Anchor locker leaks

[jaysweet]

Like making sausage, you probably don't want to know what your anchor locker really looks like:

Mine has been leaking around a gallon of water into the boat in a heavy rain while on the hard, which collects under the V-berth between the water tank and the anchor locker. The big leak seems to be behind the water fill/vent hoses in the first picture:

It's hard to tell, but this is at the joint between the sloped glassed-in triangular plywood piece that forms the back wall of the anchor locker, and the vertical piece that goes from the top of the plywood up to the deck. So my thought is that the drain must have been at least partially plugged up with gook, so that the leak happens when the locker fills up with water. I've cleaned out the locker (mud and a few leaves), but even if it doesn't fill up with water anymore (haven't tested this yet), I think I need to address the leak. Here's another picture:

You can see the horizontal seam up at the top, so the leak is really up there on the outside, but it only comes through to the inside after running underneath the fiberglass. So what's the best way to fix this? If I cut away the fiberglass on the inside and re-do it, I'm probably just sealing the water against the plywood. There's a small place on the outside where I think I can see where the water gets into this joint, but it has really bad access. I could probably sand it down and put some layers of 2-part epoxy barrier coat over it. I don't think there's enough access there to do fiberglass on the outside.

I also have a few other places where it looks like there are pinhole leaks:

Again: patching these on the inside seems pointless. They are easy to get at from the outside, though. What do you all think?

 

[jssailem]

As a general rule I like to seal the boat from the outside.

I would look at cracks, screws, holes, anything that pierces the outer shell as the most likely culprit. Remembering that water travels down hill most of the time. Look for suspects above and higher up on the deck as contributing water to your problem.

Patch those and then see what happens.

Sometimes it feels like Wack-a-Mole trying to patch a leak. Perseverance is the key.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

Welcome to my world @jaysweet . I have never heard of anyone else with this problem until your post.

I have exactly the same problem that I have been wrestling with for the last 24 years since I received the boat new in 1998 as a 1999 H-310 model. My leak is smaller than yours and intermittant. It only leaks in the winter months with our heavy rains at that time and yet may not leak every winter. After the first heavy rain of the fall, it will take several weeks before the leakage starts and the leakage doesn't stop until several weeks after the rains stops in the spring. Impossible to trace. I have gone over the deck with a fine tooth comb and all fittings heading about eight feet aft have been re-bedded with no change in regularity.

I have spent April to June of several previous years, living in the anchor locker looking for possible ingress points to the V-berth with no luck. Water would have to get beneath the skirt* in the locker to leak through the vertical panel*. It could only do this by running uphill.

I have bored several 2" dia. holes in the interior skirt* to inspect the vertical panel (where it contacts the hull) which is passing the water but again, nothing. Quite a number of years ago, I applied numerous liberal coats of epoxy through the 2" dia. holes using a 1" paint brush head attached to a narrow aluminum strip. I hit everything in there. I was so desperate at that point, I applied the same procedure to both port and strbd. areas. No change whatsoever.

This year I did see a change ................. for the worse. We experienced a week of -10 deg. C weather and after that passed, there was an increase in flow. Now up to about 20-30 ml. / week, depending on the amount of rain. Not so very much, but too much if soaking into the V-berth mattress

I have seen that the plywood core vertical panel* in the V-berth (rear panel* in the anchor locker) has become soaked with water. I drilled several 1" dia. holes through the covering layer of FG and left these open for a year to dry. The leakage did not start again until the plywood core had again become wet from the winter rains. This is the most likely the cause of the delay in reaction to the seasonal rains.

You'll find that all of the above information plus $1.50 will get you a cup of coffee in most restaurants.

This spring, I once again swore that I would not rest until I had located the source of the leak and will be heading out to the boat this afternoon with my brand spanking new, super duper borescope. I've lost count of the many times I have done this with no results.

I'll post pictures if I see anything exciting in there but don't hold your breath.

*Our words of description will differ in trying to describe the parts in this clutter under the deck and in the anchor locker.

 

[jaysweet]

Ralph,

Well, that's interesting. I mean, depressing, but interesting. The main difference is that in my case, it seems clear (from the brown streaks) where the water is exiting on the inside. It's maybe sort of clear where the water is coming from outside in the anchor locker. At least I can see a place that looks likely. But it's just barely visible where the nice, white fiberglass liner that's on the aft end of the locker ends and the slanted panel begins. Hard to describe, but the fiberglass keeps you from seeing the top 8" or so of what's going on where the vertical panel meets the sloped panel.

Anyway, I suspect that I should be able to patch this on the outside, maybe. I'm thinking several layers of epoxy barrier coat after sanding it down would be the way to go. Can't see why doing a full fiberglass patch would be better, especially given the very poor access where I think the leak is. I also hope that if the locker doesn't fill up with water, it won't leak at the top. But that's not necessarily true, as rain water would drip on the place where I think the leak goes through.

I'll try to get a picture of the outside bits in the locker.

 

[jdrutten]

The leak in my H-306 chain locker didn't take as much investigation. The photo below was taken looking down from above the deck. The previous owner had the problem fixed with new fiberglass prior to my purchase and it looks good as new (for now - I haven't looked yet this spring). But I always find accumulated and pooled rainwater on the windlass platform and the deck fill shelf which lay just below the locker hatch lid, not to mention pooled up in 120 ft. of nylon rode. It's strange that such designs make no attempt to prevent rainwater entry. Seems like it wouldn't take too many snow/rain/freeze/thaw cycles to build up in the locker and cause trouble.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

My apologies @jaysweet for not replying sooner after heading out to the boat for ANOTHER look for the leak leading from my anchor locker to my V-berth. Needless to say, I didn't find a damned thing which even remotely indicated from where the leak might originate in the locker. My marina partner @BC Bernie can attest that he witnessed me cursing and swearing into my empty chain locker like a madman that afternoon.

Just to clarify some of my obscure labelling of parts in the locker, this shot was taken on that Saturday afternoon:

One of my first attempted remedies was to paint the interior of the locker with a high organic volatile epoxy, the name of which now belongs to the ages. There wasn't too much available in epoxies back in 1999 in these parts. I might add, this epoxy (or imitation thereof) still appears to be tightly adherent to the underlying FG. At any rate, the success of this endeavour was zero, naught, and nada .


This shot shows the one, single, pinhole sized source of water ingress into the V-berth:

And this shot, a little closer:

This shot shows the location of the leak inside the V-berth as seen from the anchor locker side.

Moving on from there, I then focused on the possibility that a hole from the locker was located somewhere up↑ under the rear of the skirt which covers the location where the sloping wall is FG'ed to the port hull. This would mean that water would have to run uphill to get to that hole but what the hell, desperate times ... desperate measures, you know the drill. The area under the skirt was repeatedly coated with about five coats of System Three Silvertip epoxy in the hopes of finding and filling the hole. The first few coats were thinned with lacquer thinner to ensure the epoxy would follow the course of water and then coated with epoxy which had been allowed to slightly set for greater viscosity. A paint brush on an aluminum 1" X 1/8" flat bar was inserted through the cut out hole in the skirt as well as from under the skirt at that point. Hard to imagine but still NOTHING ! ! ! !

On the port side, numerous coats of epoxy were applied top ;to bottom to the joint where the port hull meets the rear sloping wall. You guessed it, still leaked .

At one time, the locker cover was sealed with duct tape for a few months during the winter and, as predicted, it still leaked. Mind you, there is a significant time delay between the leak start and stop so who knows.

As a writer of some fame once quoted, “When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. Considering that philosophy, I am now petitioning for absolutely off the wall ideas which may explain the source of the leak. Anything, really. I have even considered that the leak may actually originate in the boat three slips down from me and enters my boat through an interstellar wormhole. Right out of the Twilight Zone but at this time, I'm willing to consider it.

Actually, @jdrutten has given me one idea that I will pursue once we get some drier and warmer weather and that is to ONCE AGAIN slather as much of the interior of the locker walls with System Three Silvertip epoxy. I think this time I can do a little better job than back in 1999 because the epoxy is almost odourless (no volatile solvents) as opposed to the earlier epoxy which almost ripped your head off even with an organic solvent filter face mask.

"Live in hope, die in despair"

 

[jviss]

Wow, a very interesting thread, and well written, detailed posts from all afflicted. Thanks. I don't have a Hunter, but I have a water ingress problem in the same area on my Tartan. I think mine's coming in over the top of the bulkhead, beneath the deck, from the anchor locker; it only leaks when I'm sailing hard and taking green water onto the deck.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

it only leaks when I'm sailing hard and taking green water onto the deck.

At least I can see one solution to stopping your water ingress .

 

[jaysweet]

The leak in my H-306 chain locker didn't take as much investigation. The photo below was taken looking down from above the deck. The previous owner had the problem fixed with new fiberglass prior to my purchase and it looks good as new (for now - I haven't looked yet this spring). But I always find accumulated and pooled rainwater on the windlass platform and the deck fill shelf which lay just below the locker hatch lid, not to mention pooled up in 120 ft. of nylon rode. It's strange that such designs make no attempt to prevent rainwater entry. Seems like it wouldn't take too many snow/rain/freeze/thaw cycles to build up in the locker and cause trouble.
View attachment 204622

Wow! I've got nothing like that. My leaks seem to be a couple of small pinhole leaks on the sloping surface forming the aft wall of the locker (where your huge hole is), and one that's just under the drip-lip for the windlass platform. (I also have no windlass.) Unfortunately, my theory about "the locker was filling up with water and leaking at the top" was proven incorrect. We had a good rain on Monday. I had nothing in the anchor locker, and the drain was not plugged up, but I still got a goodly amount of water forward of the tank, in the v-berth. The problem is that the place where the really big leak is located is probably under that drip-lip for the windlass platform. Hard to see and access.

And yes: I agree that designing it to puddle water where the windlass is supposed to be, as well as where the water tank fill is, makes no sense. It's in no way the cause of my leak, but it's annoying and a bother.

 

[jaysweet]

My apologies @jaysweet for not replying sooner after heading out to the boat for ANOTHER look for the leak leading from my anchor locker to my V-berth. Needless to say, I didn't find a damned thing which even remotely indicated from where the leak might originate in the locker.
... omitted...

Ralph,

I appreciate your detailed post, and share maybe 1% of your pain, although I have not even begun to fight the battle you have. Since this is for me a new leak (18 year old boat) as far as I know, I'm hopeful that I'll have better luck than you. One interesting thing will be to see if it continues when I'm in the water again. Right now, I'm on land with a very pronounced bow-up tilt to the boat. So maybe that windlass skirt is dripping more into the crack behind where I can't see, and it will "magically cure itself" once the boat is level.

I mean, who knows? It could happen, right? I mean: right? The leak could just... cure itself! <sigh...>

 

[jaysweet]

Wow, a very interesting thread, and well written, detailed posts from all afflicted. Thanks. I don't have a Hunter, but I have a water ingress problem in the same area on my Tartan. I think mine's coming in over the top of the bulkhead, beneath the deck, from the anchor locker; it only leaks when I'm sailing hard and taking green water onto the deck.

I'm not so sure the H306 was made for taking on green water. I'd be pretty happy if it only leaked when I'm doing extreme macho sailing, to be honest. From what I read, it's the rare boat that doesn't leak in those conditions.

 

[jviss]

I'm not so sure the H306 was made for taking on green water. I'd be pretty happy if it only leaked when I'm doing extreme macho sailing, to be honest. From what I read, it's the rare boat that doesn't leak in those conditions.

I will often get conditions where green water washes the decks where I sail, particularly going through Quick's Hole with wind against tide. I really can't stand the leak, and am determined to seal it. I just have to figure out where it's coming from.

 

[jaysweet]

I will often get conditions where green water washes the decks where I sail, particularly going through Quick's Hole with wind against tide. I really can't stand the leak, and am determined to seal it. I just have to figure out where it's coming from.

I have to wonder how many people have just caulked the whole anchor locker lid closed. It's tempting, isn't it?

(just kidding...)

 

[jviss]

I have to wonder how many people have just caulked the whole anchor locker lid closed. It's tempting, isn't it?

(just kidding...)

Yes, but one would think there could be better seals or gaskets on these. Something to consider.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

drip-lip

Oooh, I like that label rather than "skirt". Maybe I'll use it too.

But talking about the "drip-lip" under the windlass platform, if I read you correctly, your joint is about as loose as mine was. In another futile attempt, many years ago, I jammed a gunned tube of #3M 4200 (available in big box stores but NOT in chandelries) in there and caulked it for the entire length of the joint and then smoothed it in with a wet finger. You won't believe this, but it didn't make a damn bit of difference . So what else is new ?

One interesting thing will be to see if it continues when I'm in the water again. Right now, I'm on land with a very pronounced bow-up tilt to the boat. So maybe that windlass skirt is dripping more into the crack behind where I can't see, and it will "magically cure itself" once the boat is level.

Interesting that you say the leak "started" once the boat was on the hard with the bow at a bow-up tilt. We can all join hands and pray that it will stop when the angle is reduced when the boat is in the water but I'm not too optimistic. You would "think" you could see some means of ingress, but if anything like myself, everything above the drip-lip is just as neat and tidy as it can possibly be. No cracks, holes, or defect where water could leak in, just smooth, sealed gel coat. I used to wonder if Saggitarius being in the constellation of Orion had anything to do with my leak but soon quit that idea. Unfortunately, going on to even crazier ideas didn't help either. Ever hear of teleportation ?

Pardon the demented humour, but laughing at this thing is all that's kept me from diving head first into the locker and ending it all.

I have to wonder how many people have just caulked the whole anchor locker lid closed. It's tempting, isn't it?

Did I mention that one wet winter, I duct taped the lid closed as to make it waterproof. I won't insult your intelligence by describing what happened .

So, once the weather warms up a bit, I'm off to epoxy the interior of the locker, ONCE AGAIN, as mentioned by @jdrutten . Not using cloth as the leak has got to be microscopic. I can't see it. I'm thinking of taking bets for the outcome of that exercise. Interested in throwing in a few bucks ?

 

[jdrutten]

I was out yesterday to do some work on my rudder and took a quick look at the locker. I had removed the winter cover before a fair bit of rain this last week, and arrived to find at least a half gallon of water in the bilge and a wet forepeak. Before removing the cover there was zero water in the bilge. So, @Ralph Johnstone , if you've got any System Three left, I may need to borrow some.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

So, @Ralph Johnstone , if you've got any System Three left, I may need to borrow some.

Don't want to upset you yet this early in the game but you're in for a bit of a shock when you see the cost of the System Three Silver Tip. Shocking. I'd let you have some of mine (new and almost full) but the shipping costs would negate any savings.

and arrived to find at least a half gallon of water in the bilge and a wet forepeak.

Damn, another one joins the group.

Gentlemen, that makes three of us in the civilized world that I know of. And all along I thought I was the only one.

I'm quite sure we have identical anchor locker setups. Surely, between the three of us we can come up with a possible source of ingress, no matter how whacked out it is. And sorry for calling you Shirley . I would venture to bet there is a similarity to where the leak originates in all three lockers.

I'm both desperate and maybe starting to see a ray of hope in solving this. Stay tuned.

 

[Hollyberry]

Very odd that that location so high up in that area would leak in any significant way before the locker filled up... Does make one consider a saturated plywood core that acts as an on-delay (initially) and an off-delay once the rain stops.. but even so the water should much rather rush by to the bottom and drain away. Not much help, I know...

FWIW in the course of redoing our aft cabin I noted a small seepage that turned out to be an imperfect seal between the locker floor above and the cockpit sidewall. That locker generally wouldn't get wet, and no longer will so now a non issue...

btw one of the best things about Silver Tip epoxy is that you can paint it directly - it has no 'amine blush' as it cures. That alone is worth the cost to me.

 

[smokey73]

There are two threads about anchor leaks. Here is my fix but my location may be entirely different from yours. My fix starts on post #13

Hunter 40.5 anchor locker drain leak fix

I think I have isolated the leak I am getting into the bilge to the lower anchor locker drain. It seems to be sealed well on the inside of the locker but when I dump water into the locker, there is leakage from between the anchor locker liner and the outer hull. Then this eventually drains into...

forums.sailboatowners.com

 

[Davidasailor26]

In case it provides any inspiration - We had a leak in our Beneteau anchor locker when the boat was only about a year old. It turns out there was a void between the liner of the locker and the outer hull right at the drain. Water would go out the drain from the locker, but then would go into the void instead of out the drain hole in the hull. Our dealer filled the void with 5200 or similar so water could only go out the hull drain once it left the drain hole in the locker.