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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on April 8, 2016 at 4:28pm

Dylan, the formica solution is rarely mentioned on here over the last few years. Sounds like the Formica underlayment has given up and as it gets wet it disintegrates. I and many others have had good luck with fiberglass cloth, usually a triaxial blend 17 to 20 ounce. the a flow coat or two or additional epoxy and possible a third or fourth coat combined with graphite powder. I can not rate the slickness of the graphite, I can however state that the strength of my boats bottom which also has a similar 20 ounce laminate on the inside of the floor is very stiff and very durable. It has scratches but no other issues.

The search function will lead to two or three discussion of the entire process if you want want more details. The serach function here works best if you ask a phrase rather then just a word or two.

Rick N

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Permalink Reply by Dylan on April 9, 2016 at 11:53am

Hey Rick,

Thanks for the info on the glassing.  I do not have a space to do any fiberglass work, so that will probably be a project for when I move back to Colorado.  I have applied formica/laminate to countertops and cabinets... is this exactly the same stuff?  I could do that a lot easier than glassing here.

What I am curious about is how using my boat 2 or 3 days a week will affect it, even with an intact formica bottom.  It is just a varnish finish, and it does leak a little water until it gets saturated and swells up.  I have been storing my boat outdoors, but with a tarp that has a lot of air flow and covers all most all of the sides.  I always make sure to sponge it out and also return the next day to get any extra water that collected in the bottom.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on April 9, 2016 at 3:34pm

If youve done cabinets and counter ( I did plastic laminate for many years) then you know that the substrate, in this case the bottom of your boat, needs to be perfectly flat and smooth to begin with and in sound condition and sealed well. Sounds like its not. Then the laminate needs to be applied with a waterproof contact cement and rolled to so many lbs per sq in. of pressure, and I forgot what that figure was, to form a good contact. The edges would have to be sharp,smooth,flat and sealed well to let no water in. I wouodnt think a old boat would meet any of those conditions, and it really doesnt sound like a good idea for a new boat either IMO.

Since the boat leaks as it is, best thing you could do is dry it out good and glass the bottom, and up onto the sides a little at least to seal the boat up and strengthen the bottom. Install new chine cap and seal that well also. That should take care of your leaks. Doing the glass is not all that hard to do and you dont need the space you would need to cut sheets of plastic laminate.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on April 10, 2016 at 8:43am

Dylan, if your boat leaks there is obviously a problem somewhere. Since our drift boats are made of plywood the incursion of water into the boat means there are some potential pathways into the core of the plywood. Depending on the quality of the plywood, the woods in the inner layers, the quality of the glue you might end up with long term issues. Rot, the main enemy of plywood grows and spreads when there is moisture, wood and the presence of right biological critters.

Hence our need to keep our powder dry so to speak. Yes the plywood swells up and stops the leaks. The issue is where is the water going when it swells up the plywood. For the long term health of your boat you need to determine where the water ingress is and stop it. The step will be checking your boat for soft or damaged wood both inside and outside. The most common method is to try to poke a sharp object into the wood. Soft spots suggest areas of concern and further exploration. the organisms that promote rot travel further than what is obvious.

Wood that is suspect will need to be removed and replaced with new wood. The new wood needs to be sealed from any water ingress. Epoxy and a finish to prevent UV damage are a common method of solving the issue. Obviously on the bottom of your boat there won't be much UV exposure and damage. The problem on the bottom of our boats is abrasion and impact damage. A common method of protecting the bottoms is the fiberglass and epoxy lamination methods I proposed previously. It is relatively quick to do, doesn't require sophisticated skills and is easily repaired.

Fiberglass can also be laminated to the side of the boat as an abrasion resistant layer. It may not prevent damage from impacts because it needs to be on the inside of the plywood where it's strength in tension is. The sides of our drift boats most often incur damage along the chine cap, the sacrificial strip where the side and bottom meet. Behind that strip is the joint that may be the place where water is entering your boat.

As a sidebar to the "my boat swells up and the leak stops", is some info on how boats made of solid strips of lumber that are often moored in water have seams between each plank that are designed to have a space between each plank that often has a fiber material caulked or pounded into the seam and then covered with some sort of a flexible coating to protect the opening. As these boats "take up" the wood will swell and stop leaks. The width of the opening, the depth and accuracy of the caulker that did the job contributes to the quality of each seam. The difference in these vessels that are made of solid lumber and not plywood is the water doesn't have an easy path to the interior of the lumber versus the easy path presented by each layer of plywood. So what is standard practice for the craft is not good for our drift boats. 

So the bottom line on your boats bottom is you can continue to use your boat, let it leak and be prepared to sooner or later replace the bottom or parts of it and possibly the internal frame members if they are subject to immersion or standing water inside your boat. The long term solution is to determine where the water is coming in, fix the problem as suggested above and also on previous posts that others have posted over the last few years. It all depends upon what you have the budget, the skills and the time and place to do it. It might mean not fishing now which is a bummer. Any part of a drift boat can be replaced and or repaired. It is your choice, hopefully this information will help you make a decision. Trying to wrap fiberglass cloth around a ninety degree edge is usually a loosing cause as it isn't meant to form such corners.

Good luck with your repairs. We would love to see some pictures of your boat and they may prove helpful for some long distance diagnosing of your issues. I have posted details many times on how to post pictures and would be glad to help if you have issues.

Rick Newman

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