Glue or sealer around ballast tank

[Bcbimmer]

Hello again,

Close to gluing down the cockpit sole. There have been some comments about using a sealant around the edge of the ballast tank when gluing down the sole. Something about epoxy being non flexible and possibly cracking and leaking with time. So questions. Is is the right way to go? What is the best sealant to use? I assume the rest of the sole is still glued down with epoxy. On the cleats/bulkhead 5 do you use epoxy on the dry side and sealant on the ballast side. If it is true on the ballast tank, why is it not an issue with all the other seams with water on one side? Planks, transome and the like.

Thanks,

Dan

[knasman]

Dan,

I must have missed the mention of using something other than epoxy to seal the sole down to the ballast box. Other than the warning of making sure you have plenty of fair mating surface around the box, the sealer has always been epoxy. I don't know why one would doubt the epoxy, it is used in every other joint in the boat.

I'm planning on using plenty of epoxy on those edges and then reaching through the hatches under the veranda and the hatch aft of the ballast box to clean up the overage. The overage inside the ballast box will just have to live there. It should be possible to reach in run some fillets on the outside if your hatches are big enough and arms long enough. Blind fillets...... I'll give it a try and let you know how it goes

[HappyDog]

For those builders who have not yet made the cut-out for the ballast tank access port you may want to consider locating the hole at the center of the top of the tank. Doing this would allow better access for visual inspection of the entire tank interior and for making fillets of the squeeze-out epoxy on the interior of the tank top. On the downside, moving the hole will make working on, and inspecting of the CB pivot pin slightly more difficult.

Charlie

[Peter E]

There is one other possibility. I believe Mike Monies made a separate piece for the ballast tank. This was so it could be removed in the future if needed for cleaning. The cover was sealed and screwed down. The inside of the tank also was covered with black graphite to slow down marine growth.

[simeoniii]

At SCAMP Camp-1 John Welsford said that he had used before, and would recommend for SCAMP, a flexible/permanent sealing compound between a WB tank and the doubler/cockpit sole above. I mentioned 3M-5200 and that appeared to be acceptable. After all, the doubler/sole will never come up again once it's in place.

That's what I intend to use unless I hear different.
Maybe JW will chime in here