Trapped Water

[Ken Juul]

Weather finally cooperated and I got all my projects done on the bottom.  Rudder addition completed and I added a headless stainless bolt in front of the rudder (see picture) to keep crab pot lines from getting stuck in the gap between the rudder and hull.  Last year I noticed some water weeping  down the prop strut so I dug out all the caulking, let it dry and then re-caulked with 5200.  This year 5200 still in place, no weeping.  When I drilled the hole for the headless bolt, much to my surprise I probably got a quart of water out of the hull.  Let it dry well, used compressed air to dry it further and epoxied the bolt in place.  Moral of the story, if you think you have a leak around the prop strut you might consider drilling a hole to get all the water out as a part of the repair process.

Bottom is painted, it goes splash on Friday

[Jeff_McKinney]

Ken,

Nice upgrade. Reminds me of the huge anti-submarine net cutters the U-boats had on their bows. Heck, maybe you could weld a machete blade on there & do the same thing. 

The crabbers are going to hate me, but I installed a Shaft Shark this year. I don't sail near their floats if at all possible, and make extra efforts to go around them when motoring. When they drop them in the "float-free" zones they are intruding on our area at their own peril.