Posted: May 13 2007 at 13:14 | IP Logged

George - Re your question about the Viking 43 Aft Cabin.  This summer will be the 5th season we have owned our 1979.  We have worked up through several boats -- 28' Baltic Express. 34' Chris Craft Express. 36' Trojan Tri-Cabin, then our current 43' Viking Aft Cabin.  We have been very pleased with the 43.  It handles well in all kinds of seas although in the 12-14 knot speeds, you have to keep up with the steering if the waves are at an angle or a following sea.  If you move up to 15-16 knots, it becomes very steady.  I think the rudders may be a bit small for the slower speeds.  We have DD 671N's at 310 Hp each.  With that power, the boat will do a comfortable 15 knot cruise but will cruise at 17-18 knots if you want to push it.  It tops out at 21 knots.  (All these speeds are measured by GPS)  Quality of the boat is great.  There are a few hairline cracks in the gellcoat that I am repairing but nothing major.  The only problem I have had is the leaking water tank on the stbd side.  If you want to go into more detail, let me know and we can discuss off-line.  Marv

Posted: January 28 2008 at 14:31 | IP Logged

This is a follow up on my water tank leaking problem.  I ended up cutting 3 inspection holes approximately 6" x 8" in size into the upper half of the side of the tank.  There were 2 baffles in the tank I had to miss thus requiring the 3 holes to allow access to the entire bottom of the tank.  I found a number of corrison pin-holes in the bottom of the tank which kind of surprised me because the tank is at least 1/8" thick aluminum.  It looked like they may have been caused by calcium deposits lying on the bottom.

My repair was to clean the bottom of the inside of the tank then apply a thick layer of West System epoxy resin mixed with their High Density Filler to give it strength but still have some flexibility.  I made the mix thick enough so it would not run on the verticle sides.  I covered the entire bottom and up the sides a couple of inches.

I used the cut-out pieces of the inspection holes to patch the 6" x 8" holes.  I first applied a layer of fiberglass cloth to the back side of each of the cut-outs providing for a 1-1/2" lip.  I used the West System epoxy resin.  Once dry, I turned the pieces over and epoxy-glued a temporary handle to the center of each.  This was so I would have something to hold the patch with while epoxying it into place. I then coated the inside lip of the hole and the lip of the patch with epoxy and filler mix.  I inserted the patch into place (with the lip on the inside) then using the handle to hold it in place used some string to pull the patch tight against the inside of the tank.  Once dry, I broke the temporary handle off and applied a layer of fiberglas cloth on the outside of the patch again having about 1-1/2" lip.  I covered that with aluminum colored paint.  It's hard to see there were ever any holes cut into the tank.  So far, no further leakage.