out of sight, outa mind?

[drew]

The Lionfish's external tanks are stained from rusty water runoff. I would think if we painted them, they would just get stained again until we removed the source of the rust.
I think there are two major sources of the rusty water.

The pressure hull has two troughs (stbd/port) that run bow to stern. They are depressions in the top of the pressure hull. There is no way for the water to escape, so it eventually fills up and overflows down the sides of the tanks. We have standing water in the troughs most of the year. In winter it becomes ice.

The underside of the deck, and the framing super-structure are a rusty mess.

Do you paint the underside of the metal decking?
Is your framing under the deck painted well and rust free?
Have you removed any of the air induction piping aft of the sail to make working below the deck easier?
Do you keep your troughs free of water? How did you do that?

Thanx

[Evil Tracey of Torsk]

Those two troughs are a complete pain in the ass - and your head when you hit it on the superstructure dealing with the standing water, etc. they generate.

[Karen D.]

On Cobia, we have pumps in the troughs and hope to buy automatic ones soon so we don't have to deal with them. The frames in the troughs all have holes so the water flows through them, but it tends to build up with dirt and muck. We have sea cadets that visit every summer for a work day and that's their project. Since they are smaller and younger, I make them scoop out the muck to keep the water flowing. They toss the muck overboard and we hose the sides down as we go. Then we only need one pump on each side.

Karen

[Evil Tracey of Torsk]

Pumps? 

Tell me more!

[Karen D.]

It's a basic utility pump. We plug it in and drop it in the trough and it pumps the water out and over the side. The automatic ones should run whenever it is needed, keeping the troughs drier and we don't have to worry about it as much.

[Paul Farace]

I've been trying to sell our volunteers on doing just this aboard Cod. That rusty muck does stain our ballast tanks too! Painters love doing the outside of the superstructure, but the inside has not been painted since 1988 and at that time it was painted gray, not black! So someday, if we don't do something soon, our painters will push their rollers right through the superstructure from the outside in - because the metal will rust from the inside out!       And the waterways, as they're called by our sub skippers, do need to be scrapped and dried and recoated. Otherwise they'll rust through and fill tanks! Yech!  Love the pump idea and will look into it once we de-muck, clean, and recoat those waterways!

Good point to discuss here!   Well done!   

[Karen D.]

I'll post photos and a report when we get the new ones and will share where we got them from. We are just about to submit the request for the money so it'll take a few weeks.

Karen