Replace/Repair E29 cockpit scuppers

woodyericson · Jul 17, 2017

Who has found a way to access the starboard “helms cockpit” scupper from below? It is like the boat is double bulkhead under the binnacle. No access from in the boat or rear lazarette. If you are 2 foot tall maybe you could from rear lazarette.
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toddster · Jul 17, 2017

My boat is a tiller model, but that's one of those areas that was apparently assembled before the deck was put on. Actually, I can't figure out how they assembled some of those things. Anyway, sometimes you just have to cut an access hole in the liner. If I can't figure out how to make it part of a "project" (e.g. put a stereo speaker or a small cabinet in the hole) I usually put a deck plate in there. Caution - most of the surfaces on the boat are at least a little bit curved and the deck plate needs to be flat to open and close correctly. This can be achieved by installing it with a thick bead of thickened epoxy or with a rigid backing ring and some kind of sealant.

Also, some E29s have a small hatch at the back of quarter berth (a 12 y/o might be able to get through it) and some apparently don't.

Bonus hint: If you do start cutting holes in the liner, save the cut-out pieces to make backing plates for future projects. Of course, you can always just use them to do a fiberglass repair of the hole, back to original condition.

woodyericson · Jul 18, 2017

I was afraid PPL were going to say, “cut a hole”. This is my first experience with production boats. Have always heard people complaining about buried fittings and such. Looks like it is my turn. I found a number of areas where the boat cannot rally be inspected without adding “access holes”. Also found that the aft lazerette has no drain hole to bilge! Nor does the tac transducer hole next to head. Anyway. All better now. I still like the boat and will breathe deep and move forward with the rehab.

toddster · Jul 18, 2017

The fore-most and aft-most compartments are often "crash boxes" deliberately not connected to the bilge. In case of collision, flooding would be confined to that one locker and (hopefully) not sink the boat. If you add drain holes, make sure there is a fast way to close them. And keep them closed by default. Make sure locker vents are above the water line if possible (and perhaps have a way to close.) An example being the V-berth lockers. When i first surveyed my boat, the forward V-berth locker was completely filled with water. :0 (Rain apparently leaked down the anchor rode that was draped through the forward vent, then down into the locker. I bailed it out and kept watching, but it has never been wet again.) Another way to drain isolated lockers might be to put a long pick-up hose on the manual bilge pump, so you can vacuum up minor flooding as needed. Oddly, this concern for safety in the design seems negated by all the areas behind the liner that you wouldn't be able to get to if they were holed.

Mine has a crash box in the bow, but everything in the back of my boat is wide open below the liner - drop a socket in the lazarette and it's gone to the sump. I was thinking of a major job at some point to make everything aft of the rudder post into a crash box, and installing a larger fuel tank while it's torn up. I don't know how likely a rear-end collision is, but the spade rudder seems to be a major vulnerability.
Long term goals are to make access ports for every part of the hull and try to make everything around the periphery into a watertight crash box that extends above the water line. (One of the main problems with that idea is that I think that the settees - and the top of the engine compartment - are slightly below the water line.) My port-side settee back appears to be a sealed compartment (until I cut a hole in it) but the starboard side is open all the way back to the lazarette.

Well, all of that may or may not happen, but the point is to not make the boat less safe than it started.

woodyericson · Jul 18, 2017

Thanks for educating me Toddster.

Think i will just continue to dip and sponge them when needed. I found out that they have no drain when washing all the nasty out of the boat. I got the boat on the cheap and it had been long neglected. Worst bilge funk i have seen.

toddster · Jul 18, 2017

It's not as if I had any idea about "crash boxes" when I got the boat. It took a lot of exploring and some advice from this site to figure out what was going on. Just this month, I fumbled the paddlewheel swap and let two or three gallons of water in, and had to sponge it all up. There is no way to access the bilge in front of the head on my boat (Mk 1 layout) except to go out and sail "rail down" to get that water over to the weep hole. I've been toying with the idea of cutting open the sole there and making a shower sump with its own bilge pump, forward of the mast step. I'm just not sure that my woodworking skills are up to making a decent grating to fit the odd space.

Replace/Repair E29 cockpit scuppers

woodyericson

Junior Member

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts

woodyericson

Junior Member

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts

woodyericson

Junior Member

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts