Looking at a leaky Starcraft SS 22' boat

[SF14]

A buddy of mine came to me the other day and said his neighbor is looking to get rid of his old Starcraft SS, its a 22ft model, the registration says its a 1979.
The boat was torn down and rebuilt about 8 years ago, new transom, new floors, all new nautilex, and new steering.
The motor is a 225hp Mercury, also 1979.
Lets just say the price is very right, but I'm not too sure I want to take on a possible project. The boat looks great, but it leaks. I took the boat out for about an hour and forty five minutes and it took on about 50 gallons or so of water, with two bilge pumps running. The old guy that has the boat says he coated the whole inside of the hull with Gluvit, which should have taken care of any minor leaks, but this seems pretty severe.

With the boat on the trailer I see no signs of any obvious leaks, no loose or missing rivets, and no aftermarket added holes below the water line. I was running it in light chop in the back bays here and the bilge pumps never stopped running, there's a pair of 1500 Rule pumps, one in the bow, one in the stern.
The boat looks great, its got a professional paint job and the interior is a solid 9 condition wise.
The drain plug is new, the motor bolts are tight with 4200 sealer used around the lower bolts. The boat sits fairly high in the water, it don't seem water logged either.
The guy said the boat had poured in foam when he got it, which makes me doubt the actual year of the hull too. The hull has no lapstrake lines and is white with gray trim with a gray and red interior. I owned an 18' Starcraft SS and that had block foam flotation, I would have expected the same in this model?

The actual year don't matter since its been re-titled here by the Marine Police at some point but I suspect its a newer hull, which may affect how I look at or go about any possible repairs?

Its the leak that concerns me, I have a sneaky feeling that its going to need to be stripped down again to find the leak, when its afloat, I see nothing coming in around the motor or transom area, so the leak has to be up front. The boat was stored in a barn and the bow was 6' in the air when I hooked up to it, and there was no water dripping from the drain area when I first looked at it.

Has anyone dealt with one of these 22' hulls with a leak? Is there any place in particular that is an issue? If it were a few gallons, it wouldn't bother me, but its a lot of water, it took 15 minutes or more for the hull to drain after I pulled it out of the water.

Its not mine, yet, and if I can't find an obvious source to the leak, I'm not sure I want to own it.

 

[GA_Boater]

I would say with a leak like a fire hydrant, It shouldn't be too hard to find. Fixing it may be another matter depending where it is,

Are there any dings or dents around any seams? Any signs of cracks in the chine formed where the sides of the hull join the bottom? And any live wells added with possible bad hoses? There may be other things to look for, SF.

 

[jigngrub]

Aluminum boat leaks can be intimidating to people that aren't familiar with them, but once you learn what to do to find and fix them it's an easy job.

Doing a leak test with the boat on the trailer is the first thing to do. Run a garden hose in the bilge to fill the bilge up with water, keep an eye on the trailer tires so as not to overload the trailer with too much water weight. In a big boat like that you'll want 6-8" of water in the bilge if the trailer tires will hold it.

As you're running water into the bilge start watching the bottom of the boat for leaks to show up, have a Sharpie handy to mark any leaks you find. Once you get the right amount of water in the bilge turn the hose off and let the boat sit and keep watching for leaks. You'll also want to raise and lower the trailer tongue jack to lift and lower the bow to check for more leaks. By the way you describe the leaks, it sounds like they'll be big and there won't be any doubt when you find them.

Repair leaky rivets like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0MA1-5NXjs&feature=related

Or you may find that the hull has one or more cracks. Cracks are an easy fix too, you'll need to drill a hole at each end of the crack to keep it from getting bigger. Then you can patch the cracks on the inside or outside of the hole. Some .063 aluminum sheet metal, some closed end blind rivets, and either 3M 5200 or a good marine epoxy will patch any cracks you find and make your boat a "dry" boat.

This is a good thread on how to patch aluminum hull cracks:
http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...ll-damage-lots-of-it?t=536250&highlight=efdog

If the price for that boat is as reasonable as you say, I wouldn't have any problem jumping on it with a leaky hull.

 

[Watermann]

Your confusion about the year of the SS is normal, SC made the V5 for 3 years with no lap strake on the hull, and yeap 79 was one of the years.

As already stated with a leak that large it should be fairly easy to find, it should have been dripping from the source when on the trailer.

 

[SF14]

I passed on the boat but a buddy of mine bought it, so its still sort of my problem.
So far we've tried filling the bilge with water, but never found a single drip. The odd part is when its in the water, the water that shows up in the bilge area don't look that bad, but when we get it back on the trailer and pull the plug, it drains for 20 minutes like a running garden hose out the drain hole.
There are no live wells and no through hull fittings, the chines are solid and no signs of cracks.
When it sits in the water, it gets bow heavy fast, the water is collecting up in the bow, even though the boat sits a bit bow high when first launched.
We pulled the motor to fix an steering pin issue last week, I plugged the motor bolt holes and launched the boat at the dock, my thought was that maybe the lower motor bolts were leaking water but it still leaked and I could watch that area and no water was coming in there.
That part that gets me is that it leaks just sitting, and it leaks fast enough that I have little doubt it would sink overnight without the bilge pumps running.
All three pumps run constantly when on the water. When I first looked this thing over I really thought I'd find a 1/2" hole or better below the water line but so far there's nothing. Not even a loose rivet.
The boat no longer has pour in foam, so the next step is to pull the deck and foam and launch the boat and watch for the leak. I want to get the motor back on first though. I really thought I'd find a wallowed out motor bolt hole or something obvious but the search continues.

 

[SF14]

Your confusion about the year of the SS is normal, SC made the V5 for 3 years with no lap strake on the hull, and yeap 79 was one of the years............

Did 1979 have pour in foam from the factory? From what I can see, the few bits that still remain of the old foam is sort of a dark yellow color foam that's stuck pretty well to the hull. There's still some of it remaining in the rear upper corners of the hull next to the splash well. Supposedly all the pour in foam was removed and replaced with blue or pink insulation foam below the deck.

 

[64osby]

Yes they put pour / spray in foam in the '79 hulls.

Pulling the deck or section of it sounds like a great idea.

Short of pulling the deck you could put it in the water and not pull the plug when you pull it back out. Let it sit for a while and see if you see any leaks. My thought would be you have a seam leak, maybe at the keel where it is very hard to tell or see.

 

[SF14]

Yes they put pour / spray in foam in the '79 hulls.

Pulling the deck or section of it sounds like a great idea.

Short of pulling the deck you could put it in the water and not pull the plug when you pull it back out. Let it sit for a while and see if you see any leaks. My thought would be you have a seam leak, maybe at the keel where it is very hard to tell or see.

I tried putting water in the bilge but don't see any leaks, not so much as a drop. I put maybe 10" or so of water, and even jacked each side of the trailer and raised and lowered the bow but nothing. The boat was repainted when it was redone years ago, they supposedly coated both the inside and outside with Gluvit knowing it had a leak but it didn't help. The inside of the hull was coated with a marine epoxy paint atop the Gluvit, the outside was done in Petit Ez-poxy. The hull is gray and white, the paint is nearly flawless all over so spotting a drip should be easy.

 

[djpeters]

Is it a V-5 model for sure? If so, I'd love to see a few pics. As others have said, you must be missing something. I'd check the seam up in the bow? Even a bunch of missing rivets wouldn't leak that bad. And I'm 100% sure they put pour in foam in them in 1979. They made the hull quite a while, but only called it V-5 for two or three years. First ones were in 1978, they did not have pour in foam.

Good luck. Hope your buddy finds the leak.

 

[64osby]

With as much water getting in it really shouldn't be that hard to find.

Don't know what the interior looks like but it is time to start pulling it out until you located the leak and fix it. If 3 pumps can't keep up with the leak it is unsafe.

Edit - Take it to the lake and leave it on the trailer, only back it in a 1/4 of the way. Pull it out and see if water leaked in. Repeat at 1/2, 3/4 and all the way.

That should narrow the search to a section of the hull.

 

[GA_Boater]

I like that idea. ^^^^^^ Keep the tie downs on and back her in.

 

[EastCoastMountaineer]

Jigngrub good tips on leak finding. I will be doing this sometime in the near future. Hope I don't find anything!