water in stringers help//

[fred]

i have a 43 ft. 1988 motor yacht. the stringers port and starboard seem to hold water that start from my rudders weeping. have anyone else encountered this problem??

 

[garyd]

Relax the stringers are not solid. Water can pass in and out of them at will. They are a composite of materials but no wood in 1988. There is a steel plate integrated on top for engine mounts.

Water of any kind will not be a problem with these stringers!

have fun boating garyd

 

[REBrueckner]

Yes, sort of. My 1972 YF has circular weep holes about two inches in diameter cut into the aft bottom stringers under the cockpit. Bilge water moves thru there when the bow lifts during cruise. The inner volume is some kind of foam, closed cell I hope so as to not absorb moisture. To my surprise, these exposed foam sections were not epoxy coated. The exposed foam is still hard to the touch.

I took no action as I haul only for brief periods for bottom maintenance and figured these would take a good while to thoroughly dry. (I could likely dry them in place in while the boat is in the water with some small light bulbs.)

I suspect that was sloppy contruction because I found the same kind of issue when I removed the anchor windlass on the bow deck and discovered the chain/rope hole had balsa deck coring exposed to water...that WAS soft so I dug the soft coring out around the hole, let the rest dry, coated with epoxy liquid and immediately and filled in with epoxy putty (to get a single bond), finally coating the hole opening with epoxy. Better than new now.

 

[Karl]

If it were my question, I would call the Hatteras factory with my hull ID # and ask them about it. I've done this on many questions on my boat and have always received very good, professional responses. Using my hull ID # they pull it's records and tell me all about how it was built, etc.

 

[34Hatt]

I found the same thing Hatteras on mine drilled the hole then shoved hose in it . Well after many years and many owners no more hose. I have since epoxy tubes in all the holes then drilled smaller hole only on the inner side so if water gets in it has a way out. There is foam in there but I prefer to keep it dry.