Family four hull full of water

[Gardenmaker]

Hi,

I took charge of our Shetland Family four mk 8 today and once on the trailer water started to leak from the little silver cleat that sits by the trailer eye on the bow. Certainly a few litres and enough to warrant further investigation when I got it home. In fact the hull seems to be full of water- I can hear it sloshing around and it is surging through a crack in the bottom of the battery compartment. The boat is now parked on a slight incline and the water just kept coming through the crack no matter how many times I bailed it out - gave up at 6 buckets.

This is my first boat so not sure how to proceed. I've pressure washed the outside and there are no obvious cracks and I'm guessing that if there were water would be coming out of them anyway. So is the cleat at the bow to blame and what actually is it? Finally how on earth do I get the water out of the hull? It sits in the water some 4 inches above the anti-foul line so there must be a heck of a weight in it.

I'm due to put the boat on it's new moorings on the Warwickshire Avon is a couple of weeks so really hoping to sort this out before then. Can anybody help please?!

I should mention that the boat has been sitting in the water since at least last spring.

All best to all,

David

[CaptainPhaff]

My 535 has not been in the water since the summer of 2014 and it fills with water (and gets emptied) regularly. It's rain water that gets in under the canopy and through the fishing rod holders in the side. A regular bilge pump, followed by cupping the water dries her out until it rains again. My cabin floor is not sealed so I can lift it up and see the inside of the hull, which helps to see where the water comes from. I would suggest that you tip the trailer up at the front as high as it will go, remove the drain plug from the back and let the water drain out - I would have thought that would get rid of most of. Good luck.

[EricOnLine]

Hi David,

Sorry to read of you troubles, we too have a 2010 F4 that we keep on a trailer. We have read various posts over the years regarding water in the hull, so from time to time we take out the cockpit table leg socket as this gives reasonable visibility of the hull, we actually only every put the socket back with a couple of loose screws as we look every other month. Once removed you can carefully drop a torch and camera on suitable string or better still fishing line and have a look around. You may also find that you are able to siphon or pump out from the socket hole. Thankfully ours is always dry, although we do suffer from water intake within the bathing platform. This water collects with the boat on the trailer, so we think there is some sort of vacuum reaction that somehow sucks in the rainwater, or perhaps just condensation, not sure. We have read post that indicate that water can reach the hull from the windows, through gaps or window seals that have perished over time.
We will be selling our F4 soon as we have upgraded to a 4+2 familiar to many on this site and now have a car that should better handle the 4+2 on trailer. I fancy pike fishing the broads once the season starts again. We absolutely love the F4, great boat, easy to trailer, easy to launch and we often go out just for a few hours in an evening. We are based in Windsor and use the Windsor leisure center slipway to launch. We will be sorry to let our F4 go, so many fond memories.
Hope you manage to sort your issues, have heard of bungs being fitted to help drain, perhaps others have experience of this.
Cheers for now, Eric

[Gardenmaker]

Thanks Guys,

I had a good read of the forum last night and all roads seem to lead back to the table leg socket. I'm going to investigate further today. My main concern is that if the water is incurring through the base of the battery compartment then it's an awful lot higher than the table leg socket. Hoping I don't have a geyser in my cockpit!

Best for now,

David

[Bluelightning]

Hi David,
I bought a 2011 F4 Mk8 in November, first boat, and also have water ingress issues. I took the table socket out when I bought it and pumped out the water.

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Luckily my boat was built without foam between the decks; waterlogged foam would have been even more of a pain.
The socket is good for access but it certainly isn't the source of water ingress; too well sealed . After researching this, there are several possible sources of water ingress to the hull void:

• Poorly sealed hull fittings,
  Hole in anchor locker bulkhead,
  Poorly sealed join under rubbing strake

Having re-sealed the hull fittings and checked the anchor locker I still get significant rain water ingress so I suspect the hull joins aren't well sealed. The gaps don't need to be big as capillary action can fair pump water into the hull.
I manage the water via a bung I fitted in the cockpit well under the centre aft seat.

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There's some more bad news though. Despite it being a 5 year old boat the cockpit decks on my boat are rotten . I noticed it first in the lockers and cut a hatch into one to see what's what. The water in the hull has penetrated the unsealed plywood edge to about 1ft inboard and delaminated the plywood. As I've used the boat for the last 3 months the cockpit deck has got progressively softer; I've concluded its pretty much all rotten so will need major surgery to replace. Not what I expected for a nearly new boat but there we are.

Hope you are better off than me. Stay in touch and let me know how you get on.

Simon

[Bluelightning]

Fitting a bung is a pain as the deck well is too small to fit a drill and hole saw in. I used a angle chuck from screw fix to help.

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These Manual bilge pumps work well for the deck well and the pod on the stern.

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Good luck

Simon

[Bluelightning]

Hi David, thought I'd check my anchor locker bulkhead today as I've just taken the boat out of the water for a service. Bad news for me ; the bulkhead is rotten too.

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I expect the damage mechanism was the same as the cockpit locker decks. Water ingress into hull void by some means; heat of the summer evaporates water and soaks unprotected timber from behind. Timber rots. Disappointing build quality really

I'd check your anchor locker bulkhead too if you've got that much water in the hull.

Regards

Simon

[Gardenmaker]

Many thanks for the exhaustive responses, really helpful. I've been away for a week so today as the first opportunity to have a go at getting the water out. I bought a small electric pump that fitted into the table leg socket in the cabin and off we went. Judging by the amount per minute the pump is supposed to move and the time it took I reckon there was something like 600 litres of water in the hull (no wonder it was so heavy on the trailer) and although I managed to move most of it there's still some left. The manual pump that Simon kindly mentioned will be perfect for that.

As for where the water is getting in I cant even start on that yet.

What I AM thinking is what a pile of rubbish given that Shetland have had 8 versions of this particular model boat to deal with such a common problem. Bit pathetic really and already starting to take the gloss of what I had hoped would be a summer of fun with my daughter.

Out of interest has anybody removed the table leg socket in the deck? It seems to be exactly the same as the one in the cabin but bigger and struck me as being a better access point. However after taking all the screws out I couldn't tweak the collar out despite being able to get underneath it so I'm wondering if there's another reason that everybody uses the cabin socket to get into the hull...? My other idea given that I already have a 10 inch crack in the battery compartment is to install an access hatch there. Just something that gives me better access to the hull than a 50-mm hole.

Will keep updating the thread when more comes to light.

David

[Bluelightning]

I took the cockpit socket out. Took 30 mins with a palette knife to get through the sealant. If you tip the boat bows down on the trailer you'll get the water out through the cabin though.

Due to the gullwing hull design you don't get much access by fitting a hatch in the battery locker. This is mine in the petrol locker.

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When I cut through the deck it looked like this

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I plan to fit a hatch in the aft centre locker when I fix my decks.

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Good luck

Simon

[Gardenmaker]

Thanks Simon,

I did wonder about the value of fitting a hatch to the battery compartment for that very reason, thanks for sharing the photos.

I've ordered a manual bilge pump now which should enable me to get rid of the rest of the water that's in the hull that the electric motor wouldn't shift. I'll feel a bit better once that's done! Then it's hosepipe out and see if there's obvious ingression through window seals before going any further. I think I'll also go down your route and install a n inspection hatch in the rear locker and an automatic bilge pump might be popped in there as well! I'm now concerned that the timber might have gone the same route as yours!!

I suppose it keeps us busy!

Cheers for now,

David