suntansailor
Veteran Member
- Joined
- May 21, 2017
- Messages
- 69
- Location
- Sint Maarten DWI
- Vessel Name
- Au Naturel
- Vessel Make
- 2000 Mainship 390 Trawler
[FONT="]Ever wonder what your 390 swim platform looks like inside?
Previous owner never followed up with MS warranty work on swim platform, so I tackled the job in the yard...not fun. My trawler was taking on water to the point that it listed to port significantly, as fellow boaters would say looks like you are sinking...no, not the case. Rain water would seep into the port section of the swim platform at the joint of platform to hull.
I took off the platform top, pulled all the wet foam out, re-glassed inside, installed equalizer tubes on inside compartment walls, installed a manual bilge pump just in can my glass work/seals did not work. I found that the edge of the swim platform top was off by 1/4 to 1/8", so factory just filled gap with white sealer which just failed in time. The swim platform "tub" was water proof as I filled with water and no leaks, so pretty sure the villain was the seal at the hull. By re-glassing that gap it fits tightly to hull, so no more leaks.
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[FONT="]I then installed 3 large inspection hatches. Total task took a week plus 2 days waiting for things to dry. Now, no water in swim platform, and increased top speed by 1 knot due to weight reduction of wet foam and water in there. I will be curious on fuel consumption too with this fix.[/FONT]
[FONT="]PS: I also installed SS grab rails on each side of the stern pull out boarding ladder, to make it easier to climb out of the water. But also designed them to assist on lifting dinghy out of water on davits as dinghy rub rail no longer gets caught on the swim platform rub rail. It now takes 5 minutes to bring dinghy up from water on davits. See last picture.
[/FONT]
Previous owner never followed up with MS warranty work on swim platform, so I tackled the job in the yard...not fun. My trawler was taking on water to the point that it listed to port significantly, as fellow boaters would say looks like you are sinking...no, not the case. Rain water would seep into the port section of the swim platform at the joint of platform to hull.
I took off the platform top, pulled all the wet foam out, re-glassed inside, installed equalizer tubes on inside compartment walls, installed a manual bilge pump just in can my glass work/seals did not work. I found that the edge of the swim platform top was off by 1/4 to 1/8", so factory just filled gap with white sealer which just failed in time. The swim platform "tub" was water proof as I filled with water and no leaks, so pretty sure the villain was the seal at the hull. By re-glassing that gap it fits tightly to hull, so no more leaks.
[/FONT]
[FONT="]I then installed 3 large inspection hatches. Total task took a week plus 2 days waiting for things to dry. Now, no water in swim platform, and increased top speed by 1 knot due to weight reduction of wet foam and water in there. I will be curious on fuel consumption too with this fix.[/FONT]
[FONT="]PS: I also installed SS grab rails on each side of the stern pull out boarding ladder, to make it easier to climb out of the water. But also designed them to assist on lifting dinghy out of water on davits as dinghy rub rail no longer gets caught on the swim platform rub rail. It now takes 5 minutes to bring dinghy up from water on davits. See last picture.
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