Two years ago I got an old 15 foot Starcraft that has spent it's whole life in salt water. All the original steel fittings, like the poppers for the canopy, the rub rails on the side, and the little rubber step plate on the edge, had all rotted off with electrolysis. The boat was cheap and I just use it for fishing with a few buddies so I don't care about the appearance too much, but I had a persistent leak around some rivets along the chine where it looks like the boat may have hit some logs, and I needed to do something about that. After trolling for a few hours I would have 4" of water in the bilge which kept me from getting up on a plane until it had drained out, it was so heavy.
Anyways, last spring I found something called Captain Tolley's Creeping crack cure. It is a very thin waterproof glue that you dribble on a crack and capillary action draws it into the leak. I lifted the floorboards and applied it to all the leaky rivets from the inside, while on the trailer. I did it three times with a day to dry between times, and it actually seemed to work pretty well.
Today I was out almost all afternoon and I got less than an inch of water in the bottom. It isn't perfect, but it is a huge improvement.
If you have a boat with a few leaky rivets and you don't want to do a full restoration, give this stuff a try. It is cheap and kind of low tech, but it does what it says it does.
Vancouver BC
Anyways, last spring I found something called Captain Tolley's Creeping crack cure. It is a very thin waterproof glue that you dribble on a crack and capillary action draws it into the leak. I lifted the floorboards and applied it to all the leaky rivets from the inside, while on the trailer. I did it three times with a day to dry between times, and it actually seemed to work pretty well.
Today I was out almost all afternoon and I got less than an inch of water in the bottom. It isn't perfect, but it is a huge improvement.
If you have a boat with a few leaky rivets and you don't want to do a full restoration, give this stuff a try. It is cheap and kind of low tech, but it does what it says it does.
Vancouver BC
