First, let me quickly say thank you to all of the participants on these forums. I've recently acquired a DS1 in need of some repairs and have been reading many, many of your posts and have learned a great deal. This is truly a fantasitic resource and hopefully I can add to it someday.
Now....on to my question: When I picked up my boat, it had over a foot of water in it and the plugs were out of the keelson and seat tanks. Obviously, water filled the bow tank and seat tanks.
After pumping, vacuuming and draining every which way, I was still of the opinion that there was water in there. So (following the tips of others), I cut a hole for an inspection port in each tank and began pulling the styrofoam out. The majority of the blocke were extremely saturated so that was definitely time well spent.
The boat is now completely dry and I'm wondering why everyone (including the manufacturer) feels it is necessary to fill those tanks with foam. If the plugs are inserted tightly - how does water get in? Especially the seat tanks - they are glassed to the inner hull and I see no cracks. There must be an inherent leak or the manufacturer wouldn't have added foam and drain plugs in the first place.
Can anyone shed any light on where the water comes in? Is it possible to stop the leak instead of re-stuffing the tanks with foam?
If anyone can shed any light on this, I'd be very interested.
(and by the way - can those saturated old foam blocks be dried out in the sun or are they simply trash now?).
Thanks all.
-Steve