Balsa is an almost perfect core material providing it is not allowed to get wet. Once water gets in it will travel through the core soaking up more and more water. In freezing temperatures the ice expands forces the deck apart even more and allows more water to enter thus the problem gets worse and worse. There was some water laying on this deck this morning when I looked at the boat and if you look carefully you can see bubbles coming up which means that water is getting in. To fix this now the whole deck will have to be cut open and new core installed at an estimated cost of probably 50K. It is quite probable that when problems started there was just some slight water intrusion through a couple of deck fittings a few years ago. Had the owner addressed them back then it would have a lot cheaper and could have been fixed for a couple of hundred dollars but now it is a major project and we are almost at the point where the 50 foot boat is almost not worth saving.
I've found that Flex Seal www.asotvmarket.com/flex-seal-liquid-rubber-sealant works great for sealing up minor leaks especially around fittings. I've even used it to repair a small crack in the bottom of my aluminum john boat. keep a can on board, because in emergencies it can be used to stop or slow small leaks enough to get you back in.
Posted by: Sean | August 09, 2011 at 12:19 PM