Rich,

You are awesome dude. That was a good one. Yes I am selling the Pro Craft in the not so distant future.
Russ

Doug, talk to Russ.  Maybe he can get you a boat for your wife.....

Rich

Doug,

Wow thats harsh from the wife!!! Didn't she understand that about you when she married you. Men fish and have to have a boat to do that very thing. Whats up with wives these days.
Russ

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions and help.  Mike Wolsky has hooked me up with a guy who builds aluminium boats and he has offered to repair the crack and fix the leaky rivets.  Mike is going to haul it up North for me.  I think that this should take care of the problem and shouldn't cost an arm and a leg.  If for hwatever reason it doesn't work out the gutter tape may be the next big winner.  I hope that I can get a new (to me) boat in the near future but my wife has made an ultimatum, her or a boat.  Seems aweful tempting most of the time but I try and do the right thing and hang with the "ol boat" for as long as possible.  Thanks again everyone.

Doug,
  I guess I wasn't done yet.  Don't take your boat apart!  I helped Larry Sullivan with the same issue and quickly, we both regreted it.  The rivets that more than likely are leaking on your boat, are longitudal support rails on the floor of the boat.  Even if you expose them after tearing the whole boat apart, we ran into HE "double hockey sticks" tearing to seal around them.  Also, all the screws and fasteners that come off the boat are NOT stainless and will need to be replaced.  What you can't see is they have no holding power once removed.  I'd fix it from the outside (exterior), fish it for another couple of seasons and sell it off to someone like "NICK CULVER"  that just wants to float!  Great thing about Trackers though, it's made real easy on them to power up a second, or even third BILGE PUMP!  Running wire is easy on 'em!

Doug,
  To everyones point, no easy way except:  On the old Tracker that took Phil Hudgens, Chris Sergeant and I to nearly every WBC tournament from 1994 to 2004, It leaked like a siv until, Chris tried getting welded, we tried, to Glenns point JB WELD, epoxys from ever maker and still was a constant battle.  It would dry up until the first BIG "molar rattling" wave and it started leaking again.  As far as safety goes, I never felt unsafe.  A bilge pump in working order and the fact that there is no lake we fish in Washington that you cant make it to shore in 30 seconds if you had to kept me calm.
  The problem with "our Tracker" was that the major leaks were around the rivets that would slide against the bunk rail on the trailer when loading and unloading the boat, tearing apart any repair we made.  Then  I found the SOLUTION!  I traded that boat in dry as a bone!  The quick and "annual fix", even under the bunks was "GUTTER TAPE"!  I have some in my work truck and you can get it in the gutter isle of Home Depot.  The stuff if made of nearly "bulletproof" rubber with an extremely sticky adhesive on one side.  It is about an 1/8" thick, it stretchs, molds to contours of the hull and is even aluminum colored on the exposed side.  At first, I thought the stuff would just peel off because of waves, shallow water stumps and so on, NOT!  Once you put it on, you cant get it off!  Give me a call and I'll help you out on this.  This stuff works, and I don't think you'll have $20 bucks into it when you're done.  BEEN THERE, SURVIVED THAT!

Yes, the guy who welded my hull made a stop drill on each end.  I could have used spray foam to finish the job, but at that point I didn't care anymore.

DO NOT use JB Weld or any other expoxy.  It does not flex, and aluminum needs to flex.  If you use these materials, you'll eventually get another tear/weak spot around the area you used the epoxy.

I thought about Rhino Lining, but dropped the idea when I found this out.  Turns out I know another guy who did, in fact, Rhino Lined his aluminum boat and now regrets it.

Also, understand the welding was done outside, so the toxic gas issue was minimal.

Yep, remove the foam from around the area that is to be fixed.  You can replace the foam with a can of expandable foam that can be purchase at any hardware store.  As for toxic gases given off by foam.  Lets talk Hydrogen Cyanide gas.  Deadly stuff that when inhaled over time is acumulative.  Some thing I get tested for by annually as a firefighter.  Would you huff enough doing the work yourself  probabable not, but why risk it.

Mark

Doug, when I was working on airplanes in the navy, cracked panels were common. One of the best ways I know of to actualy stop the cracks from continuing to travel and grow, is to stop drill the end of the crack. That is, locate the very end of the crack as it goes into the panel and drill a small hole at that spot. The drill should be about the same diameter as the thickness of the panel.  As far as welding the cracks, I'm sure the foam would have to be removed from the area. Not only are the gasses toxic, but they can also weaken the weld.  I had a brain storm while writing this, have you concidered some form of epoxy or perhaps eurathane? When all else fails, glue it!!  Hope that was of some help,   Bob

Doug,
I have a little experience in this area, if you recall.     You won't find a boat repair place anywhere in the state that will tackle this, but a few well-placed calls to welding shops will do the trick.  You'll need to bring the boat in for them to assess the work, and they'll all have differing opinions/rates on what it will take. No single way is the "right way", just the one that's the best option within your budget.

The larger issue is that the aluminum around the crack has thinned and weakened.  Thus making it difficult to repair (there's not much aluminum to work with).  Worse yet, the repair may only be temporary if this isn't taken into consideration - tears will appear around the repair in no time.

The solution for my boat was to weld up the 2' rips in the hull, then reinforce the areas by tack-welding aluminum angle iron over the weld, extending well beyond it, and then sealing it into place with Sikaflex 292. 

The welder was very good and did not need to remove the foam.  He was slow, cautious, and methodical.  The foam melted around the holes he repaired, but the reinforcement made up for it.

As for the rivets - I went to a machine shop supply store and got some solid-core rivets and replaced every stinkin' leaking rivet (28 of them!), dabbing them in FAA approved aircraft sealant before installing them.

The end result?  It was a bullet-proof, leak-proof tank.  All for under $500.

Doug,

Check with Three Rivers Marine in woodinville. They deal with aluminum all the time since they sell Alumacraft and should be able to help you out. Sorr to hear that another alum boat has bit the dust. Sounds like a job for JB Weld.
RB

Doug

My daughter has some bubble gum that she got trick or treating, if I talk nice to her and tell her your situation she would give you a couple of pieces. If that doesn't work it's sounds like we are going to have another aluma-tub funneral. My deepist condolences.

Daryl

Hey Doug,

I'm not an expert in this area, but Ron H. helped me with these same issues on my tracker a few years back. For the bad cracks, we had to get into the hull from the storage compartments and chip out foam around the cracks. Welding around the crack with foam present may start a fire, and there can even be a dangerous gas that comes from the foam although I don't know how true that is (just something I heard). The problem with the aluminum is that even after you weld, new cracks may come out of the weld unless you get a really perfect job. There is just too much flex in a tracker hull.

Unfortunately, it seems like a road most older Trackers go down. And it is hard to totally solve without spending way too much money. Luckily, it never became a safety problem for me, but you might want to up your bilge capacity to a bigger, faster pump.

Chris

I know from welding alum. heads you will need to preheat the area to be welded. A big piece of alu. just sucks up the heat like a heat sink. You might try to heat up the area first before trying to repair.
John

Hey guys, I need a little help.  I just noticed after the last tournament that the ol' Panacea has a crack in the aluminium around one of the rivets on the bottom of the hull.  I am not very familiar with what recourse I have.  I assume that the more I continue to use it the worse the crack becomes.  I called back to tracker marine and they tell me that the hull warranties expired after 5 years.  I contacted my insurance co. and they told me it depends on how it happened.  I don't know who does this type of repair but I imagine it may cost a bit because of the need to pull up the flooring to repair the boat and any other misc leaking rivets, etc  they find.  I certainly can't afford to just junk it.  I also don't want to see my insurance rates jump or get cancelled.  I would love to get another boat but I can't seem to get my financial advisor (Leigh) on board the idea yet.  I don't want to endanger anyone either.  The crack is small right now and I bought somme of those "as seen on TV" aluminium repair rods but they don't seem to work with the propane torches like they "did on TV"  Any info would be greatly appreicated.