Please help a newbie with some troubleshooting

[Chris Hawkins]

Hi everyone.  If you have a moment, I'd love to get your insights on the following:

I took the boat out with three of my boys (ages 11, 9, and 5) on Saturday.  We had a good breeze, but I kept the leeward rail out of the water (for the benefit of my 5 year old, who was already a little bit frazzled).

At any rate, we took no water on deck, and we stayed dry in the cockpit for the whole day.  When we got back to the dock, however, we had a fair amount of water inside, on the cabin sole near the keel box.

I did not open the inspection ports to check the forward compartment for water (I wish I would have).  At any rate, my best guess is that some water might have come in through the keel box, even though I thought the gaskets had made a pretty good seal when I tightened the keel bolts hand tight.

Does anyone have insight on what might have led to this water?  Has this happened to others?

[Chris Hawkins]

I also have spotted this thread, which is helpful for my questions:

http://u20class.org/Forum/index.php?topic=139.0

If anybody had any other insights, though, I'd love to hear them.  Thanks in advance.

[Gregg Henning]

Chris,

Have you had a chance to check in your inspection ports?  It is always a good idea to check inside the keel box area and keep it dry.

Also check to see if your rubber seal on the keel plate is in good condition so when the keel is down and the scotty bolts are in place that it seals well.

Gregg

[Chris Hawkins]

Thanks.  I am thinking it may be the seal on the keel plate.  I need to get back down to the boat and look in the inspection ports to make sure everything is dry in there. 

[Don Corey]

Chris, I've been maintaining U20s for fifteen years now having owned five of them.  Most important is to open the watertight inspection ports after every use to confirm no water or to dry out the chambers.  The boat should always be stored with the ports open!!!!!  The keel gasket could be the problem.  If water is collecting in the cabin floor then the screws that secure the cockpit support tubes could be loose or missing thus allowing the water tight chambers to leak into the cabin floor.  If the keelbox itself is leaking then that's another fix that's not too difficult with a lot of info on the class site.

[Billy Ellis]

Don, Do you keep a supply of keel gaskets? If not maybe with new production that could become a stock item.

[Chris Hawkins]

Thanks for the advice, Don. 

[Chuck Ballew]

Chris, on my first downwind run blowing twenty knots in recently acquired #58 I had a fountain of water shooting up several feet on the forward edge of the keel plate. It was coming from a hole that looked like another place for a scotty bolt we use to tie the plate to the hull. I heard several reasons why the unthreaded hole was there. We duct taped the hole and finished the regatta. My old boat, #136, had three bolts to tighten after dropping the keel in place. #58 has two. Go figure.

[Keith Ziegler]

#173 used to get water in on the cockpit floor from the seam at the base of the front air tank. Now that it is fixed we have to sponge out the front air tank as the seam between the keel box and the place where the keel bolts down has gaps in it which I will have fixed this winter. The only time we get water in the front air tank is in big air when planning is possible. While I fix the seam I will have the keel out so I will also be replacing the gasket on the keel. At that point I am hoping for a dry boat this coming summer. Don makes a good point as I always open my inspection ports any time I am done sailing. Every U20 I have seen has four keel boats to hold the keel down. Don, did they build boats with less than four. Just curious!

Keith Ziegler

[Glenn VanHeel]

Mine only has 2. Hull 52

[Billy Ellis]

#99 had 2

[Don Corey]

U20 hulls #2 thru #38 (no keel wedges) had six keel bolts, hulls #50 thru #120 something had two keel boats (with keel wedges) and all boats since have had four keel bolts.  Just an FYI from the self appointed class historian.

The WD Schock built hull #250 will also have four keel bolts now nearing completion.