Re: Leak under flooring in 1987 Blue Fin
Sounds like a plan.The hose for live well from pump and drain hose from live well to back of boat are under floor.I have two portable six gallon gas tanks so no problem there.My question now is how wide are stringers where floor is attached?My plan is to peel back carpet and cut flooring about two feet in back of boat.If problem is there --hoses or pumps great.Repair or replace.If not ,cut flooring in front of boat and replace hoses.Does this sound like it might work?
That would be pretty close to my plan.
You may not need to roll the carpet back, the decking may be screwed down through the carpet... but then again the decking may be screwed down with carpet on top.
I wouldn't cut any decking, remove the full size pieces. Cutting the decking will leave weak joints in the deck when you replace it, if you can reuse the decking.
You'll probably find that your hoses are buried in the expanding floatation foam and will have to be dug out... but then again there may not be any foam because someone before you removed it.
You just never know what you're going to find when you open up these old boats. I would be nice if the bottoms of them were littered with gold coins when you open them up, but it's usually the opposite... they're littered with crap instead of gold.
Removing the decking is the only way to find out what's going on in the bilge. It could be that rodents have chewed hoses, or it could be that a previous owner didn't know what he was doing when he tried to make a repair... both are very common.
BTW, does your speedometer work on this boat? I ask because rats and mice like to chew on the speedo pitot tube and if the tube is broken it will put water in the bilge only when the boat is underway, I've seen problem a few times too.