After 6 races on sat on B rig a good 3/4 tea cup of water emerged (we measure things properly here in  Cambridgeshire.. no mugs here)

 

question

1 how easy it it to find leaks in DF hull?

2 where are the go too places for leaks on the hull?

3 is solving the leak issue straightforward?

4 or after 3 years x every other week use in icy waters to bright sun, should I just cut my losses with limited time, buy a new hull at £99.00 and make the old one into a great trophy!

Your views please!

Edited July 1, 2025Jul 1 by Stephen B

Check the hull and screw eyes for leaks.  Fit the hatch cover sealed as you would normally.    Then either use a solution of washing up liquid and spray  the whole hull.  Alternatively, submerge the hull in water sufficient to cover the whole hull, say in a bath or failing that you might need to do this at the club on a windless day. 

Blow in the bung hole and check where bubbles occur in the spray solution or in the water.  This should identify where the problem is.  You will likely get some leakage from the sheet line as it exits the gasket but not around the rubber gasket itself.

This is most likely problem is in the area of a screw eyes.  I had a problem with the C/D jib tie down eye leaking after several years of use which was resolved by renewing the epoxy that I had added to all screw eye holes after removing and re-inserting the eye.  After a while, the epoxy can break away from the hull and need renewing.

Hope this helps.

Thank you,

time effort might just get a new hull …. As all plastics change with stresses, heat cold and therefore £95 seems good value

Up to you Stephen, but I am still using the same hull three years later with no problems.  All depends on whether you are time poor or not.  If it is just one screw eye to sort, then its 10 minutes to do the check (max) and another 5 to 10 to apply the small amount of epoxy ( I used Araldite)

49 minutes ago, Peter Baldwin said:

Up to you Stephen, but I am still using the same hull three years later with no problems.  

Ditto for me.

I've read here of people refitting screw eyes etc, but since mine has been ok I've left well alone. Maybe there's variation in manufacturing quality 

Also inspect the hull around the fin box for cracks emanating from the black plastic fin box out.

These can be tiny and not obvious at first but are a definite source for leaks if present and do open up more when the hull is under stress in strong winds or choppy conditions.

A temporary fix is to apply a hull patch sticker as detailed in Rule C9 of the current DF95 Class Rules.