Persistence

Persistence pays off in the end, if you don't give up too early.  This is one of those cases...

Remember this post?  In it I talked about using aluminum tape to seal the top of the mast boot to the mast proper...

When it was new

Backspacing at least 10 years, we have been dealing with intermittent leaks at the mast partners.  Each thing that we have done has improved the situation... but the leaks, tho diminishing in quantity and in frequency, have persisted.  Replacing the mast boot, resealing the deck ring, and finally replacing the deck ring altogether with a composite material that won't absorb moisture and consequently change shape and break the seal have all helped.  But even after all this, there was still the occasional drip coming down the mast in heavy rain and wind. (OK, maybe I am a little anal retentive here...)

Looking up from inside revealed that the water was not coming in at deck level - hooray!  That leak is stopped!  Instead it was coming from higher up.  The only place where it could be originating was at the seal between the top of the mast boot and the mast.  However, a brief inspection (because it was raining) did not disclose any flaw there.

But.  The water simply had to be coming in there.  So I pulled the hose clamp off to get a closer look at things.  Lo and behold, the aluminum tape was just plain gone under the hose clamp!  Galvanic corrosion between the stainless in the hose clamp and the aluminum tape ate the tape, and created an opening for rain to find its way in. 

There are two lessons here.  First, galvanic corrosion is evil.  And just as importantly, frequently corrosion is hidden.  Both very much worth remembering.

The fix was easy:  remove the offending hose clamp (it really was overkill anyway - the aluminum tape is more than sufficient to hold the boot up), and apply a fresh layer of aluminum tape.

Persistence

Improved Deck Ring

Eolian's deck ring was not molded into the deck because the Downeast 45 was sold with three different rigs: sloop, ketch (Eolian), and schooner.  Because each of these rigs required a different mainmast location, it was impractical to make three different deck molds.  Instead, the deck ring was fabricated from two pieces of teak and bolted to the deck in the appropriate position for each rig.  

But there has been a persistent deck leak originating between the deck ring and the deck proper.  Various attempts to seal the deck ring without removing it had been problematic, working for a while and then the leaks returned.  Eventually, I pulled the ring up and resealed it with butyl rubber. And then there was the little problem at the joint between the two pieces of wood where apparently a piece broke off of the cross-grain at the end, leaving a gap which was filled with a glob of caulk.  In the reseal, I at least used a small piece of teak for the bulk of the required filler. 

But even this was not a complete success.  I speculate that the wood would grow and shrink with moisture, working the seal.  The answer was obvious:  replace the wood with something which was impervious to moisture.  I used Trex composite decking, obtained as a scrap from a neighbor's deck replacement project.  I carefully traced the outline of the wood pieces onto a piece of paper, including the holes for the mounting bolts, took this paper home and relayed the outlines of the two pieces onto the Trex and bandsawed them out.

 

 

I made the outside edges a little rounder than the teak versions because the hose clamp that holds the mast boot to the ring did not apply sufficient pressure to  the straight sides of the original ring, allowing wind to blow rain up under the boot - thus the foam tape applied to the outer surface. 

 

 

(The mast wedges bear on the deck edge, not the deck ring)

In the final installation (also bedded in butyl rubber), I also applied foam tape to the edge, just in case my "rounding out" the straight edges was not quite sufficient to make a tight seal.

This should last forever.
 

Improved Deck Ring

Mizzen Rain Hood

Because our mizzenmast is stepped inside the cockpit, the cockpit enclosure must by necessity allow for the penetration of the mast.  In an attempt to minimize the amount of rainwater that enters the cockpit via the mast, the enclosure has a "sock" that goes up the mast a little ways and is tied around it.  Undoubtedly it stops most rain drainage, but a still significant amount gets into the cockpit, annoyingly to wet our trousers when we sit down.

An improved solution was called for.

The problem, in the rain, no less.

My first attempt was a simple, straight strip of vinyl cloth, mightily stretched around the cross section of the mast.  For obvious reasons, tho I was able to make it work, it failed to meet my aesthetics criteria.  (That is aluminum tape - I have extolled it's virtues before...)

First attempt: sloppy

The first reason a straight strip of vinyl failed to conform easily is that the mizzen mast is not a round cross section.  And the second is that the bottom of the strip had to accommodate a larger diameter than the top, due to the presence of the top seam of the sock.

Mizzenmast cross section

Well, this obviously called for the application of the lesson learned in Making a Mast Boot, with a minor modification.

First, we need to have a tapered hood, smaller at the top than at the bottom in order to accommodate the sock. I decided that tho the sock was about 1/4" thick (1/2", counting both sides), I should make the hood slightly larger so that the sock could easily fit up inside the hood, and to accommodate the place where the ends of the sock overlapped. I chose to make the bottom of the hood 3/8" larger on a side, or 3/4", counting both sides.  So, the tapered section needed to have a diameter of 3.75" at the top, and 4.5" at the bottom.

Next, the mast cross section is not round. Instead, I chose to view it as two half-round sections, joined by two straight sections.

Since I already screwed up one piece of vinyl, I decided to make a paper pattern this time, using freezer paper (eh, it was what we had...). Using the instructions in the mast boot post, I traced out an arc of sufficient length to supply pieces for both the front and rear of the mast. The arc for the rear of the mast I made extra long so that the ends would be able to overlap, and then I cut this piece in two. Then I cut out a couple of straight sections to accommodate the sides of the mast.

When joined together, the pieces looked like this:

From left to right, this is:

• Rear piece, extra long
• Side piece
• Front piece
• Side piece
• Rear piece, extra long

The change in shape seems kind of subtle, but the paper pattern fit the mast perfectly when I tested it.

Taped to back of the vinyl

After testing the pattern, I taped it to the back side of the vinyl, traced its outline and cut it out:

Taa Daa!

And... DONE!

And now because the hood is tapered, if I need to remove the sock I will not need to disturb the hood because I will be able to slide the sock up under the hood when reinstalling it.

Mizzen Rain Hood

Partners

Looking up at things

For several years now, Eolian has sustained a small yet nagging intermittent leak at the mast partners - where the mast penetrates the deck.  After several failed attempts to locate the leak or to pre-emptively stop it, I removed the interior trim and examined things from below, while it was raining.  And leaking.

I was relieved to see that the water was...

• not coming down the mast, which would indicate a leak at the top of the boot - one of the places I have very carefully examined several times, and
• not coming out of the foam deck coring, which would mean a wet deck.  Whew!

Instead, the water was appearing at the joint between the deck ring and the deck.  Tho I have repeatedly attempted to seal between the deck ring and the deck externally, it has never been rebedded.

Removal of the mast wedges

So I pulled up the boot and started the removal of the deck ring. I had thought it was a complete ring, but soon found out it was two half-rings, each held in place with three screws.  Well, not quite.

Half the deck ring is off

On the port side, the ring was less than a half, by about 1/2".  Apparently the end of the ring broke off, either in fabrication or during installation.  The pieces were cut from a teak plank - they were not laminated.  At the ends, the grain runs across them, and it is easy to see how an end could have been broken off.  What is a little more difficult to understand is that the installer solved the problem of the missing 1/2" of deck ring by simply filling the gap with what, I surmise, was a giant blob of polysulphide.  Now, after 39 years, it was as hard as a rock.

And so was the sealant that was between the ring pieces and the deck.  I had not given much thought to this, but the mast wedges driven in do bear somewhat on the deck ring.  And as a consequence, the rock-hard "sealant" broke loose from the deck instead of flexing.

Thus leakage.

Add a strip of 1/8" thick white butyl tape

After everything was dried out, I wiped things down with paint thinner and allowed it to evaporate off.  Then I applied strips of 1/8" thick white butyl rubber tape to the underside of the ring pieces.  I then screwed things back in place.  A couple of revisitations to the screws were required as the butyl continued to squeeze out of the joint.

Gap filled

The problem of the missing 1/2" of teak I solved by trimming down one of the wedge pieces and driving it into the gap (lined with butyl tape), and cutting it off flush.

Handy stuff

The final step was to line the complete outside of the ring with some self-adhesive aluminum-backed insulating foam tape, meant for preventing condensation in air conditioners, etc.  On the sides, where the boot hose clamp has little clamping pressure (the mast cross section is rectangular with rounded ends), I applied multiple layers so that the hose clamp would have something to bear against.

Does it leak?

Never thought I'd say this... waiting for rain.  To see if it leaks...

Partners

Draining

Yeah, I mentioned this last time.

Eolian has two large lazarettes under her aft deck:

The lids for these drop into gutters molded into the deck.  I'm sure that as soon as they washed this boat that first time in the factory, they discovered that water overflowed the gutters and into the lazarettes.

So, they cut in a drain.  And just in case, they also installed a drain in the lazarettes too.  And all was well in Whoville.

For a while.

But sadly, when it rains, all manner of crap finds its way to the drains.  Yes, they block right at the top, and I periodically clear them.  More insidiously, they also block down below...  And when they do that, the lazarette fills with water.  And it doesn't drain thru the factory-installed drain... because the blockage is below that, at least it was last time.  In fact, when this happens, the water that goes down the gutter drain backs up thru the lazarette drain, actually making things worse!

And, as it turns out, the lazarette is not quite water tight.  That water slowly leaks down. Onto the foot of our mattress.  At my feet.  This is no bueño.

Thankfully this only happens when it rains.

Each of the drains has a 1/2" hose that led to this fitting tower, 

The fitting tower

which was screwed onto a thru hull located probably 18" above the waterline.  And as usual, in a near-inaccessible location, beneath my berth.

When I passed a piece of heavy wire down the drain in an attempt to clear the blockage, I was unable to make it turn the corner at the elbow.  Blockage one; me zero.

OK, time for a change in design.

I removed the fittings from the thru hull (remember: nearly inaccessible...).  Then I installed a hose barb wye fitting, with the two arms accepting the two drain hoses (still inaccessible...).  Finally, I installed a hose from the tail of the wye, curving it direct to the thru hull (inaccessible...).    To prevent a kink, I heated that hose with a heat gun and bent it into a sweeping 90° angle.  Being a wye, I should be able to pass a piece of wire thru it from either drain fitting without a hangup.

Because I was exhausted on completing this work, I failed to take any pictures - sorry. 

Opening a beer was higher on my priority list.

Draining

Deck Leak!

Deck leaks are the bane of boats.  TJ on s/v Kintala once remarked that he had difficulty seeing why a boat deck should leak more than a house roof.  Well, first of all, boat decks are virtually flat, and everyone knows that it is not trivial to keep water from finding its way thru a flat roof.  Next, boat decks have hundreds of penetrations - screws mounting fittings, trim, geegaws, etc.  Each and every screw is a potential leak point.  Each one.  And an amazing amount of water can come thru the tiniest of holes.

For years, Eolian's decks have been leak-free.  But this fall with the onset of the winter rains, water started running down the port side of the cabin.  This isn't my first rodeo tho.  I immediately pulled out my trusty blue tape and hastily constructed an exotic guttering system (the Mayans would have been amazed!) to direct the water into a catch basin.  This was a temporary measure, of course, to prevent damage while the search for the source of the leak went on.

The first measure was to replace the nearby fixed port.  Indeed there was evidence of past leakage around it, but apparently this was not the source of the current leak.  I am not at all unhappy, tho, to have replace the fixed port with an opening one - it was something that I had wanted to do for a long time, and for which I was only looking for an excuse.  But it was not the problem.

In an effort to stop the leak first and diagnose later, I applied tape to everything that looked the slightest bit sketchy on deck in the vicinity of the leak (the replaced port is just in the frame at the top center).

Hallelujah!  The last storm (20-30 kt winds and heavy rain) did not produce a drop inside.  So, one of those pieces of tape is covering the leak.  Which one?

I didn't try to find out.  Instead, I masked off each area and applied several coats of varnish to seal the trim to the deck.

Now we'll see.

It is supposed to rain tonite (of course).

Deck Leak!

Silicone rubber - Just Say NO

I despise this stuff.

No, that's not a strong enough word - I HATE silicone* rubber.  There, now I feel better.

It's a weak adhesive.

It cannot be sanded.  Or painted.

Nothing sticks to it - not even silicone rubber.  Except dirt.

If you have ever used it on a surface, that surface is almost irretrievably contaminated.  The only certain way to decontaminate a silicone fouled surface is to remove that surface, by sanding, sand blasting, etc.

Eolian's previous owner loved the stuff. 

I can think of only three places on a boat where silicone rubber is called for:

• There are some plastics that cannot tolerate contact with polysulphide, polyether or polyurethane adhesives or sealants.  Where the manufacturer (notably Beckson, for their ports) requires it, you should use silicone rubber.
• Lubricating/sealing head hose during assembly.  Apply a coating to the inside of the hose end, carefully heat it with your heat gun until both the main body of the hose and also the stiffening spiral have become soft, and assemble.  Get the hose clamp on while the hose is still soft if you can.
• Making non-skid rings on the bottom of dishes, serving bowls, etc.  Put down a piece of wax paper, run a bead around the bottom of the dish or bowl and set it on the wax paper.  When the silicone is cured, peel off the wax paper and voilà! - a nonskid dish.

Anywhere else on the boat that you think you might use silicone rubber, polysulphide is probably the correct choice.  You might possibly know polysulphide by its other name: BoatLife Life Calk (yeah, that's how they spell it).  Another choice could be a toned down polyurethane, like 3M-4200  (but stay away from the full-blown stuff - 3M-5200, unless you intend for the installation to be permanent).

Now put down that caulking gun and step away from the boat!

* A little definition is in order.  Silicon (note the absence of the trailing 'e') is a silvery metallic substance - here's a picture of a piece I have on my desk right now:

I should know - I used to work in a manufacturing facility that made the stuff, starting with quartz.  Silicon is the basis for most semiconductors made today, albeit in a more purified form than that chunk on my desk.  It is also dissolved in copper along with other stuff to make silicon bronze.

Silicone is a term that is used to refer to a whole series of compounds based on silicon, in much the same way as the term carbohydrate or hydrocarbon are used to refer to a whole series of compounds based on carbon.  Silicone rubber, silicone grease, silicone oil (in silicone breast implants - not silicon, Heaven forbid!) are silicon compounds.

Sadly, the press seems to use the terms more or less interchangeably, indicating that they have no idea what they are talking about.  But then I repeat myself.

Silicone rubber - Just Say NO

Gotcha.

Today there was a most important convergence: It was not raining, and I was home while it was light. So I took another look at the mast boot.

Having given up on everything else, I cut a new one. Because I had the old one, I didn't have to go thru the patterning exercise - I just traced the old one onto the Naugahyde and cut it out. But first, of course, I had to pull the old one. It was instructive.

Here's the inside of the old one, showing clearly where water had been coming in. (Because of the way I laid it out in the cockpit, that's the bottom of the boot at the top of the picture.)  There are a couple of (dried) streams to the left in the picture, and one gigantic wet stream to the right of center in the picture.  When it was installed, this was at the back, where the sail track is on the mast - a tough place to seal.

The smoking gun

And look what I saw when I turned up the edge and looked closely at the boot where it went over the track.  Yep, the vinyl coating on the fabric had cracked, twice.

Some interesting gel-life growing inside the old boot

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Update:

Looks like someone is running a hose
on the deck above, doesn't it?

And wouldn't you know?  Mother Nature delivers a test storm not long after I get the new boot installed.  Perfect timing... and it's not just any storm - in fact it is a deluge of Biblical proportions - any minute now I expect to see pairs of animals lining  up out there on the dock.  It's been going on now for 24 hours, and there is no end in sight.

So far?  One drop. 

Yeah.

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Update #2:

Sunny and dry today (but cold).  This allowed me to inspect the new mast boot more closely than I was able to during and immediately after installation.  What I found was incomplete adhesion of the polysulphide I had used to seal the seam where the ends overlapped on the boot.

Drop explained.

And fixed.  (Replaced the polysulphide with 3M 5200.)

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Previous post in this series.

Gotcha.

No, not yet

A river of moisture flows into the
PNW from the tropics

Tho it is not of hurricane Sandy proportions, we here in Seattle have been experiencing a virtual deluge for the past two days.  In just a few days, we have made up for all the missing moisture that our record dry summer and fall shorted us. 

As a test of the sealing of Eolian's mast at the partners, it is excellent.  Sadly, it shows that tho I have significantly decreased the incoming water, I have not found all the problems yet.

So now I have to wait for the rains to stop (again) before I can explore more alternatives.

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Previous post in this series

Next post in this series

No, not yet

Barking up the right tree?

Over the years that I have chased deck leaks, I have learned one thing: before I tackle a major rebedding project, I try to find out if I am barking up the right tree. That means that I should find a way to make an easy, tho likely temporary, seal in the suspected area before tackling a full-on rebedding.

That diagnostic temporary seal has taken many forms over the years, tho most frequently it has been blue tape.  In approaching the possibility that my mast leak is actually between the deck ring and the deck, I had another option.  Earlier attempts at sealing the top of the boot required me to peel off the 1" wide "self-bonding" silicone tape (in quotes because it really didn't do it all that well).

I had saved that tape, intending to reapply it later.  But it was a perfect medium for creating a diagnostic seal at the base of the mast boot.  I removed the base hose clamp, and formed the tape so that it went up over the boot and ring, and then splayed out on the deck, creating a skirt around the deck ring.  (It's kind of hard to see in the picture above, but the two ends of the tape are directly beneath the hose clamp screw.)  Re-attaching the hose clamp completed the diagnostic seal.  Total time invested: 5 minutes.

This is not a permanent seal.  Nor is it really waterproof - water can likely sneak under the skirt.  But the skirt should serve to divert 90+% of the water coming down the outside of the mast away from the area between the deck ring and the deck.  If the water flow down the mast inside shows a significant decrease at the next rainstorm, I've nailed the location, and I need to get out the polysulphide.  If not, well then it is time for re-thinking.  And the blue tape.

Such is life aboard.

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Next post in this series

Barking up the right tree?

The saga continues

Any boat has deck leaks.

Every boat has deck leaks.

Any boat that doesn't currently have deck leaks, is just between leaks.

For the past several years, Eolian has been leak free.  But not now.  All my efforts to date to seal the deck penetration where the mast goes thru have been to no avail.  And now that it gets dark so early, it is not possible for me to carefully examine things when I get home from work.  The examination needs to be careful and detailed.  Because an amazing amount of water can come in thru the tiniest of holes.

To date, I have been focusing on the joint between the mast boot and the mast.  At the next opportunity (Friday morning, if it isn't raining) I will redirect my efforts to the deck ring where the bottom of the boot attaches.  I will pull up the bottom of the mast boot and check to see if the deck ring itself is serving as the entry point.

That's the plan.

If it doesn't rain.

Life on a boat is like this.

The saga continues

Oh no!

Just when I was feeling all smug and superior, here comes a drop of water down the mast.

Now I will have to wait until the rain stops to investigate why the seal isn't working.  And who knows when that will happen...

Oh no!

So far, so good

This morning, summer is officially over in Seattle.  It's raining here, really raining, for the first time since... I don't know when.  And the forecast shows rain for the foreseeable future.  And now is the season when all of us living on boats get to find out whether we have successfully dealt with our deck leaks.

While knocking on a piece of nearby teak, I can say that the changes I made to our mast boot have worked.  The mast is dry inside the cabin.

So far.

So far, so good

Seems easy, right?

 I mean, how hard could it be to keep rain water from running down the mast and into the cabin?  You make a mast boot, and seal it to the mast - probably using one of those jumbo-sized hose clamps as the final measure.  No leaks, right?

(BTW, being able to take this picture with the huge range of brightness between the sun-drenched mast outside and the shadowed mast inside is provided by a function called 'High Dynamic Range', part of the free - or was it 99¢? - iPhone app 'Top Camera' - I recommend the app for this capability as well as many others.)

Well, no. Despite all the measures, a recent rain revealed that I still have work to do here.

The picture is a little vague, but if you squint, you'll see those brown marks that show where water has snuck past the seal somewhere and run down the mast.  The brown stain is coloration leached from the teak wedges which hold the mast in position at the partners.

So I disassembled the seal I had built before.  Here's what I found:

• First, the silicone tape, tho it had bonded very well with the hose clamp, had not bonded well to the mast
• Next, because of the poor seal of the silicone tape, the long duration 3M tape underneath had turned to water-saturated mush.

After removing both, I applied a wrap of adhesive-backed aluminum foil (sold for sealing duct work) over the joint between the boot and the mast.  The thinking here is that the aluminum tape will not turn into mush on contact with water.

Finally, I re-applied the silicone tape, because it looks better.  (I hope I don't regret the decision to do this.  I am concerned about the paint bubbling up where moisture was trapped.  We'll see.)

Seems easy, right?

The return of fall

Here in Seattle we are now welcoming the return of fall weather.  For those of you not in Seattle, that means: rain.  And with the return of the rains, there is the return of the possibility of deck leaks.  (OK, I know that this is a lame post.  But come on... not everything about living on a boat is sitting in the cockpit and watching sunsets with a glass of wine).

Yes, here on Eolian, with the first rain we had drips coming in around the mast.  I never cease to be amazed at how much water can find its way inside thru a tiny, tiny hole.  In this case, the leak was a tiny place on the back of the mast boot, at the bottom of the seam on the back.  I had closed the seam with 3M 5200, but the last 1/8" of that closure had opened up, slightly.  One eighth of an inch.  And yet I had to put a container on the floor to catch the water that came in there.

In the ever timeless scenario, it was not possible to work on stopping the leak while it was raining...  so I had to wait until it stopped.  Thankfully it was easy to find the problem.  A small dab of 5200 fixed the problem - today's rain proved it.

Dry again.

The return of fall

Project: Window renewal (#2) - Reprise

Well, we got a good test - 45 hours of hard wind-driven rain, and no leaks.

Hurray!

Project: Window renewal (#2) - Reprise

Project: Rebuild the Hatches

This is a project from the spring of 2006

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Eolian has two hatches, fore and aft. They were constructed by building a teak frame, covering it with a piece of 1/2" plexiglass, and then teak slats were applied to the plexiglass - for decoration and to protect it, I assume.

Well, they are shot. The plexiglass is crazed, the old Cetol finish is done, the interior, which was never finished, is solid mildew, and the fittings were corroded green.











So I disassembled them into their component pieces (2 sheets of Plexiglas, a pile of slats, and the 8 pieces of teak that made up the frames). I anticipated that it would be difficult to disassemble the frames, but all the joints were extremely loose - it appears that it was the Plexiglas screwed on top of the frames that was holding everything together. As it turns out, the frames were assembled by simply driving a screw down thru the half-lap corners. Poor technique. Really poor.

I stripped and sanded all the pieces, and then reassembled the frames, this time by drilling out a 1/4" hole at each corner and doweling them with epoxy and birch dowels. Much more solid!

We bought two fresh pieces of Plexiglas, and I ran a router around the edge. First with a flush-trim bit to make the Plexiglas fit the frames exactly, and then with a 1/2" round-over bit to make a finished edge. Then a trip across the buffing wheel made the routed edges transparent again. And drilling about a million holes in the Plexiglas for the attachment of the slats, the frames, and for the two pieces of hardware that get directly attached to the Plexiglas: A latch device, and a hold-open. The latch was bronze, and typically very corroded - it buffed out on the buffing wheel beautifully.









In the original hatches, the hardware was attached to the Plexiglas like this:

• Drill holes in the Plexiglas. Make them too big for the screws.
• To prevent leaks, smear the bottom of the hardware with silicone
• Using wood screws that were too small to grip the edges of the holes, attach (??) the hardware

In fact, it was the silicone which mounted the hardware. The screws were completely useless. This time, after drilling 1/8" holes, I tapped them to 8-32 and used 8-32 machine screws to hold the hardware on. Oh yeah, and I used silicone too - the seal is necessary, and who knows - it worked as almost the only attachment for 27 years...

With 6 coats of varnish on everything and the slats on and mounted they look nothing like the old ones - they look great!




Since the hatches look so nice, Jane made some covers for them so that (hopefully) we won't have to varnish them every year. The covers have windows in them to let in the light, and the hatches can be opened without removing the covers. A very nice job, and a great addition!

Project: Rebuild the Hatches

Deck Leaks

If a boat owner tells you he doesn't have any deck leaks, you should interpret that as, "I haven't found any deck leaks recently." Or, "I am lying to you because I want to sell you my boat."

With the return of the rains to Seattle (we set a record last weekend...), the subject of deck leaks is entirely apropos. Why do boats have 'em, and houses not? I don't know, but it may have to do with two things:

• Boat decks are flat. Well, OK they are gently sloped to shed water, but nothing like the pitches of the roofs on houses
• Boat decks have a lot of penetrations, where house roofs have only a very few - and those are very carefully (albeit traditionally) treated (chimneys, plumbing vent stacks, roof vents). Boats, on the other hand have deck penetrations for handrails, padeyes for blocks, lighting fixtures, dodger support structures, lifeline stanchions, pulpits, masts, etc. I'd wager that just one handrail on Eolian has more penetrations than the average house roof has altogether. (And what about a boat with a teak overlay deck? In addition to all the penetrations on a standard fiberglass deck, the teak overlay will itself have hundreds of screws.)

So, it comes down to opportunity (flat, or nearly flat surface) and risk (lots of penetrations).

But whatever the reason, deck leaks are a reality. They can really be tricky to locate too. The water can enter and travel a long way before it exits into the cabin. Eolian has a vinyl headliner, which means that water doesn't damage it, but it can direct the water a long distance.

So, what is going on in this picture from two winters ago? There was water coming out of the headliner edge at the narrow teak strip. I had used (ubiquitious) blue tape to redirect the drips from the cabin side, down the tape strips, and into the bowls. Until you find the source, this keeps there from being consequent damage.

And what was the source of this leak? Well, there was a little hole where a small screw had been removed (apparently from an earlier generation of our canvas cockpit enclosure). This screw hole was located inside the cockpit enclosure, and had not been a problem for the previous 12 years we had been responsible for Eolian. However, the small stream of water that had channeled inside the enclosure changed course (a new speck of dust? Recent waxing? Change of boat heel due to emptying water tanks? Who knows). Now it went directly over the screw hole. Well some of it went over the screw hole, but most of it went into the screw hole. And came out in the cabin. It is absolutely amazing how much water can come into the cabin via such circumstances. Until I figured it out, I was dumping the bowls, full, twice a day. Yeah, it rains a lot here in Seattle.

I need to make up a large batch of gelcoat, color-matched to the finish of Eolian's decks. Once I have applied this, the leak will be permanently fixed. But until then, there is a small square of blue tape over the hole.

Sadly, this is not the only small square of blue tape. I really need to make up that batch of gelcoat.

Deck Leaks

Leak Testing, Naturally

It just absolutely poured all night here in Seattle, giving me a worst-case leak test of the bowsprit installation.

There is one tiny leak, at the aft outside corner of the port sampson post. This is an easy spot to get at - I will reseal it once the leak testing finally stops.

Everything else is dry! Dryer than it has ever been since we got the boat!

Leak Testing, Naturally