Scuppers

[Whit]

I have been looking at the scuppers. They seem to be intergrated into the ribs that run through the lazzerettes. I looked through the blue prints and I don't see where/how they blocked the ribs off, (so the drainage will exit just below water line). Anyone experiance any problems with leaky scuppers?

 

[Quetzalsailor]

Evidently, LeComte liked the detail. He or Tripp copied it for his scuppers on the NE 38 but the hat-channel goes only just past the outlet. He used similar details for stiffeners on a NE 38s' long aft overhang and used those channels for ventilation ducts to the A4 engine. You're right, the channel would have to be stopped below the waterline which would have to be done during layup of the ribs. I wonder, do your scupper channels continue to the centerline like the rest of the ribs or did Hallimatic simply add an extra half rib for use as the scupper? To me, the sloppiest part of the design is the way they have to be glassed into the deck after the deck's on. And the worst part is the way they trap water below the outlet when the boat's been pulled; it looks like a freeze damage potential. Of course, the best part is how elegant the Hinckleys Aldens and LeComtes look with that detail! (I'll bet the B 40 is the same but other Hinckleys are plumbed from fittings in the deck).

D

 

[Whit]

The channels continue down into the hull; however they must be blocked off at the trough hull. I'm afraid that the "blocking" of one of the channels is compromised and the drainage is continuing, filling the remainder of the channel. I noticed some water weeping from a fastener and am exploring further. I blocked off the exit for the scupper and that stopped the leak. I need to look into the exit. The exit is just below the water line. I’ll heal her over a bit and see what I can find from the water.

 

[Quetzalsailor]

I think the problem will lie in the way that the hat channels are added into the finished hull layup. They'd be a cold joint and the geometry of the channel is susceptable to peeling failure from the inside of the channel. (Peeling is the usual failure mode of tabbing and similar laps.) Like I commented on my similar scuppers, I fear that water can sit in there below the hull opening and freeze; if so and if there's enough volume trapped then the freezing would be pushing against the very substantial hull and pushing against the inside of the hat. That pressure would tend to peel the hat away from the hull. One could expect that your closure is much the same (where mine just ends an inch or so below the opening), and your hat is continued on past. Perhaps you can see a 'bobble' in the way the 'glass is laid up?

Repair doesn't seem too tough. Having proven to myself that water leaks out from the bottom of the passage by perhaps heeling the boat on a calm, flat day, I'd probably squirt solvent through the crack (thinking all the while about flammable vapors trapped in the bottom of the hat) and pour neat, then thickened epoxy to fill the crack. For me, the hardest part would be getting the inside of the thing clean of bottom paint.

I imagine that all your frames have limber holes at their bottoms?