Originally posted by Mark Rotsky:
Rich,
Bill just turned me on to this discussion. I'm in the middle of epoxy sealing my entire bilge on Nemesis (#435), and adding an electric bilge pump system. I started by taking a large diameter drill bit and rattled around the bilge knocking off anything that even thought about being loose before any epoxy hit it. I must also say that the bilge was totally dry for the whole winter, and only saw water when I washed it down a few days before the drill hit it. I've brushed the straight West System epoxy resin onto all verticle areas of the bilge, and pourd it in to the bottom. However, it is not so thick as to cover the keel bolts. All are bolts and washers are exposed on top. My concern is the drain from the "Other Bilge". I have no opening for it. Where should we expect to see that? Between the bilge pump and cooler drain hoses? To the side of one? Should I drill a new one back from next to either hose? I need a clue as I'm ready to paint and now's my last best chance to have a nice job done.
Thanks for all your time and effort in sharing this with us.
Mark R.
Sealing the bilge is a good idea. Sealing the keelbolts is also a good idea, if they are completely dry. I'll be inspecting all of my bolts before I seal them to be sure I don't trap moisture in there, which is would be worse than having them alternating between wet and dry. You'll also want to be sure your keel joint is completely dry before you seal anything. Its an all or nothing proposition - totally dry and sealed, or unsealed and as ventilated as possible.
As far as sealing them with solid resin, this doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Resin is super hard stuff and removing it will be nightmare when you want to inspect you bolts. If you use a lightweight filler like microballoons, it will be relatively brittle (still extremely tough), so you can chisel it off without too much pain and suffering. I also wouldn't bury the entire bolt in resin, just cover it with a blob. I'm pretty heavily referencing this article:
http://www.sailnet.com/collections/articles/index.cfm?articleid=caseyd0040 As for the 'Other Bilge', there is no drain other than whatever water can weep around the drain hose that is buried in the vermiculite under the floor. Because of its position, it doesn't drain and is therefore a prime spot for nasty moisture to accumulate, especially if your 20+ year old bilge hose leaks. So I don't have an easy answer to your question - its lower than the lip of the bilge, so it can't drain. I've floated the idea in a previous post in this thread of adding an additional hatch in the floor over this spot so it can be sponged out periodically. This would entail cutting out the hatch, digging out the vermiculite and old cruddy hose and fabricating some sort of latch to keep this new part of the floor from falling out every time it gets stepped on. Here's a rough image of what I'm thinking of:
http://www.6degrees.com/j30/underthefloor/bilge.jpg
