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Message board > Care & maintenance > fishing 17 water under the deck

Message 5 of 5
Posted by member Martin Hanley on Tuesday 7 April 2009

Hi Allan Here are a few tips on removing your fender. On Our Hardy our fender was fixed with rivets and screws,it was a 15min job to remove. I have drilled out and countersunk all the holes and filled them with an epoxy filler. Because I'm fitting a new fender I'll be able to drill where ever I like. I intend on using S/S screws throughout for fixing, every 200mm or so. With the join between the deck and hull you should see splits and cracks along the join.I carefully ground out the old filler to create avoid for the sealant, don't go too deep! 10mm Max. I should have the topside paint job finished next week,I'll keep you posted on how the new fender went on. Regards Martin

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Message 4 of 5
Posted by member Allan on Tuesday 31 March 2009

Hi Andy and Martin thanks for the help sorry it took so long to get back on been on holiday! after posting on this forum I phoned hardy they said that I should drill 2 bungs at the stern but after measuring from the outboard bolts it appears that there is only 10mm a difference between the top of the deck and the bottom of the boat so decided not to bung it. I then cut a small bung in the back of the deck but not a lot of water came out, so at the one patch where I could hear the water under the deck I drilled a small hole (there was no plywood the only bit in the boat that there wasn’t ) and the water came pouring out about 2 bucket full. after both of your advice I am going to take the rubber fender off and replace the sealant with sikaflex as you described Martin. thanks again Allan

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Message 3 of 5
Posted by member Andy Mcmullan on Saturday 14 March 2009

Hi Allan I used to have a Fishing 17. We bought it new in 1990 and only sold it last year. Water used to collect between the deck and the hull as you say. I just pumped it out regularly with a hand pump with a fine hose through the little aft deck plug. I thought quite a bit about a solution for this and reckoned it would be easy enough to cut 1 or 2 inspection hatches in the rear floor, maybe just before the moulded recesses in the stern area. They could be finished off with the circular water tight lids that you can buy. That would help a proper bailing and drying job. I also read that the cause of this water is rain getting in under the rubber gunwhale fender, as the join between the deck and hull moulding is under here. The silicon sealing the join breaks down. This made sense to me as I could see rain collecting along this area and the water below the deck was always fresh not salty. I had planned to take the rubber fender off and replace the sealant but never got round to it. It looked easy to get the fender off. If you did this you could just pump out a few times and the water would eventually disappear I think. If you have loads of water in there, if you take the deck plugs out and raise the nose of the trailer up as far as possible, a lot of water will glug up through the holes. You can then bail it out from the deck. I fitted a Yamaha 40hp 4-stroke to my boat a few years before I sold it and she ran like a dream with this engine. Really nice boat. Let me know if you need any other info. Cheers Andy

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Message 2 of 5
Posted by member Martin Hanley on Saturday 14 March 2009

Hi Allan I'm in the final stages of a compleat refit of our Hardy 20 Fisher. I had a very similar problem, after much debate, I took the fender off and found the join between the deck and hull was in very poor condition. A paste of resin and fibers was gummed in to joint during the build, this bond has cracked due to movement between the hull and deck structures. This is where rain and sea water has been flooding in! My solution is to replace the old fender with a new profile from Wilks, as it also knackered. The tip is to angle grind the old filler out to a depth of 5-10mm making a key for a mastic filler (3M 5200) My thoughts are that the hull and deck will always move, an epoxy/ glass filler will after some time shrink and crack. The 3M sealant is a very strong, flexible and permanent bonding agent, this should keep the water out but allow for some movement and bond to the new fender. While stripping the boat out I noticed silicone instead of sikaflex was used on skin fitting, screws etc so I have rebedded most every thing with sikaflex. I also used a syringe to inject antifreeze in to any holes with wood behind the laminate to stop woodrot. I have cut in inspection hatches throught the buldges and had a dehumidifier running for 9 weeks now, she is just about dry now! Hope this is of help Martin

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Message 1 of 5
Posted by member Allan on Friday 6 March 2009

hi can anyone help I have a lot of water between the deck and the hull. I was thinking about taking the two sections apart, it looks as if it is just a case drilling the rivets out taking the cuddie, engine,and cleats off (the hardest part would be taking the engine off) and lifting it up. Has anyone done it before, is it as simple as that. It might just be a case of having to drill the stern and put a bung in

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