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Thank you so much, this is really helpful and reassuring! Will plan it out to lead up to the next survey in 2025.

 

The survey looks pretty reasonable and reflects a fairly comprehensive look at the hull, and from what I know and hear you should be able to rely on Simon Evans. So you have a hull where almost the entirety of the bottom and lower bilges is doubled. These doubler plates are not very thick, but 4mm plate was probably chosen because the hull would not have taken any more weight. An absolute minimum of 3mm for doubler plates is just about adequate (although GJW might not agree) and 3.5mm is OK, so you may have some minor repairs to do to the 3.0mm area, but hopefully nothing too extensive. The real point will be that you need to maintain all that doubler plating very carefully. Grit blast and epoxy. When you have to cut thinned doublers off to repair them it gets very expensive.

I would think (guess) that you will be safe enough to scrape and vacuum the hull interior clean wherever you can get to it, then dry it out and preserve with antiroestvet.

Devise a programme of opening up the bilges stage by stage throughout the boat so that all areas can be treated within say three years.

You must appreciate that the doublers only keep the water out. They rely on the structural bridge from the original plating to link through to the hull frames, so you must still maintain the original plating inside the boat to a good standard.

Balliol.

Thanks for this. All the advice is invaluable and really helping.  I am starting to work on options. Attached a photo, taken in March when she was out of the water. She is now afloat in Reading.

The photo is of the floor near the aft, next to the bathroom after water was sucked out.

The water is a little bit oily- so glad that's a good thing!

Also the most recent survey in 2020 is attached. Lots of over plating and many below 4mm so re plating might be on the horizon which will be expensive. (GJW are the insurers and want a survey after 5 years= ie 2025).

will keep cleaning and soaking up while weighing up options!!

Thanks so much

Betty/Pandora


 

Good advice so far. Bilges can often look worse than they are!

Can you post a photo of the boat so I can see the type.

Also if you wish post a copy of the shell expansion plan which should have come with the survey?

Where is the area that you have photographed? Near the stern end of the cabin?

The good news so far is that it looks rather oily, which may be helping.

Presume the boat is afloat. Where?

Balliol.




 

Hard to tell what the photo is actually showing. It either looks like a new to science fungus or a very thick layer or grease. It doesn't look like the usual damp flaking rust that often lies under the floorboards. As Andy and Charles have said you need to get out what you can, dry it as much as possible then see what you have got. It can take some days before the water stops re filling the bit you are draining as it trickles and seeps along the rest of the hull to find its level.

No need to panic. You say u had a good survey this year…assuming it was out of water? If not plan one ASAP. As andy says get as much of the crap out as you can and let it all dry out. If it won’t dry out means you have pinhole leak(s) or some dodgy rivets. The problem is you probably won’t be able to lift all the floors unless the conversion was done in a very savvy way. That means u can only treat what you can see, hence the need for an out of water ultrasonic survey. If it’s ok with steel min 4mm then keep bilges dry and live with what you know is there but can’t see. Thin plates crop out and replace or overplate. Find a good surveyor recommended by other customers who u like and trust. Most importantly keep smiling. C

Thanks for this. It is helpful

b

It always looks bad!
Get the water our, bilge pp, wetvac, nappies and see what it looks like.
Rust is ten times the volume of steel.
But the only re-assurance will be an out of water thickness measurement by an experienced surveyor as the rust will not help accurate measurement.

Scrape carefully - wooden kitchen spatula - or you may find that you are moving concern towards disaster.

Or is it the beginning of the end??!!
After 2 years of neglect due to COVID,  my 1935 Dutch barge Pandora has finally arrived home in England, looking the worse for wear and in need of lots of TLC. Of course, one expects problems, and there are plenty!, but with the exception of this one, they are not insurmountable. The survey done on 2022 was good, steel all fine.
We have finally started the onerous task of emptying the bilges and there is plenty of water down there, and so a fair bit of rust, or what looks like rust accumulating.
Attached a photo taken of what we were we were faced with at the first attempt. The original paintwork looks blistered and knarled. When you scrape it you get the paint but it is flaky.   WE haven't even started on the engine room yet, Will start tackling that at the weekend.
Can forum members advise me on whether this can be treated and if so, How?
All work has been suspended now until we sort this out and feeling quite sad as this could possibly be the end?
Let me know what you would do!!!

Betty/Pandora.