Drilled a hole throught he hull... now what?

[jennis9]

One of us in our household -- who shall remain nameless -- has drilled a tiny hole through the hull of our aluminum hull. Above the water line and about 1/8"... ugh.

Suggestions for plugging this so our boat won't sink? we cannot get to the hole from the inside - so we will need to repair from the outside.

 

[proshadetree]

Re: Drilled a hole throught he hull... now what?

It was the cat wasnt it I never trusted those type animals.They are just waiting to pouch on everything.Id use a pop rivet if it was above the water line

 

[Mark42]

Re: Drilled a hole throught he hull... now what?

1/8" hole isn't too big.

You could try installing an aluminum rivet with some sealer on it. Or epoxy a small piece of aluminum over the hole. Even a big aluminum screw w/ self tapping threads would work with some sealer on it.

 

[proshadetree]

Re: Drilled a hole throught he hull... now what?

Aluminum rivet important.Dont mix dissimilar metals they might corrode.I never write that I just know it.

 

[jennis9]

Re: Drilled a hole throught he hull... now what?

excellent - that's exactly what we were doing -- drilling a rivet hole. Only it was for the bow seat.

I have 5200 and marine putty - those should work???

PS - proshadetree, you are right... I had purchased a box of 'marine safe' staples... went to look at the metal content and found it to include 30% copper!!! that's not marine safe for an aluminum boat... so I check for metal content every time to be safe. and, you know, I would love to blame this on Ernie the gato - he is ferocious!

 

[S. Toth]

Re: Drilled a hole throught he hull... now what?

I had the same problem in my 10ft jon boat, a patch with some sealer should work as stated above, however I'm to young to know for sure.

 

[NSBCraig]

Re: Drilled a hole throught he hull... now what?

Haven't we already blamed Ernie for stuff?

 

[jennis9]

Re: Drilled a hole throught he hull... now what?

NSB, I blame the little stinker for most everything... he has thumbs. You would expect him to get into trouble

We just redid the interior of the craft and he helped with the vinyl... not one puncture. But it was definitely inspected thoroughly.

I'll post a thread of the redo the first week in May after our vacation, Be on the lookout!