Tournament Leak Progress Report

[pjbink]

You have shown a close up photo from inside the compartment, but I was wondering shouldn't the gap causing

the leak be apparent from the outside?

Also aren't the compartments supposed to be foam filled?

And if the water is in both sides of the hull then wouldn't there also have to be leaks on boths sides?

[Paikea]

The pic is not of the inside of the compartment. It is looking up from the deck into the space between the inside of the hull and behind the panel where the GKM employee is cutting the bottom part off to get better access to that area.

We originally thought that a lack of bonding the deck to the hull and bulkhead somehow allowed water to get behind the glassing and run down into the forward compartment. To test that we ran water up the hull in the area above the deck today and watched the front compartment through the inspection port hole under the starboard seat. Nothing happened for a while and then we noticed water coming in from the rear of the compartment. (minute debris floating on top of that water showed that it was flowing in from the rear.). That was totally against our expectations.

We know that the shape of the hull at the chine line turns down to form a spray deflecting section. From the original pic of the grid provided by Haines we believe that the cross members of the grid stop about 25mm short of the inside of the hull and that when the timber floor on top of the grid is sealed to the hull it leaves a small opening between the floor and the grid at that point that could allow water to travel between compartments. The outward slope of the interior of the chine could allow water to travel to an aft compartment without necessarily having water enter into every compartment on the way aft.

To sum up, we know that fresh water has been entering the compartments from the front of the boat. There is no leak of saltwater from outside the hull. That is all sound. The other Tournament that we know off with very serious quantities of water in the compartments also had fresh water in the compartments. As that boat was operated in a salt environment we can be sure that the water that entered the "sealed" compartments came from hosing inside the boat or the boat getting a lot of rainwater in it. The latter being an unlikely scenario.

The compartments are not foam filled and water filling the compartments would have the effect of reducing the buoyancy flotation that would otherwise be provided by each compartment. However the hollow stringers are fully sealed and the buoyancy provided by them should remain if the boat was flipped or otherwise filled with water.

As to what we are going to do? GKM will re-glass the area behind the bulkhead which will hopefully stop any future hosing from putting water into the compartments. We have also fitted four 100 mm inspection ports. (two each side, fore and aft) plus we are fitting 25mm inspection plugs to the other compartments. These will enable me to check the compartments at intervals to see if any water is still getting in. It will also allow me to drain any water out using the small pump shown in the earlier pics. I am happy that this will resolve any worries that I would otherwise have re water entering and filling any of the "sealed" compartments.

One thing that this exercise has shown is that it is vital to be able to check every sealed compartment in a boat that cannot be drained. Otherwise an owner could be lulled into a false sense of security thinking that he had adequate flotation from the sealed compartments when entry of water into those compartments had significantly reduced the buoyancy as was the case for my boat.

I will post further info/pics as we finish the job.

Cheers

Paikea

[ATrezise]

Hi,

Dragging up an older thread. I saw another post where you have sold the 1800. What was the eventual outcome of the water saga ?

I have an 1800, have since 2010 and it has water in the sealed sections too! Just wondering how you solved it or did you sell it still leaking?

The water in mine is NOT fresh water, its salty. I have drained and dried the sections, then with 3 hours on the water, mostly at planing speeds I had more salty water in it.

Very confusing as all screw holes in transom are sealed properly. Now to put it in the water again and look inside at the same time to see where its coming from.

Andrew

Edited August 9, 2015 by AndyT

[ATrezise]

Update. I think the water I found after a short trip was water that had been sitting in the reverse chine section.

Ive since pressurised each side of the boat and found several small holes in the deck area, under the seats. It would appear some other seats had been once fitted. The boat was a demo boat and had 8 hrs on it when I bought it.

The section referred to as dodgy glass work by the original poster appears to be well fibreglassed on mine.

[locodave]

Hi Andy,

He fixed it before he sold it.

Do you have any pics of your boat?Strange that it had seats changed if it was only 8hrs old.

[ATrezise]

I know he fixed it, was just after pics of where the water came in on his boat. I cant find any similar spots on my boat.

[locodave]

I found his old posts but the images are not showing, not sure why.

[Justin taylor]

Hi , I recently purchased a 2010 tournament 2100 walkaround, similar issue with water in the airtight sponsons under the floor on the port side , I estimate there would be at least 80 litres in there , I dont suppose any one would have a skeletal plan of the hull , I’m just trying to work out where to put an additional bung and inspection port hole , and then i will work out where the water is getting in , any help would be appreciated, cheers Justin