Water leaking during healing/rain

Oct 4, 2013
34
Pearson 39-2 Baltimore
Over the last couple of years my 1986 39-2 has gone from bone dry to accumulating a small amount of water during prolonged heeling and heavy rain. Maybe a quart in an hour. Not enough to activate the bilge pump, but just enough to get the cabin sole on the low side wet and make the bilge smell if left unattended to. I cant find an obvious source (no soft spots, no water running down the inside of the hull) but I noticed the teak toe rail is wet and rotting in spots amidships on both sides. Is this a likely suspect or is this from just dipping the rail in the water. How about the hull/deck fitting in boats these years? I'd appreciate comments from those members who know these boats in their experience.
 
Sep 26, 2011
228
Hunter 33_77-83 Cedar Creek Sailing Center, NJ
Looks like you diagnosed the source; toe rail and the hull deck joint.
 
Jun 19, 2004
365
Island Packet IP 32 99 Forked River, NJ
Oh boy!!! Been there/ done that. Do you know how your deck is fastened to the hull? ( lap, outward flange, etc?)
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,989
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
MP. You say amidships and both sides. Might want to check chainplates and windows in this area. Water leaks do not always start in the obvious places.
 
Oct 4, 2013
34
Pearson 39-2 Baltimore
I'm not sure how Pearson did their hull/deck joint. There is no obvious leakage from either windows or chainplates but it only happens during the extreme healing and bad rain. May have to have someone spray a hose over them and check from inside.
 

NYSail

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Jan 6, 2006
3,048
Beneteau 423 Mt. Sinai, NY
Hello... I have a p36-2 which is very similar. The joint between hull deck is a bit suspect. I replace my toe rail
And when I did I cleaned out
And rebed the hull / deck joint. I too had water coming in prior to fixing. Bone dry now.
 
Oct 4, 2013
34
Pearson 39-2 Baltimore
NYSAIL or anyone else-How did you rebed your Hull/deck joint? Did you remove just the rubrail or the toerail as well? How did you pry the deck from the hull? It appears to be an outward flange joint covered by the rubrail that is glassed from the inside. Looks very difficult to access bedding. Does anyone have a schematic?
 

NYSail

.
Jan 6, 2006
3,048
Beneteau 423 Mt. Sinai, NY
My deck/ hull joint is a basic set up. I removed my toe rails and rub rail (replaced both). The deck is just dropped on the hull and appears to have a sealant between. There were many places that had opened up. What I did was to clean as much from between the two then filled with 5200. In a could of
Places there was no bond left at all so I used
Clamps in several spots as well to hold together tightly. I let dry for a day then installed my new rub tail..... New toe rails came a few years later. But since no leaked from the joint.

Good luck!
 
Oct 4, 2013
34
Pearson 39-2 Baltimore
NYSail-That is helpful and good to know. If you replaced your teak toerail, WHERE did you get the new toerail from?
 
Jun 19, 2004
365
Island Packet IP 32 99 Forked River, NJ
You can check out my pics at Yahoo Morgan owners group on this subject,( https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/morganowners/photos/photostream) but our Morgan has an outward-facing flange also, with 1/4" screws every 4" or so and glued with some type of epoxy (stuff was hard as a rock!). What we did was to remove the screws - about 3 ft at a time, cut through to the inside with a circular saw, fill the resulting gap with 5200 and replace the screws. Once the joint was completely sealed, we replaced the U-shaped rubrail with new, bonded it with Sikaflex 291 using their cleaner and primer.
My take on this is that over the years with many bumps against various unmovable objects, the hard epoxy cracked here & there. The important thing we learned from all this is that the rubrail itself is not the seal.
 

NYSail

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Jan 6, 2006
3,048
Beneteau 423 Mt. Sinai, NY
I bought raw teak boards and had them custom made..... Made them a bit beefier. The 1986 p36-2 has 4, 8 foot pieces per side. The originals were hollowed to accommodate bolt heads. Instead I only hollowed where each bolt head is. The result is that they are very robust.
 
Oct 4, 2013
34
Pearson 39-2 Baltimore
Sounds solid. Where did you find the teak and roughly how much can I expect to pay?