Hello All and thanks in advance. We are looking at a Hunter 386 and in looking it over there is a leak on the portside under the seat in the master cabin. Survey will be shortly but I wanted to see if anybody had experienced this. On another thread I read where somebody had a rusting ac pan and this boat does have ac. Any thoughts greatly appreciated Thanks Ron
Ron, last year we bought a '97 H430. During inspection, the surveyor found moisture in the cabin top above the Nav station just below a port opening. He suggested we check the seal around the port for leaks. We removed the interior trim and found two sources of leakage.
We also had advice that the appearance of "brown water" like that shown in your photo was evidence of water that had soaked thru wood. We had brown water running behind the instrument panel and appearing under the Nav station seat on the sole exactly like yours.
During our delivery trip from Lake Erie to Lake Michigan during storms and washings small leaks were noticed in multiple locations. We decided that a 15 y. o. boat needed all deck penetrations and ports inspected and re-bedded.
Due to failed coolant hoses between the heat exchanger and water heater we elected to leave the boat at a marina for the winter where all issues could be addressed and corrected during the off season.
When the port over the Nav. Sta. was removed , the plywood between the inner and outer shells was seriously damaged by prolonged soakings. Also the shells were separated and not bonded.
Four other port openings were found to also be separated and were repaired . None of those had similar deterioration of stiffeners.
I suggest you remove all ports above the location on your boat where leakage is occurring and repair as needed. Depending on many factors, leakage can travel horizontally and you will have to analyze that as well.
Good luck with this should you decide to buy this boat.
Jeff10528
