On my 40 (hull #24) I was doing a bit of "looking around" in the nooks and crannies and came across something rather disturbing. In the aft cabin, under the mattress, about 18" aft of the Volvo shaft seal, is a small bilge recess. Here I found a puddle of water about 4" by 8" and 1/16" deep. The disturbing part? It tastes salty and rusty and it's coming *up* through the hull - and not from the shaft seal, which is "lower" in the hull and completely dry.
Looking into the very bottom of the bilge recess I found a transverse crack about 4" long and 1/8" wide. I can shove a stick - actually a plastic zip tie - *down* into the crack about 5". That's 5" below what I thought, until a few days ago, was the bottom of the hull.
Talking to my dealer, the shaft log runs below this recess and is encased in a fiberglass "tray" under this part of the hull. My zip tie appears to be sticking down through the main hull form into this tray. Of course there should not be any water here. Beneteau says that they use 4200 to glue the shaft log to the tray and that it has obviously failed.
Beneteau has agreed to haul the boat and pay for the repair, but I'm not sure that what they want to do is correct. They want to have the yard haul, grind out the old putty, put in the new, let it dry, and splash the boat... in about 36 hours total. Is this the right way to fix this issue?
-- Has anyone else experienced this problem?
-- Doesn't the wet fiberglass need to "dry out" completely before they seal it up again? There was water deep inside the boat, below the hull liner and surrounding the shaft log, for many months. Won't this water cause problems later if it is just "sealed up"?
-- Won't my bottom paint be wrecked by drying out? It's Petit Vivid.
Thanks,
Jeff
