91' VS Allumaweld leak

gspdog · 06-30-2007, 01:20 PM

Hi guys. I've got a small leak in my 6 degree VS sled. It looks like it is where the side and the bottom meet at the (chime, chine???). When I fill the boat with the garden hose it comes out about half way from the bow to the stern. I thought it would be simple enough to run a bead over that spot but a buddy of mine explained to me how those boats are constructed and just doing that might not seal the leak. Would that be the place to start? Do i need to take the floor up and come in from the top and try to find the leak? Or as a last resort could we lay a bead on both sides of the (chime?) from bow to stern? Thanks guys, hope any of that made sense.

grumpy grouper · 06-30-2007, 03:21 PM

before i did anything i would talk to stevens marine and alumaweld

Boats · 06-30-2007, 09:46 PM

Yeah... You want to talk to Steven's Marine. No question about it.

8salmon · 07-01-2007, 08:36 AM

Two years ago I had a 1991 18ft Alumaweld Sea Dory that leaked almost exactly where you are describing, Seat Box location just above the chine on both sides. Since I was the original owner of this boat the Alumaweld Warranty covered the repair. Stevens Marine inspected / leak tested and determined that the boat needed to be sent down to the factory. Being warranty work they took their sweet time as it took almost 5 months to be repaired. I was told stress cracking was not uncommon with some early Alumaweld's and in my case 14 years of rough pounding water of the Columbia attributed to the stress cracks. I will say that after the boat came back from the factory you could tell they welded in additional bracing as the boat handled better in the rough chop. I no longer own this boat, didn't want to wait for the next crack to appear near the transom.

Don't let the needed repairs go too long. Those cracks can open like a can peas and then you really have a problem.

SWest Fisherman · 07-01-2007, 06:03 PM

Have the Alumaweld people check it out. Aluminum boats are constructed with a very specific weld out sequence. This means that if you grind out the weld and reweld it improperly, you can start more problems than you can imagine.

If this is a defect in the weld out sequence, they already know about it and have a good proven fix for it.

I had a leak problem in the transom of with my Almar Sounder. I contacted the factory and they wanted to see the boat RIGHT NOW. Yeah, it took five months for them to fix it. When I got it back, I did not recognize the interior of the transom. They had tore it completely out and rebuilt the whole thing. The amount of bracing and support that they put in was amazing. Never leaked again while I owned it.

Go the the factory is my advise.