water leaks on freshly rebuilt Prindle hulls?

Do a pressure test with soapy water. It should tell you right away where the leaks are.

sm

Do a pressure test with soapy water.

+1
When doing an entire boat, forget the windex spritzer bottle. Fill a bucket with extra soapy mix, & slosh it on with mop. You can toss cup fulls along the topsides.
Don't get to keen on the pressurization, AKA taping your shop vac to the drain.
Try this gizmo I made up, it costs $1, you can have your kid pump while you slosh.
http://www.thebeachcats.com/pictures?g2_itemId=118697&g2_GALLERYSID=584ab945ff6f58c90c8158eb00d2c062

I second using Ed's balloon pump. Can be found at most dollars stores and works great and should not cause to much pressure in the hull.

my bet is your tramp track (if you have one) is the source of the water intrusion
the rivets holes worm out and allow water to seep in

davelau wrote: Has anyone had issues with rainwater getting in via the cross beam bolts?

Sure.
When you bedded the crossbars, did you run a circle of sealant around the bolt holes to seal between the fiberglass and the aluminum?
Most use one big oval around both instead of a circle around each bolt hole.

In reverse order:

- no I didn't sikaflex the bolts but when I saw the water I had instantaneous remorse. I have some sheets of thin silicon (dollar store) and may tear it all back down install some gaskets.

- the rivets are a worry because they can leak from outside and inside the rivet, but nothing some ugly sealant blobs can't stop.

- thanks for the tips on pressurizing with a mop of soapy water and a balloon inflator.

It sure won't hurt for me to tarp the cat as well. An ounce of prevention...

thanks all!

DL

I'm still surprised at the volume of water you reported. 4-inches would take a lot of rain to accumulate that much in the hulls, even wth leaky tramp rivets. I think the pressure test could be interesting.

Again, I would not start tearing anything apart or adding silicone until you do the leak test. Until then, you are just guessing. The leak test takes all of 15 minutes, tops, and it will be very apparent where the hull needs to be fixed.

3-4" of water may seem like a lot, but the Prindle hulls have a lot of rocker and are very narrow at the bottom, so it's probably not as much as it may seem. The rocker can also make it difficult to drain all of the water out (you have to lift the bows very high), so it's possible that it may also be residual water from sailing unless you're sure the hulls were completely dry before it rained.

sm

- the rivets are a worry because they can leak from outside and inside the rivet, but nothing some ugly sealant blobs can't stop.

They also leak from water splashing under that tramp while sailing
I personally blob silicone on the rivet heads (top) and run a bead down the entire lip of the track underneath the tramp

I know this is an old thread but I'm pretty dang sure a Prindle 15 has no Tramp tracks riveted anywhere to the hulls. The only tracks on the beams. The sides are tightened using 1/8 in line through loops on the tramp and the slots in the outer lip of the hull. None of it has anything that would go through to the inside of the hull.

Only place to get water in during rain would be ports or crossbar bolt holes. Even an unseen crack between deck and hull would be under the lip and not allow water in during rain.

Edited by Quarath on Mar 09, 2017 - 04:47 PM.

davelau wrote: - no I didn't sikaflex the bolts but when I saw the water I had instantaneous remorse. I have some sheets of thin silicon (dollar store) and may tear it all back down install some gaskets.

The sheet silicone may not seal the aluminum beam to the fiberglass saddle well enough. Use the sikaflex and draw one big oval around both bolts instead of a circle around each bolt hole.