Through Hull Damage--Cosmetic or Bad?

Hi all, After sailing Hobie Cats for three decades, but deciding that at 55 yo we needed a real boat, we bought an E29 on E-bay. Now the fun begins. After it was hauled out onto the hard, I saw some apparent damage to the port "through hull" drain--I'm hoping that it is just cosmetic, but before I try a cosmetic fix, I was hoping I might get some advice here. The area around the drain is solid, and everything seems secure, but clearly something is different on the port side, as the starboard one looks perfect. I've attached a few photos that hopefully might help diagnose the problem and the solution.

Thanks,
Gary
E-29 (1977)
Roundabout

Fairing?

I can't really tell from the photos, but is it possible that what you are seeing are cracks in some fairing material around the throughull? If so, its mostly cosmetic... just patch it up and paint over it.

Congrats on the boat, You will love the E29 she will sail great and is a very solid boat with lots of comfort for her size.

Be careful blocking under the aft portion of the keel, the back foot or so of the E29 keel is a deep bilge and only a hollow fiberglass. The weight should be on the center portion of the keel at the apex of the rocker.

Also don’t let the back of the keel get into rock or the likes there is a thread of an e27 sinking due to breaking free and getting on the rocks which cracked the back of the keel.

There are also a few thoughts on filling the deep keel bilge, I plan to glass over mine with a check valve to allow water to go down but not back up into the boat, I also will have a bilge pump setup to pump from the deep bilge.

Doesn’t look like you have as bad a blister problem as my boat, the hull is covered with button size blisters that I am grinding out and filling. The bottom job from HELL!

It is kind of hard to tell what's going on there. If you have metal damage it's probably due to something electrolysis-related and the thruhull might need to be replaced. If it's just the material that makes the fitting more vertical with respect to the shape of the hull, it matters to the extent that if it is really messed up (and not just taking paint the same way the hull does), the thru-hull will be loose and leak a little. How does it look on the inside of the boat?

Thru-hulls are pretty easy to replace. The worst-case scenario requires a Sawzall and a bit of epoxy. I've replaced a bunch over the years and regardless of how much work I put into it I always ended up feeling I would've been better off if I'd started with the Sawzall.

Are..

Are the thru-hulls plastic or bronze? Do they look like the set up on the left, with a flanged & through-bolted base or the set up on the right with the valve screwed directly to the thru-hull?


My guess is that your set up looks like the one on the right and it leaked. From the photo it appears that someone tried to seal a leak with a sealant on the exterior of the hull and it did not adhere well to the bottom paint which is not surprising. This means that at a minimum you're going to need to R&R the thru-hull and re bed it. If it's made of metal, hopefully bronze than it could be electrolysis.

As always more pictures will always help...

In addition to the above good advice, you may find some of what I put together on my website awhile back also helpful:

http://home.comcast.net/~ericson-yachts/thull/thull.html

good advice

Thanks all for the good points and advice.
I'm glad to know about the hull soft spot, when blocking the boat on the hard--however, the marina hauled it out and put it on the screw pads, and I just assumed they knew what they were doing (obviously wrong). The good news is that it was only on the screw pads for a couple of weeks, as I had a custom trailer built for it (another unplanned for expense--$7K--I've attached a few photos, as I'm really proud of it--actually just trying to justify the cost!!).

I have not looked at the bad spot from the cockpit side yet--but will soon! I'm assuming that there is a thruhull stopcock--with some rusted clamps and maybe a bad hose, but with the boat on the trailer--the deck is about 12 ft off the ground and the last time I was there, there was ice everywhere. I'm too old to mix ladders, heights and ice. Thanks again for the pictures of the stopcock possibilities--I'll check out what I have and perhaps, if the fix is not obvious, I'll follow up with a repost.

Thanks again for everyones help!

Gary
E29
Roundabout
Rogers, AR