Closing/replacing drain hole

So the drain hole on my Tracker Sportsman 1648 got smashed up by a rock a few weeks ago. We opened it back up and welded up any leaks that it caused. Well now the uneveness and protrusions from welding on that part of my hull is causing my jet outboard to cavitate. My jet foot sits dead center behind my drain hole. I've been wanting to move my drain hole to either side of the boat, so now would be a good time. Just not sure how to go about closing this one up and getting the bottom of my hull in that area back in shape. My buddy can weld aluminum, so that's not a problem. Just trying to figure out how to go about it. Thinking of smashing the rib/hole up even with the bottom of the hull, then welding any leaky areas and then smoothing/cleaning up that entire area with a grinder and flap wheel. Not sure thats the way to do it though. Any ideas?

Here is how it looks currently. All the white stuff is 5200 I put on after we fixed the drain hole from the rock strike.

hmm, not too sure the 5200 was a good idea, that's going to make your welder buddy want to smack u

but yea your smash, weld, grind idea is how i'd go about deleting the drain hole. i'd use an air die grinder over an electric angle grinder though, it will take longer, but if the problem is cavitation, you want that area as smooth as baby's butt. i'd smash/weld/grind the high spots, then use epoxy & a sander to fair it out (fill in the low spots). even that weep channel itself is introducing air into the water flowing to your jet, evidently it just wasn't enough to pose an issue prior to the collision

before i did all that though, i'd try to clean up what you have. if you get rid of all that 5200, and properly smooth out the existing hole with grinding, welding, epoxy, sanding, i bet the problem goes away. it looks kinda not-so-smooth in the above pictures. if you can snag your fingernail on it, it's sending air to your water pickup...

Thanks. That all makes sense. What epoxy would you reccommend?

JB weld marine says it will stick to aluminum, & seems to be highly rated. i'd probably opt for that or 3M

but honestly for this job, anything 2 part epoxy should do fine, although I'd opt for one that is not "fast cure", as they tend to be more brittle over time

2 part epoxy that takes at least 4 hours to cure should be the ticket, you're not using it structurally, only cosmetically. the structure needs to be welded by your buddy, after you remove every molecule of 5200 from the areas to be welded. i guess you could just grind it out & redo the whole deal with epoxy, but i'd try to clean it up, then tig weld any holes back to water tight, then fair it like glass with epoxy (fill low spots, sand flush, repeat) if it was my boat

i'd see if your welder could cut the entire chine/drain plug out about 10 - 12" in front of where the drain is and from next chine to next chine on the sides, and lay a piece of heavy aluminum, .125 or so, over it to form the v. get rid of the chine, get rid of the drain, and beef up the lowest point of the hull a little bit all at the same time.

JoshKeller said:

i'd see if your welder could cut the entire chine/drain plug out about 10 - 12" in front of where the drain is and from next chine to next chine on the sides, and lay a piece of heavy aluminum, .125 or so, over it to form the v. get rid of the chine, get rid of the drain, and beef up the lowest point of the hull a little bit all at the same time.

Click to expand...

I seen where guys have done this. I'm actually surprised the current chine/drain hole didn't cause me issues before. What do you mean by form a V though? If I remove that center chine shouldn't I keep that area as smooth/even as possible?

I think the best way is to cut it out and have your fab guy weld up a patch. Little hand sanding to smooth the welds.

RiverBottomOutdoors said:

I think the best way is to cut it out and have your fab guy weld up a patch. Little hand sanding to smooth the welds.

Click to expand...

How much/how far back the chine should I cut out? Should I just be cutting out the crap part of the chine, just a few inches back from the transom? Or should I be going all out and taking a good bit of the chine out to create a nice smooth/even bottom in front of the jet foot?

BigTerp said:

RiverBottomOutdoors said:

I think the best way is to cut it out and have your fab guy weld up a patch. Little hand sanding to smooth the welds.

Click to expand...

How much/how far back the chine should I cut out? Should I just be cutting out the crap part of the chine, just a few inches back from the transom? Or should I be going all out and taking a good bit of the chine out to create a nice smooth/even bottom in front of the jet foot?

Click to expand...

2 to 3 feet according to Outboardjets.com

RiverBottomOutdoors said:

BigTerp said:

RiverBottomOutdoors said:

I think the best way is to cut it out and have your fab guy weld up a patch. Little hand sanding to smooth the welds.

Click to expand...

How much/how far back the chine should I cut out? Should I just be cutting out the crap part of the chine, just a few inches back from the transom? Or should I be going all out and taking a good bit of the chine out to create a nice smooth/even bottom in front of the jet foot?

Click to expand...

2 to 3 feet according to Outboardjets.com

Click to expand...

So after I cut it out, I would just patch what I cut out to make the bottom of my hull even? What gauge aluminum would you reccommend. I have a bunch of .125" handy.

Follow the hull shape. .125 is probably fine. Hopefully, Ranchero will chime in...he's the uber fab genius on here.

RiverBottomOutdoors said:

Follow the hull shape. .125 is probably fine. Hopefully, Ranchero will chime in...he's the uber fab genius on here.

Click to expand...

Thanks!! Funny you mention Ranchero, been talking with him about doing the work. It won't be the first time he's fixed my boo boo's!!! He does GREAT work.

by forming the v i meant keeping the hull a slight v as it currently is. Cant really remember, but im pretty sure the bottom of your boat was a very slight v, not a flat bottom.

if you're going 2 cut up the hull to weld in new metal, this would be the perfect time to put a pad on the hull, it might give you a few MPH. in general, a "pad" is a flat-ish area about 8" wide and about 2' long on the bottom by the transom, it's the only part of the hull in the water at wide open throttle, reduces drag, it's a race boat thing, my fiberglass hulled flats boat has one...prolly what outboardjets.com was referring to in riverbottom's post

I suspect you want to match the gauge of your hull, otherwise it's going to be harder to weld & keep the temps right for good fusion, it's definitely doable using thicker or thinner material, just not quite as easily. May want to ask your welder that part because if for example you are trying to weld .125 to an .080 hull, it's going to be a tad tricky to not burn through the .080 hull skin, perfectly doable with a tig, but you'd have to be **** good to pull that off with a mig...

Thanks for all the advice!! Took a grinder with flap wheel to the welds around the drain hole. Got them all knocked down pretty good. I then took some 220 grit sandpaper I had lying around and hand sanded everything around the drain hole and hull bottom in front of the jet foot until it was as smooth as a babies butt. Took the boat out Saturday to do some fishing and everything was back to normal Zero cavitation and my WOT rpm's dropped back down to 5400. Going to call it good for now and see how it does this fall/winter during hunting season. Still want to eventually delete that drain hole and level out that center chine. Will probably wait until I smack up the drain hole again though.

Good deal. Glad you got it fixed until next time! haha!

RiverBottomOutdoors said:

............until next time! haha!

Click to expand...

No doubt!!! I've been hard on my boat this summer. Imploded foot, 1" x 1/4" hole in hull and now this. Learned to be a bit easier though.