Boat leak

[TRZ II]

My 16 ft sylvan is leaking very bad, i have to pull the plug and drain her out every hour. it has a wood floor. Anyone know how to fix this with out tearing out the floor? Thanks

[herefish101]

you'll have to fill the boat with water, not too full because you don't want to make it too heavy, then get under the boat and find the leak. Hopefully it's a rivot. If it is a rivot you can get this leak fixer stick at the big C, heat it up press the stick to it, let it cool and your done. Hopefully your a lucky person, because I too own a 16ft sylvan and i found out that sylvan used to use a harder thicker alloy that was prone to cracking in the splash rail just above the rivots that hold the side of the boat to the bottom of the boat. As per my resurch this aluminum alloy is very hard to weld, I pray for you that it's just a few rivots. If it's rivots, go on the big C and search aluminum boat patch it's cheap and it works. Of course the right way to do it is to pull up the floor and restrike the rivots but thats alot of work and money. Good luck, and I hope you dont find a crack.

[Ed Carlson]

Very often live well filler bungs start to leak over time, or even the bung that the drain plug utilizes..or maybe as simple as the plug itself. So be sure to look at these areas too. Internal live well hoses can crack and sudden large amounts of water can leak in at those points too, even with the pump off. The bungs can be replaced, or removed and resealed with epoxy or silicone,..no huge deal to fix. Hoses too, often overlooked in yearly maintenance, and will weather check in time and disintegrate causing problems such as this.

A tip on checking suspect rivet points. Add enough water to wet the bottom of the hull internally, and visually check for drips.

Still nothing visually...then get a suction cup and test the rivets and see if it pulls water when suction in applied to suspect rivet points...this often speeds up location of a leak that is hard to find.

[TRZ II]

What is the Big C?????-Thanks for the advise!

[cold one sd]

I think it is a large chain of stores that sells stuff for camping, fishing, and hunting.

[Tom7227]

About 6-8 weeks ago there was a discussion about some special type of pop rivets that can be used to solve this type of problem. One writer indicated he was able to get some from a local marine place. I found them at an on-line site called Hasen Rivet, but I can't remember the name of the type of rivet. Go to the boat thread and search back a bit and you'll find some answers cause this is they type of question that gets asked there fairly frequently.

[yaggie]

I had Sylvans for years and only leaks I ever had was related to livewells and their plumbing. If your boat leaks this bad a careful inspection of the bottom and sides from outside and you should be able to locate the problem if this is where the water is coming from. Usually leaking rivets that aren't noticeable will take several hours to put that much water into the boat.