leaking alumacraft

I have a 2012 Alumacraft navigator. This spring it started to take in water. First thought it was a bad rivet. So I put boat on trailer and filled it with water. Then I crawled under it and found water streaming out of a paint bubble on the flat surface of the hull. No rivet problem. Upon further inspection found a number of paint bubble on the hull but only one was leaking. Dealer conferred with Alumacraft and they agreed to a temporary fix by applying silicon to the leaking bubble. Also on a number of other paint bubbles. In October my boat will be sent to Alumacraft for their inspection and determine how to fix it permanently. Alumacraft and the dealer both said they have never seen or heard of this problem. Has anyone else had this problem? Is it outrageous to expect them to present a deal for a new boat? The more I think about this the more I do not want a boat with a leak because of a material flaw. Thoughts??? 

Long story short Alumacraft attributed my leaking boat to mouse urine. They had my boat from October 2018 to April 2019. They said it was fixed but refused to allow me to see the damage. I'm just not buying the urine corroding the double hull. Fast forward to this summer and my boat is still leaking again. All systems in my boat were working before Alumacraft had it for the winter. Now my bilge pump doesn't work, my speedometer, rpm gauge, gas gauge only work 50% of the time, my dash board lights don't work and my interior lights don't work. Tomorrow I will be taking it into my Alumacraft dealer for repairs. Once fixed I will sell my 2012 Navigator and will be fishing out of a different boat next season. It will NOT be a Alumacraft.

I have the same problem with a 2014 Trophy. The boat is now with Alumacraft. They are replacing the transom but no decision on the rest of the boat that has corrosion all along the water line and everything above deck. Traced to copper in the treated wood on the boat. Contact me if you have a similar problem.  [email protected]

985-502-8088

Bob Hurst 

I’ve got the same problem with my ’98 lunker. Going to limp it through the year, this winter I may attack the problem from the inside. What a pain!

The leaking Alumacraft story has come to an end. Things did not go as I wished but I should be getting my boat back shortly. Alumacraft agreed to fix the leaks with me being responsible for labor charges. I contacted my insurance company. An adjuster visited Alumacraft and within two weeks I had a check covering the labor costs and a little money left over. I asked Alumacraft if I could come to their plant to view the damages that the mice caused. That request was denied. The adjuster took a couple of picks that didn't really show much but he did feel they're definitely was mouse activity in the boat. I still have a problem believing all the corrosion/leaks were caused by mouse urine. I still don't understand why the whole transom needed to be replaced. With all, as they say, mouse activity why weren't any wires damaged? So I guess lesson learned. I have already bought more mouse traps, a couple of packages of moth balls and some electronic anti mouse plugin devices. Finally, being unable to personally view my boat, I'm just not confident about what really has happened.

The truly horrifying aspect of this (for me) is that my boat, which is stored in a garage in northern Wisconsin, has been periodically absolutely over-run with mice. There's very little wiring in the boat, and I've never noticed any particular damage other than piss stains on the carpeting.

One time I left the boat outside overnight, attached to my truck. It rained heavily that night, and the boat was filled with like 400 gallons of water. When I popped the drain plug, approximately 1000 acorns came out the drain hole, one at a time, plop, plop, plop. All stashed under the floor, apparently.

With regard to the "bad ground" causing heating of a battery terminal, a bad ground = resistance (ohms). Power in watts (heat) = current squared x resistance in ohms. So if your "bad ground" =  1 ohm and the battery current = 10 amps (like for a trolling motor) = 10 x 10 x 1 = 100 watts (as hot as a soldering iron). Melted battery terminal.

RR (EE)

Google search, showed several examples of mouse urine and damage to aluminum airplanes, including one that was totaled.

I have been reading this thread for a while and some things just don't add up.

#1 - Are you sure that the pics they are sending you are of your boat ? Like someone else said, if the mice had the run of the boat, I think you might have seen previous signs of that happening.

#2 - Mouse urine ?? How many gallons does it take ?? to eat thru aluminum sheet like that ?

#3 -Damage to the transom? That is a vertical surface, I would think if there are mice in there, they would be more on a horizontal surface !!!

It just sounds like maybe the factory found a defective boat of theirs somehow and they don't want to pony up ?

But then again, maybe I'm wrong !

I am the original owner. Interesting comments and I appreciate the feedback. Since I purchased the boat I have never noticed any smell or any mouse excrement in the boat. In October when I took it to the dealer I was advised to take everything out before it was shipped to Alumacraft. During that process I found nothing that would suggest that it was infested with mice. It sure makes one wonder. They did send me two photos. One was a nest the size of a softball and the other was some material stuff into a hole where cables would go. There has been no mention of any damage to wires.

If the issues were that prevalent you would've/should've saw signs.To corrode to the extent that it was leaking through both layers is a lot of corrosion and would have been a lot of mice for a long time. Something is off here.

Was this preowned or are you the original owner.