Oday Wigeon slow leak

[cliff02138]

I'm excited - this is my first post to this forum!

A few years ago my parents gave me the boat I grew up sailing on - an Oday Widgeon. We took good care of her and never had too much trouble with riggings or repairs.

Now, when I take her out for a few hours, inevitably I end up with a few gallons of water sloshing at the bottom of her double hull. She's 30+ years old and my main suspicion is that there are some sort of gaskets along side of the hinge pin that attaches the centerboard to the boat that may have broken apart/deteriorated. I'd love to moor her for the summer in a year or two, but in her current state, she'd probably sink after a few days on the water.

Has anyone else had trouble with this? What kind of a repair project is it? Thank you for the help!

 

[Sunbird22358]

The centerboard pivot gaskets are right on the sides of the CB trunk and are easy to replace, but they should not be leaking into the inner bilge from what I've seen on any Widgeon. I had an older Widgeon (1969) and kept her on a mooring every Summer for the 8 years that I had her. There is plenty of foam inside to prevent sinking, and your newer one should be even better. Rain is more of a problem, rain and strong wind...... look out!
Anyway, D&R Marine www.drmarine.com has those gaskets. I'll include a picture below of where they should be, you may have a crack in the hull somewhere, or is the bilge drain plug in the transom leaking? The little screw-in plug, not the 1" rubber stopper.

 

[cliff02138]

Part of why I posted the original entry was for replies like this one - I honestly don't know where the leak is coming from. I thought the centerboard gaskets would be a place to start. Thank you for including the picture - I guess it would make sense that if those gaskets were leaking, the water would end up in the main seating area and not the inner bilge.

I wouldn't quite know where to start if it were a crack in the hull. From a basic inspection on the outside, I can't see anything that looks like an obvious place water would get in.

If - in my driveway - I got the garden hose out and filled the bilge it with water, that might give me an idea of where a crack might be, right?

 

[Sunbird22358]

Did you see my answer on the main forum page? On second thought, I suspect a hull-deck joint leak. See below for a diagram of how the joint is made.

 

[cliff02138]

I googled some photos to find the term "rubrail" and got the idea from there.
Last night in my driveway I took a garden hose and filled the hull with water. There were no leaks from the bottom of the hull - centerboard gaskets included. The one place there was a faint trickle was from the aft hull plug. On the Widgeon it's a screw plug with a gasket that's just about shot. I thought the pressure from screwing it in tightly made up for the deteriorated padding there, but it seems like that might be a place water is getting in from - albeit a very little bit at a time.
I'm a little skeptical that such a small leak would be the source of the amount of water that ends up in the hull after a few hours on the lake, but I'll fix it and take it out and see if that does the trick.
In the meantime, I'll inspect the hull/deck joint and see if I can find anything there, too. That leak wouldn't show as easily by flooding the hull with a garden hose.

 

[AdventuringWeGo]

The one place there was a faint trickle was from the aft hull plug.

I own a Widgeon as well, and have some leaking from the CB trunk when the CB is down as Sunbird mentions (it's only a small amount, and haven't messed around much with it yet.). I've also found leaking from both aft hull plugs. At first I thought I needed to replace the main drain plug, but after doing so I noticed that the actual thru-hull plug housing was leaking around the edges. Even though it was a trickle, it would definitely pool up after a couple of hours.

D&R Marine sells the entire inner hull plug housing at...

http://www.drmarine.com/proddetail.asp?prod=DR236A

The outer hull plug is just a standard plug.

 

[Duchifat91]

This thread was very helpful. We conducted a shakedown cruise on our "new-to-us" '77 Widgeon and had all the issues listed above.

Since this thread is a little stale, can you say, cliff02138, how the repairs went?