To all of the old Wooden TB Owners.......

[pdm2q]

My question to all of you ... - how many times throughout the day does your bilge come on? What is a good number to stay right around?

[Old Duke]

If you are bilging more than every three or four hours, you may need to take a look at your bottom. You are always going to leak around your shaft packings. I just finished a new bottom job after I completely re-sealed all the planks and stern from the keel beam down this last winter. I am bilging about every eight to nine hours now. Also depends on boat usage. I find that bilging occures more frequent after we dock then while it has been sitting in dock awhile.

[pdm2q]

when we put it back in the water two weeks ago monday (first time in two years it had been in the water) the bilge was kicking in about once an hour so we knew that wasnt goin to get it - we pulled it back out of the water and bilged all the remaining water, then we applied the 3m 5200 to basically the entire bottom - now it doesnt come on but barely once a day so we are very pleased

[rossjo]

You coated the entire bottom with 3m 5200? Never heard of that before ...

[pdm2q]

we put it all down the bilge straits and around keel from stern to bow and let it sit for 5 days then repainted over it with the lead based paint and then the red bottom paint let it all dry and then put it back in the water and not a single bead of water leaks in the boat whatsoever - a company in sandusky ohio - Sandusky Marine Paint - they are the ones who told us to use it and it definitely worked

[rossjo]

I'll tuck that piece of knwodlege away for a future wooden boat project ...

Why lead-based paint?

[pdm2q]

well when we made the call to sandusky paint to get all the needed paint and all the wood curing formulas - they told us if you need to put this bright orange lead based paint on the entire bottom all the way up to the water line - something about the lead base and the thickness of paint adheres to the wood better and creates a natural seal - if anyone has any questions about wood curing products you should really check out this stuff we used - its called "CPES" - when you order it they send you two 1 gallon cans of this - you have to mix the two equally then apply from that mixture - but i will tell you, one order of this stuff is 200 dollars so it definitely not cheap but the before and after is just absolutely amazing

[ianmclarty]

I have a 26 seabreeze of the same vintage. The bilge used to run quite often, until this year. I did a full rebuild! New keel, and keelsun, extended engine beds new chine log starboard side etc... Now it runs every couple day for 20 to 40 seconds. Not bad.