indeed coming from the fuel tank area because that whole section of the boat seems to be in disrepair.

I recently installed a brand new 1100gph Rule automatic pump and I have noticed the filter has to be changed daily and a quick inspection of the bilge tells me there is alot of junk (and many handfuls of sand?) in there. I have since unplugged the pump and I am using a hand pump until I clean out the bilge once I pull the boat for the winter

[compcrasher86]

Heres some good and bad news. Good news is I found out why I was getting so much water in the bilge.

Bad news is that it escalated to a whole new level. I got to my boat today and the back deck all the way up to the console was 2 inches underwater. Opening the access hatch to the bilge was a no-go because that would only let more water in. Luckily, my waterproofing of the bilge wires paid off and the pump was still working (good thing I didnt leave it on Auto or else I woulda had a flooded boat and a dead battery) So with the pump running I floored it  (hence the name of the boat "Floor It") to the nearest launch ramp (20 minute boat ride) where my buddy had a trailer waiting. We pulled it out and inspected two poor patch jobs on the bottom "V" edge of the hull that were definately the culprits. I wasnt surprised by the patches because the original owner bought her to build a house on an island and beached this boat quite often. Luckily I had my good camera so I got some pics of the two problem points:


^Near the bow about 4 feet back^

^3 feet from the stern^

My father is a pretty good fiberglasser so I am planning on just scraping the bottom paint, removing the old loose patch job, and re-glassing over it, and repainting.

If anybody has a better method/steps please share. I am tackling this job before labor day weekend so she can be in for some weekend fun.

[Marcq]

Holly molly, that does not look good, considering that the fiberglass should be pretty thick there, the previews owner must of have beaching it quite a bit. I'm no expert at this but wonder if it can be properly fix from the outside of the hull, I hope so :(

Marc..

[slippery73]

Your going to have a hard time doing that repair from the underside of the hull. I would not try to tackle it and have it ready for labor day. That glass is going to be saturated with water, it will need time to dry well before any glass is laid. It looks like a good bit of grinding, your going to have trouble getting material to adhere to the hull when its upside like that. I have found the best way to do this kind of repair is to get it glass ready, grind-sand etc., acetone wipe twice, then roll or brush on a layer of resin wherever your going to apply glass. Let it start to kick off, then you will want to apply your glass to the resin. Make sure you start from the center and work your way out, get out any folds, bubbles etc. Once this gels completely you can then wet out your glass and it shouldn't fall down, you can apply subsequent layers of materials the same way once the first layer starts to gel put up another layer of glass and so on.

[RickK]

That looks pretty bad     I think you can fix it from the outside though.  I had a similiar problem caused by the cross member on my trailer as best as I can tell and I did the repair while on the trailer. My boat was taking on a lot of water and I couldn't see any damage, seems it was cracked/worn through where it sits on the front wood cross member so I didn't find it until I jacked the boat up in front a bit.

Here is a link to the repair.  I agree with slippery, you need to dry it out before tackling it though which might push you past this weekend.  You'll know better after you start grinding into her.  
Another way to glass it in is to pull the fiberglass mat apart, like ripping it by hand into strips, which gives you a rough edge but way more irregular surface to adhere with.  After grinding the area down deep enough to get all the damage, bad mat out and enough to build it back up structurally, clean the area and then brush your first coat of resin on and place these "ripped" pieces in from each side going with the length of the boat and over lapping the "torn edge" at the keel.  This will give you a much easier way to roll out bubbles and get it nice and air free.  I even mixed up some resin with cabosil to help build "the edge" of the keel out and layed that in underneath and at the same time as my first layers of glass - worked fine but since you're upside down, it is messy.  A fiberglass repair guy taught me the "tearing" technique and it really helped plus he said it would be stronger because of all the contact area.  End result is my boat doesn't leak a drop now.
Good luck.

[compcrasher86]

the previews owner must of have beaching it quite a bit.

As far as I know, the previous owner never used her at all, so it must have been the original owner who beached and patched her. The patch job was probably 20 years ago so I dont blame it for coming loose.

I would not try to tackle it and have it ready for labor day. That glass is going to be saturated with water, it will need time to dry well before any glass is laid.

I have decided to wait and do the repair over labor day. The trailer has been tilted upwards all weekend and the drain plug is out so hopefully water has drained/dried out since I pulled it

I had a similiar problem caused by the cross member on my trailer

If my boat was on the original trailer, the damaged areas would have been hidden by one of the rollers and crossmembers of my trailer. My friend let me borrow and adjust his trailer which supports the boat from the side/underside and keeps the keel entirely visible.

The boat has been in a parking lot for a couple days due to a wrong sized trailer ball so I am bringing her back to the yard today. Will post more pics of damaged areas and repair as I go along

[compcrasher86]

The trailer is in the yard (in towing I realized the trailer is a couple feet shorter than it should be, oh well I made it home with no problems)

I also opened all of the access hatches to the hull and washed the boat out best I could with a garden hose. The result was about 8 cups full of sand and dirt that washed down. WOW!

I also sprayed off the old gas tank and I was amazed to see that most of what I thought was rust was actually dirt and grime. This is what it loks like now: (sorry about the angle, the sun was being weird and my camera phone was not cooperating)


and for comparison, this is what it looked like before


What I am debating now is the usability and condition of the tank. Before I thought it had to be trashed but now that extra 500 bucks or so would seem pretty nice towards saving for a little something from atlantic towers...

Oh yeah and notice the white triplex wire in the top photo... I had a tough time finding a way to get a wire for the bilge pump all the way to the console so going through the gas tank area seemed like the easiest. If there is a better route please share.

-Matt

If theres any more pics/tests I can do on the tank please share.

P.S. I found where all the foam was coming from! it was coming from the liner around the gas tank just as Marc had guessed a couple posts ago. I removed the loose chunks of foam. If anybody thinks it would be more logical to remove all of the foam once and for all, this is my chance because shes going back in after the fiberglass repair.

[Mad Dog]

Matt,

I can see in the pic of your tank (after cleaning) that there is flotation foam filling the spaces between the tank and the stringers.  Also, the tank is not coated with any kind of sealer.  Both of these thing raise my suspicion about the state of your tank.  The top looks fine but if the tank has problems its on the sides and bottom.  With the description you gave I would not judge the condition of the tank by what you can see.  Removing the tank is not that hard.  I hope it is in good shape but I would take it out and make sure.  Then while it is out I would prep and coat the tank to give me as much life as possible.

Here is link that you should check out.

http://marinesurvey.com/yacht/fueltank.htm

MD  

[compcrasher86]

Mad Dog, I agree with you that the tank needs to be pulled out and inspected. It needs to be removed anyways because If I do decide to reuse it, the tank needs to be professionally cleaned out because there is most definately old gas. The previous owner used external tanks because he could not figure out how to connect the internal one to the engine so I imagine there must have been a little bit of 3-5 year old fuel sitting in the bottom of the tank when I filled it. Since my clogging problems I have pumped and filtered the remaining fuel using the feed line and now it is only giving me air so I assume the tank is empty. (Plus the built in gauge is as low as it goes and does not budge at all) This winter I will lift the tank out of the boat with some help from the guys and we will assess the tank. Will take more pics then.

Oh and btw Mad dog, I checked out the album in your signature, they will be valuable pictures and inspiration for me if I ever rip up my deck because our models are only two years apart yet everything about yours is exactly the same as mine, except I have now bowrails (but I can see the patches where they were removed)


Meanwhile while I wait for the damaged fiberglass on the hull to dry out:

I finally got around to scraping, sanding, and painting the engine using some expensive Mercury Phantom Black from West Marine. It shines beautifully:

At first I debated the debranded look:

But the engine seemed to plain so I painted up the Evinrude decals and popped them on:

And from the back:


And I also lifted up the wiring channel and sprayed out 35 years of pine needles, dirt, and long lost deck hardware (nuts and bolts)

I then re-routed the front nav light wires through an opening near the gas fill plate, under the deck, and into the console through a hole next to the gas tank (I will take pics tomorrow, its too dark right now.)

Then, using that same wiring hole, I added new wiring from the console following the entire length of the boat underneath both gunwales and for a future gunwale LED project. (I ordered 100 white LEDs so I plan on doing a lot of deck lighting and replacing my nav and anchor bulbs with LEDs)

[Capt. Bob]

Lookin' good and yes...

The motor looks a lot better with the badges.

[compcrasher86]

My friend came over today to check out the engine paint job and he ended up staying for a couple hours. In that time you could say we basically took apart my boat and put it back together again. While I was screwing around with the engine (which I should say looks amazing considering its from '87), I unplugged the spark plug wires for the heck of it. Sure am glad I did because two of the plugs were all corroded and rusty. One of the cables basically deteriorated as I unplugged it and another cable had an old rusted spring thing in it that just fell right out when I unplugged it. I think I know why my engine doesnt like starting unless I give it a lot of Netral Rev. To elimiinate all guesswork I am just bringing the cables and the plugs into the Evinrude dealer down the street and buying new plugs and cables there. After all, spark plugs are cheap anyways right?

When we got around to the gas tank, we tried to pull it out and check out the bottom but even with the retaining straps unbolted, the tank didnt budge. We tried everything but the tank felt like it was glued to the boat. Whats a good way to get the stock gas tank out of a 22-2?

Another thing I did while my power tools were in the boat is that I drilled a couple very small holes in the corners of the two smaller front lockers (not the ice box) where water would collect if it ever got in there. I figured that water rarely would make its way in and if it did, than it would need someway to drain out. So I figured it was ok to drain right into the hull because there would be minimal, if any water going through there.

**I also managed to order a nice 90 degree thru-hull from West Marine but they only sell 3/4" so I had to get a step-up adaptor because my bilge output is 1 1/8". I will basically have a jet of water shooting out when my pump goes on. Oh well! Oh and while I was in there I managed to land a job working weekends so that should be really fun and plus it will land me a hefty employee discount. It has been a great week.

And as for the hull, the front hole is dry but the back needs some more time, and then I will have some fiberglass fun. My friend also told me about this rubber lining you can purchase to go over the V-Edge (sorry dont know technical terms) of the hull and protect it from chips and scrapes and holes like mine. It should help to protect the new patch I am putting on

[GoneFission]

The V-thing is a keel, and the protector is called KeelGuard.  Here's a link to it on the West Marine web site:

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... assNum=641  

Good luck!