Repair to Bilges

It was a niggling issue and one that ultimately I decided to fix before it got out of hand. Some of the epoxy outer layer of the bilge on either side of the keel had become damaged and allowed water, oil and paraffin to get into the woodwork discolouring the wood and threatening the integrity of the epoxy-wood hull structure. The hull is very strong due to its construction but keeping the outer skin intact is an ongoing process of treating any dings or scratches that might creep along the wood grain. The first step was to scrape away the dis coloured wood and broken edges of epoxy, then fill with epoxy thickened with filler. I’m not sure I got the colour right, I used a brownish filler which went dark when added to liquid epoxy, but the returned the light brown once cured. After curing a few days I scraped, chiselled and planed the excess off and finally sanded prior to painting with another epoxy layer.

The final result appeared to be a nice thick layer that I’m sure will last another 20 years. The right hand bilge area was not quite as badly affected as the left hand side, so no filling required there just a fresh top coat. The base layer was however still a bit greasy with it being right below the engine, and the epoxy was being rejected so I tried as best I could to brush over the naked areas until it cured enough to stay put resulting however in bit of a lumpy appearance. Well see how that endures the test of time.