Well I read about using the concrete sealant as a water channel and was especially interested in its self leveling properties. In my Baden the builder had used foam for the water channel and it left a large gap between the foam and the hull. Large amounts of water would collect in the gap and affect its handling. I added some wood behind each rib as reinforcement and to control the flow of the concrete sealant. I turned the boat on its side at an angle and poured in the sealant. It worked great. I didnt use it in the bow as I felt the epoxy with microballoons weighed less. Now when I pour water in the bow it runs straight to the center channel even with the bottle installed. I also added some thick lexan armor attached to the wooden supports. I really like the sealant except that I had to do several sections a night so it took several days to do both sides as I had to wait a few hours between pours. However the results speak for themselves. Thanks guys for the idea!
not the amount that I used. I heard it said they are 10oz tubes and I used maybe 3/4 or less so 6-8oz. I was underweight anyway and it tended to wobble side to side so I am hoping this extra weight will help stabilize it.
BB26, I used wood and epoxy for my water channel for years. I am now using the concrete sealant. It is lighter but adds no strenght to the hull. You have to take care in how thick you put it down because of it's set-up time. You also have to make sure that the material that you are using as a dam is sealed and will hold the sealant back. If there is a place where it can get past the dam it WILL find it.
I found a OH NO HOLE while the T was drying. The sealant was starting to come out into the water channel. I wiped it off & used CA immediately on the hole with quick-dry spray. Worked like a charm.
Well all I don’t use it myself as with the Baltimore hull I don’t have weight to cover a spare BB .however this past week I spared with a team member a shake down for NATS we had 4 sorties and again two days later we tried but never got back fighting due to adjustments but two more days we did and all is good why you ask am I boring you with all this .well his problem with the USS Massachusetts was she was logy sat a whole ¼ inch below water line again not my ship but I’m relaying his findings the might Boston before being sunk quite handedly I might add scored some below water line hits enough to test his pumps but not his steel and in the day of soaking the concrete sealant soaked in enough weight to drop her in the water he has since removed it replaced with resin And all is well now I don’t know the brand and all that just thought I should throw this out there and builder beware you might see a trend starting here than again you might not good luck []
He was not using this stuff, when it dries its solid rubber, water just sheets off of it. I have not seen any issues and my PE has gone down a few times with rams, and I know Mikey's has sunk enough also to test for this.
I wonder if I used the sealant as my only water channel instead of epoxy coated balsa what the weight difference.
According to the sealants MSDS its a little denser than water, and according to wiki the high end for balsa density is about one fifth that of water. Epoxy is going to add some weight so I would guess that the sealant is probably 3-4 times heavier than if you did it with balsa. Is one better than the other? Yeah. Which one? Depends what you're doing. Oddly enough just like the rest of the hobby.
Well I will be building a VDT in the fall and was just thinking of what I might use. Weight may be an issue and it may not.
Is there any chance you could take a picture from a different angle? Maybe a little further back? I'm looking at the attached image and I'm having a hard time figuring out what I'm looking at. Perhaps a different view would help me figure things out better.
I am not sure the sealent is right for all ships. I know that ships that tend to have balance issues, AKA the smaller ones, may well benefit from this, but again I will say it adds weight to the ship. I have used it in my Des Moines and the battle with it in her made for a much more stable ship and even helped with her freeboard issues I had before any water channeling. To use it I have to say you should plan well on ships tight on weight as you could end up heavy.
One nice thing about the stuff is if you do use it and the ship comes up heavy it is much easier to remove than epoxy and other resins.
The previous picture was of the inside of the starboard midship with the lexan armor installed. This picture is of the bow of the ship. I tilted the ship to get it to have the slanted angle. So far in testing cups of water flow quicly to the center channel.
