avon sea rider flooding hull

[Jon penrith]

I have a 4mtr sea rider deluxe which I use for diving.This is fitted with a 40hp outboard.I fing that it seems to take a while to get the water out of the flooding hull before planing so am thinking about sealing it up.Avon reckon there is no noticable difference.please advise wether to seal or not & if anyone has one of the old avon sealing kits for sale.Alternatively Avon tell me a plastic cap which is used to protect the prop of an outboard whilst new in the packing case is just the right size.Does anyone have one of these for sale.Any other ideas appreciated.

[Louise]

This has been discussed before so have a look here and follow the link in the second post while you're waiting for other responses.

[Paul Beaurain]

Hi

I had an Avon 5.4 and tried it both ways using a temporary seal.

I found that the weight of water in the hull when at rest made the boat far more stable and better for it.

Use tank tape (duck tape over the front breather holes making sure the tape wont be peeeled back by the forwrad motion. cut a disc out of a piece of foamex (used for sign making) and seal on with bathroom silicon sealant. dont use silkaflex as it will be too difficult to remove and clean up afterwards.

let us know how you find it.
Paul.

[MikeCC]

Jon,

Still wrestling with the issue on my 5.4 SR. The flooding hull does make a difference especially if you put on too much throttle initially - prop will just cavitate and you won't go anywhere. So you will accelerate better with a dry hull.

The other problem I've found is that the transom sits quite low in the water with the hull flooded and you're at rest. (This will depend on balance of boat, which could be better on mine and weight of engine) Obviously you can't drain it out of the trunks and you need a pump on the deck to keep it dry. Not a serious problem, just a bit of a pain and it can be a bit alarming in s chop!

As Paul suggests, you can go for a temporary fix to try it out but be warned, you will probably get plenty of water in the hull. Once it's in there you're stuck with it until you recover. That defintely doesn't help performance (yep - been there!)

My current thought is to block up all the holes as well as possible. I'll then put a bilge pump in the hull itself and pump out through one of the deck bung holes (assume the 4m has those?). Any pump maintenance means taking the transom bung out again, but hopefully won't be required too often.

Good luck

Mike