C30 Leaks into Cabin

[Jongleur]

I have tried to find all the little leaks
in my boat, but a couple of them plum
evade me.

One leak is from the hole where the wires
feeding the light over the chart table come
through.

Another leak comes from somewhere around
the shifter area and runs into the galley floor
to port of the ladder.

These two have me stumped. Not that I don't
have others...

 

[The Garbone]

That hole above the chart table seems to be the starboard side universal drain. Anything leaking on the starboard side tends to find its way to that hole.

Mine leaked a lot from that same hole when we bought the boat, a cup on nav station was overflowing. We rebed the windows and it slowed to half a cup a week. Rebed the bomar hatches in the overhead and it stopped completely. A few months later we removed the mast step and poured resin down the holes to be safe while I sent it out for powder coating. Rained and the nav station turned into a gusher. Mast step back in place and properly bedded, bone dry again.

 

[Jongleur]

Gary:

That's what I'm coming to believe.
I've rebedded the handholds on the cabin
top and it seems to have slowed it only
a bit.

Lots more stuff to rebed.

Thanks.

 

[Elysium_Van_Isl]

I've been working on resolving my cabin top leaks all winter.
That light above the nav station hasn't been leaking for me the past couple of years, but it certainly used to. The original OEM light was totally rusted to bits when I bought the boat. (And to be honest I don't know what changed to stop it, since I knew the PO did no alterations)
In my quest for dryness I removed all the stanchions and every piece of deck hardware forward of the dodger - except for the mast and associated bits. Even the 'pocket' cover on the companionway hatch was unscrewed and removed. Those holes have all been cleaned out with a Dremel and sealed for the winter with epoxy; so I know there isn't any water getting in them.
The holes from hardware 'underneath' the dodger have been left open in order to both help things dry and to test for drips. ...and I'm still getting the odd one on heavy rain days! So it looks like the mast needs to come down next. Can't afford to do that this year though.
My windows also leak...but at least I know that the water isn't travelling uphill from them to the coachroof drips. I'll probably pull the leaky frames in the spring when things warm up. Part of me wonders though - do the windows drip on the inside because water is travelling DOWN to them from the upper deck?! That certainly seems feasible.
I only hope I can resolve the leaks before too much damage is done to the plywood core. But honestly - it actually keeps me up at night. Once that core is damp....how could it ever possibly dry. Even if you left every deck screw hole open for the June/July/August heat, I'm pretty sure you couldn't drive the moisture out. And in the spring, when I re-launch from a winter on the hard, I'll have nice, tight sealed deck hardware....keeping the moisture IN as much as it will be keeping it out!!

As my good friend always says:

"You've got First World problems man.....First World problems...."

 

[svPelican]

That hole above the chart table seems to be the starboard side universal drain. Anything leaking on the starboard side tends to find its way to that hole.

That's so true! Same as on my '82... Drains right over the electronics at the nav station. I'm temped to drill another hole a couple of feet upstream to stem the flow at the nav.

On Sunday I re-bedded one of the portholes, then another two on Tuesday. (It took about 3.5 hours each, most of the time scraping away all the silicone I had used a couple of years ago while still young and naive. I'll never make that mistake again.) This weekend I plan on re-bedding the starboard side stanchions.

Regarding the mast, I removed a couple of speakers that had been mounted a couple of inches above the base by the PO. When I removed the screws, water poured out. I assume there must still be a couple more inches of water inside.

If water can get in the mast, it should come out somewhere. The base of my mast has caulking around the outside of it, which seems to be holding the water in. Should that caulk be there? Is that part of what seals the mast step? It doesn't seem right.

I saw captnron's post in this other thread (http://forums.catalina.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=168926&#post1183027) but I still have the question about caulking around the outside base of the mast itself. . .

Here's to a dry cabin one day...