The Hull Is Taking On Water. What Do You Do?

[Craig Weis]

If my 19 was holed and taking on water...put on the PFD.

1~I'd send a 'Mayday' blurb on my hailing channel with radio on high output. My antenna's tip is atop my 25 foot mast at about 28 foot above the water and with line of sight I might reach a radius of 8 miles, or about 201 square miles. Somebody ought to be out there with a radio on scan.

Give vessel name, lat and long or a dead reckoning fix, or a description of something seen on shore or a buoy's number, nun or can, number of soles on board, nature of emergency, and time of call. Listen for response.

Now here is where people screwup:
It's on the first radio call. Flip the radio on High output. The call should be in this format. Speak clearly without over modulating by screeching into the mike, and keep the mike three inches from the mouth, speak slow and with enunciation. This might be the first and only opportunity.

Mayday-Mayday-Mayday.
This is the sailing vessel Comfort & Joy-Comfort & Joy- Comfort & Joy. A 20 foot white sailing sloop under sail.
My position is 3 miles North of the Red-White-Center Gong Bouy-Upbound out of Sturgeon Bay.
Only one sole on board.
Taking on large volume of water.
Time is 8:12 pm.
Attempting to stop the water.
Over....

Wait 20 seconds repeat the call if possible. Don't forget to un-key the mike while listening for responce.

Repeat the call if you can.
Have a plan. Work the plan. Stay with the boat till she sinks from under you. You might have to tie onto a line if wave action wants to wash you off. They will find your boat before they find your body. In the mean time...

2~The electric bilge pump is on auto and will pump till drained or the battery is flat out of juice. If I had crew they would be on the Big Gusher diaphragm hand pump to assist the electric.

3~As the Navy says, "Can't stop a leak from the inside. So I'd grab my boom tent ground cloth with grommet holes all around the circumference and tie her onto the outside of the hull in hopes of the incoming water pressure pressing the cloth over and onto the hole. Slowing or stopping the leak. Baring that I'd attempt to stuff the hole from the inside.

4~Right a way I'd head for the beach and maybe I'd beach the hull before she goes down, depends on the 'beach' might be all rocks, might be battering with huge surf and hellish winds. Or high cliffs and then I'd have no way to exit the water. Then I'd keep her in the deep.

5~Grab the Didi Mau kit in case the ship need's to be abandoned..oh and if there is fire...have a plan for that.

"skip don't like to get wet that way".

I wonder if those three NFL plays in Florida would have made it if they tied onto the boat turned turtle? Instead of one sitting on the boat's bottom hanging on the outdrive sticking up.

[newt]

Wow- good summary Skip. The only thing I would add is making sure your dingy/liferaft is ready to go, and make sure you have your warmest clothing in it. I was out in rough weather yesterday, and I feel I could not get away from the sails long enough to get things prepared. (I was solo) it was a sick feeling. Preparation is the name of the game.

[Bob23]

Thanks, Skipper:
   You potentially just saved someones life.
Bob23

[Joseph]

Excellent advisory on an SOP difficult to remember when needed the most...

Only a few  comments:

- a "Mayday" is really for imminent loss of human life or the boat. Some sailors would recommend starting with a "Pan Pan" to alert the CG and the other nearby boats (which could readily "upgrade" to a "Mayday" once all measures fail and the realization is reached that the boat is doomed).

-  Not for a CP16, but if the boat has an inboard engine refrigerated with raw water intake, closing the stopcock, detaching the hose and using the engine as a spare bilge pump has saved several boats.

- Most leaks ocurr at a thru-hull hole. Having them mapped in advance and keeping wooden plugs and a mallet at easy reach may also save the boat.

- Keeping the boat moving may create enough negative pressure around the hull as to reverse the flow of water.

- Work out also a way to detach the teather from the boat at the last minute...!

[Gil Weiss]

I have heard rofessional captains say that they carry a variety of sizes of foam (nerf) footballs to use in an emergency to stop a leak after being holed. Heard this at safety classes.

Gil

[Craig Weis]

Gil with my luck the nerf will be the wrong size. But good idea me thinks. Takes a lot of room to store 'em?

GIL What is with all this medical stuff? Time to harpoon somebody?

Joe. I would not call 'Mayday' unless I was in deep, deep do-do. Trouble is a delay in calling while accessing the damage may prove fatal. Water in gallons flows in at 32 fpm per square inch per dia of hole. And with a fixed keel she be pulled under unless something quickly is done. She ain't a floater when flooded.

I did call a 'Pan-Pan' alert on a navigation hazard the other day. I saw a barley floating truck tire with a lot of line attached to it bobbing in the waves. No way was I going to heave to to retrieve that! I don't think I could pick it up. But I fired up the chartplotter and reported the lat and long and time and approximate fix based on what I could see on shore and nearest buoy. Coast Guard knowledges. No other information.

Then there is hypothermia. The rule of 50 comes into play.

50 years old
50 minutes
in 50 deg F water.
Adjust up or down per variables.
skip.

[HideAway]

Several years ago we were sailing several miles off shore from St Pete Beach Fl in good weather in 15kns or so of wind really enjoying our cruise south.  Linda went below to get something and found ankle deep water on the sole!.    I nearly tore the boat apart trying to find the hole.  I could hear the bilge pump working but to no avail.  A Compac 23 will sink as there is no floatation at all. 

Turned out some gear shifted during a tack and broke off a plastic thru hull that just happened to be used for the bilge pump!  We carry tapered wooden plugs for each of the two thru hulls HideAway has but it took awhile to find one.  Now they are tied to the thru hulls.   It took the better part of an hour to pump her reasonable dry. Lucky for us the hose from the bilge pump just was long enough to reach the deck hatch!

I used the radio to update our other club boats on the same cruise but being the smallest boat we were a long ways away.  I did not call for assistance since we had the situation under control.

We returned to port.  Since the salt water had gotton into all of the storage areas from stern to bow everything had to come out of the boat.  Then the insides had to be flushed with fresh water several times and pumped and dried.  In order to fix the hole ie install a new thru hull the boat had to be heeled over at the floating dock.  It took all of Memorial day weekend in 90 degree heat but we got the job done.


At one point I had a rag and a screw driver  to plug the leak..


All of the thru hulls are now protected with  a buffer so they can't be snapped off. 

[Craig Weis]

Wow HideAway, that is a great telling of a disaster adverted and a better ending. And I liked you pictures and off-site blog.

Yes I have two through-the-hulls both are two inch.

One for the depth sounder, one for the paddle wheel for the ST-40 Bi-Data Raymarine instrument. The depth head is hull flush.
The speed paddle wheel sticks down about under the boat about 1/2" but those pesky Zebra muscles take up cave dwelling in there and I pull the speed head out of the bottom the boat a few times a season and use the plug that came with the instrument to advert flooding while I kill 'em and dig out there carcuss. There is a rubber flapper that seals the hole till I push in the plug and screw down it's keeper/collar. Just need a wash cloth to sop up the moisture. I should carry a wood cone to hammer in there I guess. You never know.
skip.

[HideAway]

Thanks for the kind words about my stories etc,  I started writing many years ago to remember our sailing adventures during the long Nebraska winters.  I'm  adding videos now too in an effort to capture the true story of sailing - the good and bad as well as the ports we visit.. There are two on my utube site with three more on the way soon.

We don't have zebra creatures here but we do have all kinds of creatures that attach themselves to fiberglass.  I rely on my gps for speed and it seems to work allright for what we do.   I bought an old garmin gps/sounder at a flea market for the sounder.  It was a transom mounted transducer which really didn't work well when the boat heeled so I glued it down just in front of the head, ran all the cables etc.  After all that work the sounder quit on the second time out so now I'm looking for an inhull transducer depth gauge.  I just don't like holes cut into my boat even though it sits on a trailer now.

I bought the wooden plugs at West Marine.  They are soft wood and I did not need a hammer to plug the 3/4 inch hole - just a couple of adrenalin whacks with my fist were enough.  Matt

[MomentSurf]

Its funny you mention the three NFL players.  I was sailing in that same storm.  I was heading from St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands to an Island about 250miles to the south east called Dominica. 
We departed early Friday morning (I know I know, we didn't want to, but we were on a tight schedule with one of three people on board needing to be back in 9 days...so we decided to leave on a Friday, our first mistake).  When we departed, the seas were about six feet and the winds about a steady 15-18knts.  That evening the seas built to 8-10ft and the winds were pushing 22-25knts.  Still sailing somewhat comfortably in a 36' sloop, we stayed close hauled and tried to keep our heading to Dominica.  That night it got a lot worse. The winds picked up to a steady 25-30knts and the seas were 15-20ft.  We stayed on course, close hauled under full sail.  We were to cold, tired, and scared to reef in the dark and other than the horrible sounds the boat was making, we seemed to be doing fine.  Around 2am we furled the jib a bit to help keep control of the boat. At about 3am, as we came off the crest of a huge wave we heard the sound of running water and the boat started to flood.  We immediately started the bilge pump and started looking for the leak.  The water was about toe-ankle high (about 3inches over the sole).  We franticly looked for the leak all the while thinking about what we would take overboard in the liferaft (we already had an few buckets ready to go in case of an emergency).  We finally found a thru hull hose that was forced of the fitting by the pressure of the wave.  Luckily, the leak was stopped by simply shutting the valve (which should have been shut in the first place). 

No pan pan or mayday sent, it all happened to quickly.

That morning when the sun rose, we plotted our position and found we were blown further west than planned and we were going to miss the island.  The added tacking would make the arrival almost a day late and we wouldn't have the time on island we wanted...that added with the fact that non of us wanted to deal with the beating into the weather (which dropped a bit but was holding at 25knt winds and 10-13ft seas) for the next two days, made us change course for another island.  We fell off and sailed west into the middle of the Caribbean sea.  With the weather pushing us, we decided to make way north west of St. Croix to an island called Vieques just south east of the Dominican Republic.  We would have to pass home base (St. Croix) and from there it would be about a 50mile trip.  A much nicer trip with the weather and wind in our favor.  About 10hrs after heaving to, we caught a nice 140lb Marlin...this made us stop in St. Croix to have a "Marlin Party".   With full bellies we headed to Vieques and had an amazing week exploring the coves, little towns, people, and food. 

A long story, but it came down to the fact we should have been better prepared.  We tried to ignore the fact that we were getting beat for the sake of making our destination.  It was tough to change course, but it had to be done...I think the scare of the water coming in the boat straighten us all out. 


Me with the Marlin (The owner at the wheel).  It took us a while to get her in the boat.  After about 2hrs of yelling at eachother, tacking, jibbing, and chasing the fish...we finally landed it.  We lent our gaff to someone as we left St. Croix, so hauling her in was tricky but well worth it!

[Craig Weis]

Who's your 'date'? I feel da luv...she Looks 'fishy' to me.
Good sea tale thank you. Have more??
Thanks. skip.

[Aguasala]

Is that a Presidente beer?

[Craig Weis]

Posted above was "1 sq.ft. of flotation foam was needed to float each 100#s" [What is the length, width, and height of one square foot? It's a nonsence question]

Water weighs 8.33#/gallon. Water weighs 62.4#/cubic foot. [Square foot means nothing.]

Well I don't know about floating any CP-19 after she is flooded.

A 800 pond keel [so that keel displaces 12.82 cubic foot of water at 62.4#/cuft.] would need 12.82 cubic foot of closed cell foam to float. A 100# of water would need 1.60 cubic foot of closed cell foam to float. Not 1 sq foot unless it was 1' x 1' x 1'-8" high.

So this 2000 pound boat - 800 pound keel + say 300 pounds of gear, some can be jettisoned is
about what? About 1500 pounds divided by 62.4 #/cuft = 24.03 cubic foot of foam to float. So 12.82 + 24.03 = 36.85 cubic foot of closed cell foam to float the boat when flooded. Add a few more cubic foot for the 'wife and kids' so round her up to 40 cubic foot of closed cell foam. So 10' x 7' x 0'-6" block. Might do it.


And the only structural part of this factory foam job is that carpeted box under the cockpit sole to keep that from 'oil canning' when you walk on it. What is under the vee birth and maybe the quarter birth is to quiet the hull when pounding through heavy chop or big roller waves when beating into the wind. It really does not keep the boat together. All that extra floatation might just pop the deck off the hull. You think?

What if that box under the sole was replaced with an 8mm aluminum plate with 'legs' coming up from the bulkhead of the hull to open the middle space up then that area could be used for storage. Cool?
Mr. Hutchins told me, she go down like a rock.

If your worried about sinking buy an Etap from the Frogs. I applaud the life raft with a 'water maker' and lots of Spam. What you need is a mirror also in case you wish to make 'a long distance phone call' after all the batteries are exhausted and flairs are shot off. Also you need to make shade. I read the book Adrift. Scary!!
skip.