Searider 4m floor construction? Floor leaking..

boatster · 16 April 2005, 15:54

I just noticed that towards the front of the inside floor of my searider I have a few drops of water leaking in through the hull along some stress cracks. My question is, how should I fix this? And does the floor have any plywood as its core? I can only imagine it would be getting soaked from the leak? I'm thinking I should put some penetrating something or other in there and then lay some glass to reinforce the floor strength. Can someone help shed light on how to fix this issue? Or is it even an issue? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Boatster

boatster · 18 April 2005, 17:35

Does anyone know if the floor of my searider has some kind of plywood construction??? Is it all fiberglass and polyresin??

Searider · 18 April 2005, 18:30

Boatster,

What does the inside of your boat look like?
Seariders have been built in two ways:

1. With stainless steel bracing bars at the transom bolted in place. Plywood floor with overlaid GRP and a flow coated (brushed on after moulding) gelcoat finish. This is how my SR5.4m is built OR

2. Fully moulded interior moulding with a smooth gelcoat finish. The transom bracing struts are moulded as part of the interior moulding. This is how my SR4.0m "Deluxe" was built. This had white GRP mouldings.

If no 1 then definately plywood core.
If no 2 then still may have plywood core.

To repair it you will need to grind out the cracked GRP, rake out any decayed core and replace with new or perhaps some epoxy filler before reinstating the GRP that you first ground out.

Whether you attempt this from the inside of the boat or from the outside depends on what the crack(s) is/are like and what you can get access to. You will probably need to repair from both sides.

I hope this helps.

Regards

boatster · 18 April 2005, 20:19

Hi Searider,

I have the moulded interior gelcoated in coastguard orange. I don't have the stainless steel transom brackets. My boat is an Ex-coastguard sr4 from 1991. Is there a way I can contact Avon to ask about this? How would I go about that?

Thanks,
Boaster

Phil Davies · 18 April 2005, 21:22

Boatster

Email or telephone the Avon factory in South Wales and ask to speak to their Commercial Department. They deal with all matters relating to Searider RIBs as opposed to the Avon leisure range and are exceptionally helpful.

http://avoninflatables.co.uk/

boatster · 18 April 2005, 21:57

Thank you Phil I will do that. I will post my findings if I can get an answer.

boaster

boatster · 19 April 2005, 03:59

Update: I took a flashlight and shown it through the floor and looked from the back drain hole in the transom and can see the light shine through. This is a clear sign that my floor is most likely all GRP. Whewhh Now I don't have to do any wood scraping or worry about a rotted out core!!!

boatster_sr4 · 17 October 2005, 05:08

Update take 2:

Since I'm doing some work to reinforce some stress cracks to the hull floor as well as put in my new pod seat I've noticed that the floor of my searider is a composite sandwich of gelcoat, fibreglass, some kind of fiber core, then fiberglass (from the top down). I was drilling some holes and noticed that there is in fact a core of some sort but its not wood. Its almost like a fibreglass packing that hasn't soaked resin or something. I have yet to call Avon but I think I'm forced to now out of curiosity as well as concern for water intrusion.

I also noticed that the bolt plugs are just that, plugs. There aren't fixed stainless steel bolts under each plug. I assume this hull was cast and to conserve on bolts Avon only put SS bolts under the plugs they were going to mount the drivers center console too. So now I am going to revert back to using self tapping screws and Silkaflex to mount the pod to the floor. Maybe for the consumer version of the Searider they put SS bolts under each plug but not on mine. Just an FYI.

I will try to post some pics later.

boatster_sr4 · 17 October 2005, 05:23

Here are pics of my repair:

pic #1: at the top center of pic you can see some epoxy smudge. Thats where there was alot of flex in the hull.

pic #2: probably 10 layers of 4oz. fibreglass weaving (volan glass) laminated on each side.

pic #3: gelcoat with wax addative coated on top. I'm going to sand this out and improve the appearance.

Before this repair the floor would flex alot when I jumped up and down on the center of the floor. After the repair the floor is much stiffer and the flex is more evenly distributed across the floor.