Pontoon leak

Rphasty8

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I took delivery of my new Bennington in April and around mid-summer, I happened to hear a bubbling sound. Upon inspection, I discovered bubbling at the weld junction of the lifting strake and pontoon. Upon listening to the pontoon for water however, I can't detect any water in the toon. Bennington tells me that it's common for there to have bubbling at this junction since for fresh water boats the lifting strake is open at the stern of the boat. Has anyone else run into this and if so, how did you resolve it. Thanks!
 
I see and hear bubbles as I slow down while coming up to the dock. My strakes are open in the back allowing water to slowly drain from them while getting up to speed. When I slow down the air is somewhat trapped in the strakes until the air slowly bubbles out. I do not have a problem with slow bubbling air evacuation. I do have a problem with what is perceived to be slow water evacuation while getting up to speed! This I intend to fix on my boat.
 
Bennington tells me that it's common for there to have bubbling at this junction since for fresh water boats the lifting strake is open at the stern of the boat. Has anyone else run into this and if so, how did you resolve it. Thanks!
It’s common. Other than the bubbling noise, it doesn‘t have any impact on boat or perfromance.

I would imagine the only solution would be to weld close the rear opening of the lifting strake since it is just how the water sounds as it fills and drains while under pressure and/or submerged.

However, it might also require a reexamination of the welds along the entirety of the lifting strake too since they aren’t otherwise intended to be water-tight in that configuration.

Just the nature of non-sealed lifting strakes. I personally wouldn’t bother with it.
 
I took delivery of my new Bennington in April and around mid-summer, I happened to hear a bubbling sound. Upon inspection, I discovered bubbling at the weld junction of the lifting strake and pontoon. Upon listening to the pontoon for water however, I can't detect any water in the toon. Bennington tells me that it's common for there to have bubbling at this junction since for fresh water boats the lifting strake is open at the stern of the boat. Has anyone else run into this and if so, how did you resolve it. Thanks!
Do you have the option of 'Sealed Lifting Strakes'?
If so, then they should be sealed. Air tight/water tight.
If not, then they are indeed open in the rear and only stitch welded front to back.(so not sealed at all)
 
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My strakes will bubble for quite some time after I slow down. The small gap between the intermittent welds is the only strake vent. While getting up to speed air enters thru those small openings as the water flows out the back. My four lifting strakes contain appropriately 40 gallons of water weighing 320 lbs. As the boat gets up to speed the faster this water flows out the back the better. If air is not allowed to flow in the strakes behind the displaced water the strakes will have a tough time unloading the water. This will effect hole shot performance. The fact that it takes a long time for the strakes to evacuate the air tells me that it will take a long time for the strakes to emit air during water evacuation. I noted this behavior during my top speed testing. From a dead stop the last one mph was not achieved until at quite some time. I attribute this to the time it takes to evacuate the water from the lifting strakes.

I would imagine there are many solutions to this problem. But because it is not a significant problem economics would dictate a low cost solution. With my boat I intend to add venting at the front of the strakes for rapid evacuation of the water.
 
My strakes will bubble for quite some time after I slow down. The small gap between the intermittent welds is the only strake vent. While getting up to speed air enters thru those small openings as the water flows out the back. My four lifting strakes contain appropriately 40 gallons of water weighing 320 lbs. As the boat gets up to speed the faster this water flows out the back the better. If air is not allowed to flow in the strakes behind the displaced water the strakes will have a tough time unloading the water. This will effect hole shot performance. The fact that it takes a long time for the strakes to evacuate the air tells me that it will take a long time for the strakes to emit air during water evacuation. I noted this behavior during my top speed testing. From a dead stop the last one mph was not achieved until at quite some time. I attribute this to the time it takes to evacuate the water from the lifting strakes.

I would imagine there are many solutions to this problem. But because it is not a significant problem economics would dictate a low cost solution. With my boat I intend to add venting at the front of the strakes for rapid evacuation of the water.
Thanks for providing this perspective. It's very helpful in helping me understand what I'm dealing with.
 
Why not seal up the strakes with an epoxy? It eliminates the 40 gal of water and I wouldn’t think you would even come close to a pound of epoxy.
 
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