Yachting Monthly's Crash Test Boat - Through Hull Failure

I've removed & sealed most of mine. Only have one now for engine intake. Gone over to chemical loo and small tanks under sink for grey water. I just don't trust them. My engine seacock will soon be a trudesign plastic one too.

I have 17 through hulls. Once we had the bilge filled up to the engine with water rushing in when we noticed the floorboards getting wet. The water was too deep to find the leak. Frantically we reached into every through hull but could not find the leak. We called the coast guard, took sails down, launched the dinghy, got survival raft down, pumped manually. Question: How can you find the leaking through hull? Many are quite inaccessible like under head cabinets, under waste tanks etc. Hoses are more likely to break than the through hull. ??? Wolfgang, Endeavour 43 Ketch. PS: We found and solved the problem.

This was brilliant. As the water started rushing in I felt a twitch of anxiety myself. All I can say is lets bust some more holes in the hull.... Keep the Potatoes coming! I can watch emergency hull repair videos like this all day.

I once found myself with my finger inside the hole of a broken through hull (toilet water intake) and my arm just too short to grab the cork of the wine bottle I had drank the night before. Some toilet paper stuffed into the hole worked perfect. Even took the time to shape the cork for a better fit into the hole. The cork stayed in there until the boat was hoisted out of the water a couple of monthes later.

i would have run it up the beach by now or inflated the life raft and gone home and brought a caravan.

I couldn't get a good look at the broken through hull under the sink, but if it protruded enough you might have been able to just jam that jar of putty right onto it.

What obviously also buys time is to put all free hands on pumps while one is trying to fix the leak. If pumping fails, one person with a bucket can pretty much cope with the flow of a 1½" seacock. Still, it is a terrible situation to say the least.

panicky situation gets my blood boiling some.  When it actually happens remember NOT to panic.  Get out sledge hammer to get to hole if needed and address it soon.
cheers

Stuff the ship's cat down there, head first!

These are some of the most useful and informative videos I have seen. Real world scenarios and solutions demonstrated right before my eyes. Thank you, and keep em coming!!!

Very helpful and informative. Thank you!

brave!  With seawater pouring in through the broken hull fitting they got my heart rate up just watching. One of the fellows admitted to "a certain degree of panic", admirably understated.  You read about it but there's nothing quite like doing it (or watching it done).  Very educational, thanks very much.   

A screwdriver and a towel could be used in a similar way as you did with the towel and the tube. Put the towel around the handgrip and the into the hull; if you have a hammer you may use it to make it fit tightly. 

Nice one, very educational and gets one thinking about this very real threat on a boat where before,I'd given it little thought. Thanks. PS can you write the proper product names of all those used here for us folks to ref please though?

where does one get that foam cone in the UK?

I see the second half of the video improved.

What a useless video. One minute we have water flooding in and then all of a sudden the hole has been plugged. What happened in-between?

Pity I could not understand much of which the gentleman in the red shirt was saying.

Maybe we should ban the making of through hull hole in the first place. To charge those yacht or boat makers at criminal courts so they won't make those sick holes. They are ticking bombs! If we need drain a boat, just use suction pump

with the floater and the hole in the hull, you could poke a tube through the carrot or potato (so the top is above the waterline) and then get the line trough that !