Our Old Boat
by Dennis and Pam Slaton
(Article Appeared in January 1998 TellTales Publication)

In the first article in this series, we discussed surveying the boat, and inspecting the bottom to determine paint condition and checking for osmotic blisters. In our opinion that is one of the most important, however that said, number two on the list would be those pesky leaks. You know the ones we are talking about; the ones around the windows, the cabin top hand rails, the cabin top winches, around the maststep, chain plates or for that matter any hardware mounted through the deck, and most important of all the foredeck hatch. Leaks in any of these areas that are left unattended will in the long run cause extensive damage to the inner core material of the decking, and correcting this kind of a problem is a very time consuming, labor intensive and expensive project.

One of the biggest problems in stopping the little leaks in the cabin top or around the windows, is in locating exactly where the problem leak is coming from. A good way to find the culprit is to spend some time in the cabin of the boat during a rainstorm, (or you can accomplish the same thing with one person inside the cabin and another outside with the water hose) note and mark all leaks for future reference. To stop leaks around hardware mounting, hand rails, maststep, etc., remove the item in question. and clean the deck surface to remove any old caulking or residue. Also clean the bottom of the item in question. Remount the hardware using a good brand of caulking or bedding compound, and remember that a liberal bead of caulk under the hardware drawn around the through hole is sufficient. If caulk should ooze around the winch or cleat, as the case might be, wait for it to set up and then remove the excess with a razor or knife blade. We have recently been seeing in print statements from other sailors around the nation, that take on rebedding as a winter project periodically even though there may be no apparent leaks in question.

If it's not broken !?!???

Another solution to the leaks around through hole mountings, is to remount the hardware through epoxy. This method will repair any soft area around the mounting and will stop the migration of water into the core of the boat. To do this, remove the hardware, and oversize the hole by using a drill bit one size larger to redrill the hole. Tape the backside to the hole securely with duct tape, and then fill the hole with epoxy. This is a procedure that will take a little time as the epoxy will seep out into the core material and you must keep adding more until the hole is saturated and maintains a level amount of epoxy. Next allow the epoxy to cure and then redrill the hole to the appropriate size, and then remount the hardware as described using caulk.

We mentioned earlier the leaks around the foredeck hatch. This area is difficult to stop from leaking, however it is one of the most deadly of culprits in the destruction of your foredeck. We know from experience, having replaced the foredeck in "Cattitude", due to someone over the years neglecting to take care of this area. Many times you will find that the only problem with the hatch leaking is that water is bouncing up under the hatch and running into the interior of the boat. This problem is easily solved by added lengths of weather stripping around the three sides, and it can be added to the top of the hatchway lip or to the bottom side of the hatch cover. The more difficult leak is the one that occurs because the bond between the lip of the hatch and the foredeck itself has degregaded and there is a small crack that is allowing water to seep in. Simply adding caulking around this edge is a temporary, short-term fix, as there is a fair amount of give in this area and the caulking will not hold. As a matter of fact, it is the give in the foredeck that caused the problem in the first place. The permanent (if you can ever say that when talking about leaks) fix is to reinstall the lip, using epoxy and filler, or fiberglass mesh and epoxy. The other area to address to stop the migration of the water into the foredeck is to seal the foredeck hatch under the molding. When you inspect the hatch, remove the molding and you will find the inner core of the decking is exposed. We have made it a routine to throw the molding away and use an epoxy and filler mixture to smooth on this edgeand hopefully forever seal the core from any further water migration.

Next months topic will be about trying to stop the windows from leaking.