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Water/Foam in Hull--1993 Skier


malibuparadise

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Saturday I started deep cleaning my new purchase. I'm not in a hurry, it's ski season all year here in Hawaii ;-) and I have another girl (98 MC SportStar19) for skiing/diving.

Anyway, when I pulled out the battery in the bow I noticed water inside the hull, under the main deck. I then pulled out the trashed/ripped carpet (btw, the glue was dust, so it came right up so I can use as a nice pattern), I saw that there were some round holes in the main deck about the size of quarters. Some were covered with an original fiberglass patch, but some patches had come off and were loose under the carpet. I heard this hull has no wood and I'm pretty sure now that that's the case. The boat had no cover so I know that rain water had to go somewhere...

I lowered a submersible pump into the battery opening and got about 70 gallons of water out of there. The bow foam, which is the only foam I can reach, is quite hard and I don't think the water has damaged it. But, I don't know. Anyone?

I'm thinking all I need to do is re-plug all the maindeck holes and I'll be ok? Are there are any original holes in the bilge area (I didn't see any) that connect to the inner hull? Any expericence out there? Gee Whiz I'm a little worried. The project might be getting bigger than I thought at first (always eh?).

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PS The cooler box has an always open hole/drain, does that drain into bildge or hull? Should I plug that? What was there originally?

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Holy moly! 70 gallons? That's roughly 580lbs........roughly three decent sized guys. Your '93 Skier should ride higher in the water now and perform much, much better. Congrats on getting all that water out!

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martinarcher

Were the plugs out of the boat? The midship plug it a brass T plug and is located right in front of the motor (removed from the inside). There are also two transom plugs in the rear that have to be removed from outside the boat.

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Wow, good find! Getting all the water out will help a lot! If you can find a way to make sure all of the water is out of the sealed areas you'll be very happy I'd expect. I am a little surprised that your battery wasnt in a glassed in compartment and that you can feel the foam around it.

The foam is pretty rigid and I used a spade shovel to remove it from my boat when I redid the floors. My understanding is that there are not any drains between the 'bilge' and the everything on the other side of the stringers. My battery box is 'outboard' of the stringers as it sounds like yours is.

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Were the plugs out of the boat? The midship plug it a brass T plug and is located right in front of the motor (removed from the inside). There are also two transom plugs in the rear that have to be removed from outside the boat.

Yes the internal midships "T" plug was out and I also removed 1 small transom square plug--don't think there is another there--from outside the boat, located centerline at rear of engine bilge. If I missed the other, I'm blind ;-) I'll check again.

Thanks for sharing.

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martinarcher

Ahh - I'm guessing that is a difference between the 93+ and 92 and older boats. The older boats have two rear plugs, each outside the outer stringers to let the water trapped outside the stringers out the rear of the boat. I would think if Malibu changed the design to a single rear plug that slots or holes would have been put in the stringers along the bottom of the hull to allow water outside the stringers to drain into the center of the bilge. I wonder if you missing the holes or if they are plugged?

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Wow, good find! Getting all the water out will help a lot! If you can find a way to make sure all of the water is out of the sealed areas you'll be very happy I'd expect. I am a little surprised that your battery wasnt in a glassed in compartment and that you can feel the foam around it.

The foam is pretty rigid and I used a spade shovel to remove it from my boat when I redid the floors. My understanding is that there are not any drains between the 'bilge' and the everything on the other side of the stringers. My battery box is 'outboard' of the stringers as it sounds like yours is.

In this boat the plastic battery box simply fits into a corresponding hole cut in the fiberglass main deck, which actually makes it easier to get to the lower hull. If it was glassed in this would cause a problem of getting to the water in there. I'll seal all the OEM holes found in the main deck and any screw holes etc that go through the engine bilge into the lower hull. I hope none and that this will do the trick.

If water keeps coming in, I can either drill hole(s) in the engine bilge into the lower hull so the present bilge pump can remove the water there, or add another bilge pump and somehow plumb the discharge hose into the engine bilge and connect to the normal bilge hose that discharges in the top of the stbd side stern area. I would need check valves then in each line....Hopefully this is one bridge I won't have to cross.

BUT, does anyone know if there is any problem with leaving the present foam as is?

Has anyone restored one of these critters?

Thanks in advance for any more info.

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Ahh - I'm guessing that is a difference between the 93+ and 92 and older boats. The older boats have two rear plugs, each outside the outer stringers to let the water trapped outside the stringers out the rear of the boat. I would think if Malibu changed the design to a single rear plug that slots or holes would have been put in the stringers along the bottom of the hull to allow water outside the stringers to drain into the center of the bilge. I wonder if you missing the holes or if they are plugged?

Darn shootin. Why didn't I think of that!! I pulled out a forest of all kinds of leaves in the engine bilge while scrubbing and cleaning so this is now very likely. I'll check tomorrow.

Talk about clean, you could could have a picnic there now.... Well, maybe not that clean, considering all the blood shed from my fingers/arms while wire brushing/degreasing/etc.......The things we do for a durn boat...but she's a beauty (only I see this so far though)

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martinarcher

Cool. well that makes sense then. Look up and down your stringers for a drain form the outside. I bet shes plugged up. Get those drains cleaned and you should stay nice and dry! :thumbup:

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Wow, that is good info! I only have the midship and center line transome drain. I have been considering putitng drains in at the rear of the stringers but this just firms up my plan. Now I will know for certain that the water is all out.

MA, your skier has 2 on the rear I assume?

When I did my rebuild, both sides were completely sealed to keep water out and the wood from rotting(I assumed).

Edited by Shine
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Wow, that is good info! I only have the midship and center line transome drain. I have been considering putitng drains in at the rear of the stringers but this just firms up my plan. Now I will know for certain that the water is all out.

MA, your skier has 2 on the rear I assume?

When I did my rebuild, both sides were completely sealed to keep water out and the wood from rotting(I assumed).

Wow, so you have wood stringers with no drains at transom (unless there are some cross connecting engine bilge and other side of the stringers).I'm checking for those critters soon (pulling the most likely bent shaft on Sat.)

Maybe check under your battery box to see if any water is there. If indeed you have wood with no drains, no wonder the stringers rot out as I have read happens often with wood. That would be a poor design IMO.

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Wow, so you have wood stringers with no drains at transom (unless there are some cross connecting engine bilge and other side of the stringers).I'm checking for those critters soon (pulling the most likely bent shaft on Sat.)

Maybe check under your battery box to see if any water is there. If indeed you have wood with no drains, no wonder the stringers rot out as I have read happens often with wood. That would be a poor design IMO.

"Had" wood stringers. They are composite now. Battery box was sealed with no water in it and was rebuilt back to the same. What caused my stringers to rot and let water over to the other side was the lag bolts on the pylon and the engine mounts were taken out and never resealed. The fuel tank was removed and the hold down screws were never sealed when it was reassembled. So I had Dry rot starting at the rear seat and down the port side.

The driver side was completely sealed when I took it apart(zero moisture) but the stringer was shot from the motor mounts back.

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"Had" wood stringers. They are composite now. Battery box was sealed with no water in it and was rebuilt back to the same. What caused my stringers to rot and let water over to the other side was the lag bolts on the pylon and the engine mounts were taken out and never resealed. The fuel tank was removed and the hold down screws were never sealed when it was reassembled. So I had Dry rot starting at the rear seat and down the port side.

The driver side was completely sealed when I took it apart(zero moisture) but the stringer was shot from the motor mounts back.

So, more and more ways for water to get out of bilge and into the inner hull....If you don't have duel drains and od have wood stringers, that's not a good scenerio. 88 had duel drains and wood.... but 91 had single drain and wood... why the heck did they change I wonder?

93 had single and no wood. I guess it is what it is...and glad there is no wood... but what about that durn foam? lol

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