Hi there guys. I've been lurking around the forums for the past few months but not much activity on the boat. Ready to get back on the water now that Michigan seems to be consistently in the warmer temps again.
On the SS's last outing (mid-Sept 19') I drained a somewhat surprising amount of water out of bilge once she was back on the trailer. We had been out for 2 hours or so and there may have been 3-4 gallons in the bilge. To be honest, I hadn't even been powering up the bilge pump as there hadn't been any noticeable leaking on any the lake trips up to this point, just residual water from swimmers getting back in the boat.
I let it drain (or so I thought), winterized the boat, garaged it and mostly forgot about it over the Winter. About a month ago, I noticed water dripping from the area where the bow and keel meet (never a good thing when she's been garaged for 6 months). Upon closer inspection, the bottom center rivet of the bow was sheared off flush (see photos). I had replaced several failing/failed keel rollers last Summer. Not sure if this was a gradual thing from the old rollers, lake bed damage or something else entirely.
Regardless, I'm now in a situation where my freshly replaced floor, foam etc is now in the way of properly replacing this rivet. Based on the iBoats forum research I've done, there are multitude of options. I'd prefer to avoid the following two extremes:
Low End: Smear/spray a bunch of something and hope for the best
High End: Rip up the freshly replaced bow flooring and properly replace the rivet.
I'm leaning towards drilling out the solid rivet and replacing it using a high quality pop rivet coated in 3M 5200 or JB Weld Marine Epoxy.
Another, slightly more drastic option is drilling a 4" or 6" hole though the bow flooring, foam, etc and and attempting to buck a solid rivet in using that access point. Once done, I could replace the hole with a plastic drain grate similar to what other Starcraft builders have done for ensuring the drain holes at the keel/rib junction are open.
Sorry for the long-windedness. Any help or opinions are appreciated.
