www.iFourWinns.com

Greetings!

A couple of weeks ago a 2004 Horizon 230 fell into my life. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and will most likely be trailering to the Sacramento Delta for most of my boating fun, though I hope to try some of the lakes as well. Definitely want to keep away from the salty stuff.

It's a 10 year old boat so there are some issues, and I'm hoping all you old hands will continue your enthusiastic support of us noobs. I've already found many good things searching the site.

Here's one I didn't find. I was replacing my bilge pump, and the wiring is attached to the side of the engine bay with 2 tie-wraps screwed into the vertical fiberglass just to starboard of and below the fuel filter. When I took out those screws, a fair amount of water poured out of the screw holes. The boat had been sitting on a trailer for several days and I thought it was pretty dry, so I was surprised.

So, what is behind those holes? How would water get in there? How would I get the rest of it out (assuming I should)? Is there a way to check the same area on the port side?

Thank you!

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2004 Horizon 230
Volvo/Penta 5.7 DuoProp

First of all, welcome!

Next, it would be helpful if you could post some pictures of the area you are talking about. How long are the screws you pulled out and what is on the other side of where they were attached?
Posting pics here takes a bit of getting used to - you have to upload them to a picture hosting site (photobucket, etc.) the insert a link to your posting here. There are threads on the steps under Forum Issues http://www.smwebhead.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=9

Erik

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2002 Funship 214
VP 5.7 GX Si
2003 Tahoe

Thanks, Erik.

Here is a closeup of the area. It is just forward of the motor mount, on the same part of the boat the the motor mount bolts go through. The screws are about 1/2" long (just long enough to hold the tie-wraps in place).



Here is more of an overview shot, looking aft into the engine bay. You can see the white tie-wrap sticking out under the fuel filter.



tying up the wires and cleaning the bilge are jobs in progress.

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2004 Horizon 230
Volvo/Penta 5.7 DuoProp

That is part of the engine mount stringer. I'd e-mail Four Winns and find out what they used to core those mounts for that year boat. The older boats had plywood in the stringers but they switched to composites at some point, I'm not sure when. In either case you don't want water in there. If its a wood core it will rot the wood, if its a composite core if you get freezing temps it can cause the fiberglass to de-laminate from the core. What you can do it let it dry out as much as possible and take a wet dry vacc and try to suck any more moisture out of the holes..... Just don't put the vacc in the bilge because the motors on them are not ignition protected....

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

i can't answer your question, but be careful in the delta, lot of drunks out there, especially on jet ski's. Don pedro is a beautiful lake, about 2 hours from the bay, I used to live in Fremont/newark and grew up going to don pedro.

Mate I would look at getting a professional to check that out. Water in that section will rot the stringers.. and more importantly how did it get in there..... other than damage there should not be water there.

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Cheers

Mark
Melbourne
Australia

Boats:
Current: 2004 FW 190
2001 Mastercraft X5
1998 Malibu Response
1999 Sea Ray 180
17 ft Scimitar Barefoot (200hp Yamaha)
16ft Scimitar Ski (Yamaha 115)
1988 Ski Nautique ( Called Ski Antique)

Thanks for the pointer! I have to wait for my mussel sticker*, and then I'm concerned about spending a lot of time and effort to dry the boat out, wait in line for an inspection, and get rejected because I missed a drip somewhere, but I'll try the lakes. For some of them, I have to be able to prove I have owned the boat for 30 days.

* I spend 5 hours at the DMV to get the boat registered, with many pages of paperwork they didn't mention on their web site, and I had to pull the rig to them, not for a safety inspection or something useful, but so they could verify the VIN on the trailer matched the paperwork, plus they have no place to park a boat while waiting (and waiting...), and then they forgot to give me a mussel sticker (so I could go back for more...) Is this the future of healthcare?

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2004 Horizon 230
Volvo/Penta 5.7 DuoProp

I've got a call into the local boat doctor to set up an appointment. Hopefully I've not got wood in there, and we can (a) dry it out and (b) figure out where it came from and stop it from refilling.

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2004 Horizon 230
Volvo/Penta 5.7 DuoProp

Water can find ways in that you would not think of, in the case of engine mount stringers, I bet that they did not put sealer on the bolts that hold the engine mounts to the stringer. The way these boats are designed it is very difficult to keep water out. The best way to deal with it, is to re-bed fasteners every so many years, using either Life-Seal or 3M4200. I do this with the screws for the transom mount transducer for the Garmin. When you bed them properly water does not get in. This is very important on transoms and engine stringers. Even with composite boats.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Just to close out this post, my mechanic checked with FourWinns. They said there is zero wood in this boat, and that it is not unusual for some water to get into the stringer, but it should not cause harm there.

I might be concerned about it if I lived in an area with hard freezes, but I think I won't be to concerned about it for now. Plenty of other things to fix on the boat...

Thanks to all!

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2004 Horizon 230
Volvo/Penta 5.7 DuoProp