Fish-Hawk.Net

Anybody got any suggestions on how to fix analuminum boat that is leaking. I have an older 16 foot aluminum that leaks just enough to be a nuisance. I cannot see where it is leaking but suspect it is around one of the seams or rivets. It would be nice to have dry feet while fishing this summer.

Sorry about your problem. Here is a message board regarding this.
http://pagebiz.com/bds/aluminum/repair.htm

Also google aluminum boat repair might help. Of course, this IS the Fish-Hawk.Net, and you probably have a FHN'er near by who can show you how to find AND fix it in short order.

A few years back, we boated to a spot, hiked over land, and got into an aluminum boat from the resort we were staying at. It LEAKED in the back and of course I was in the back. Know what you mean about fishing with wet feet.

Cheers,

Eagle

Hey man i have the same problem with my 16 foot aluminum. We have been trying everything out to try and fill the leak, but no matter what we do we cannot find out where the leak is its making us nuts . But what you can do is boost you boat off the ground and fill it with water, than search around the outside of the boat for drops of water that got threw the leak.

Raise the boat, fill with water, mark the rivots that are leaking with a grease pencil, getting help from your fishin partner recompress the rivots , put some water back in the boat an check for leaks once again. Hopefully this will help you stay afloat and dry. Cheers

If it's the seams (which was the case with Leaky Lou) you can buy silicone type marine sealant at Crappy Tire or most marine dealers (apprx $10-15/tube) and caulk the seams like you'd caulk a bathtub. If you look closely at the seams, you can usually tell if they've parted. (If you can get a fingernail in without too much effort, so can water).

It worked for me. Also it can be smeared over leaking rivets if they're just bulged a bit and not actually "popped".

Lots of good suggestions guys. The consensus seems to be filling the boat with water and looking for the leak (s) and caulking or re-tightening the rivets. I will try these over the weekend let everyone know how it works out. It will be great if I can be fishing from a dry boat on the May 14th opening day!!

Suddsy

When I bought my used boat, it was leaking pretty bad. It took me forever to find the leak because it has a floor.

While the filling the boat with water theory seems to make sense, it did not work for me. Water gets out, follows the hull and then drips at the lowest point, leading you to beleive you found the spot (especially in a sloped driveway)

I took everything out of mine and put it on the water. I armed my self with a sponge, kept wiping wet spots and very quickly found two ovaled rivets.

Some people recommend to hit the rivets, some people highly recomment that you don't. I used aluminium epoxy, a play dough like substance that you knead and mold around the faulty rivet (from both sides if possible. It dries in a few hours.

I fixed mine that way 3 or 4 years back and it is 100% dry. A tube of the stuff will cost you less then $10.00 at CT.

I had trouble with a leak in my boat last year. It took forever to get out of the hole on take off, ran sluggish when if finally got going. Left it at the marina and when i came back the next week it was half full of water. That was an adrenalin rush!

Tried the "fill it up with water trick" and eventually found out that the live-well pump had a crack in it. The marina obviously didn't properly winterize my boat that previous winter. Water in the pump froze and expanded, cracking the pump. Now I check everything myself.

Long story short, had to replace the pump and everything was finally dry.

Good luck, if I could find my leak you can for sure.

After filling the boat with water, wonder if you added a couple of packages of KoolAid would make finding the source of the leak easier. Or are my sinus meds kicking in.

Good Luck and let us know if you found and fixed it.

Cheers,

Eagle

A couple years ago I sealed up my boat. Its a 15 foot riveted aluminum that had started to leak also.

What I did was turn the boat upside down and sandblast the bottom of the boat. When I mean sandblast I mean just clean it with a very fine silica sand. I actually used a small sanblaster you can get from Canadian Tire. Like I said, all you want to do is clean it. It took me probably 2 hours to blast the bottom of my boat.

Once blasted I put on a silicone coating. This stuff goes on just like paint, you roll it on with a roller. Let it cure overnight and then put another coat on it. After I was done it was 100% waterproof and to this day it still is.

The silicone is a RTV silicone that will flex with all the movement your boat will endure, and it will not chip off. This stuff sticks to anything.

The only minor problem I have found is that the boat is a little harder to get onto the bunk trailer, but not a big problem. As far boat speed I found that it was not affected at all.

If you are interested I can get you some information on the silicone coating. It is made by CSL Silicones in Guelph.

The good thing also is that down the road after a few years and if it develops some leaks, is that you can just wipe it down with some naptha (coleman stove fluid) and just paint it again, no need to sandblast.

Any questions let me know.


Bryan

saskie wrote:If it's the seams (which was the case with Leaky Lou) you can buy silicone type marine sealant at Crappy Tire or most marine dealers (apprx $10-15/tube) and caulk the seams like you'd caulk a bathtub. If you look closely at the seams, you can usually tell if they've parted. (If you can get a fingernail in without too much effort, so can water).

It worked for me. Also it can be smeared over leaking rivets if they're just bulged a bit and not actually "popped".

This worked for me with Fishhawk 1, but the spot that leaked was above the waterline. No problems after.

Well, it worked, no more leak. I know it gets said often, but I would like to reiterate that it is extremely impressive to see the helpfulness of the members in this forum. I followed the advise of filling my boat with water and marking the leaking spots with a grease pencil. I then used Saskie's recommendation to buy the cylinder of silicone sealant at CT and patch the areas that leaked. I also coated the rest of the rivets and seams while I was at it. Really, wasn't that big of a job. If anyone with a similar problem has any questions feel free to send me a PM and I can give you more of the details.

Suddsy, I used the same method on my old aluminum except I used Marine Goop which is a Silicone based glue.

I agreeon the Goop, after I patched the leaking areas with the aluminum silicone sealant I covered all of the seams and rivets with the Marine Goop as an added protection. The cylinder of aluminum sealant that I used actually hardens into an aluminum like material that can be sanded, etc. It would be handy to carry some in the boat as it can even be used to patch underneath your boat while it is still in the water if you happened to hit a rock or otherwise spring a leak while out fishing. At any rate, it is nice to be ready for opening weekend with a dry boat.