David, i think you have solved it. For some reason i had assume there was no opening in the two depressions assuming needed strengthening. Just today on my boat, i was able to stick my finger and a wire up into the mast sleeve itself where your blue line is .... so yes water can flow easily down and out. BUT if there is no hose as pictured with the wires simply going down the hole with no barrier, then any water coming down the mast from any source will flow both down that hole into the bilge... and also some out as you pictured. So I feel it is clear there cannot be a "working" hose, thus there is no way to resolve this leak other than mast restepping. Could easily have been a Catalina dealer install problem or hose failure over the years - or simply never was a hose provided. BTW when sticking wires up your blue lines i did have considerable trash come out, likely due to years of junk growing in that area.
309 water leaking from mast area with main furling
- Thread starter sailingdeac
- Start date
Hey guys, my 309 also leaks water in through the mast step. its definitely not holding water in the base of the mast, those drain holes are huge. I took my endoscope and tried to get some pics through the various openings. didn't really tell me much, but a couple things you can see in the pics (some pretty poor quality, sorry it's a $10 endoscope). a couple observations:
1. there's a "mess" of wiring there. the coax type for the radio antennae, plus a wiring harness.
2. there is the corrugated tube (shown in the diagrams above).
3. the drain channels are huge, nothing pooling (the drain channels are the bright sunlight pouring through from below as the base of the mast was in sunlight when I did this).
I couldn't get the scope to accurately record the top or bottom of the corrugated tube. would want to see those. will try again later to see if I can get a better pic....only had a couple minutes to get these.
I'm thinking, if it isn't leaking in the top or base of the corrugated tube, it might be leaking in the next layer down, the plate that the mast step sits on. need further investigation....
Pics below (by the way, I just had a colonoscopy this week, somehow these pics looked like those!) (also, in my draft here, it somehow shows the first to pics repeated, hope that doesn't show that way for you all) first pic shows a jumble of wire, those are the wiring for the antennae. They look huge, but those are only about !/4 inch in diameter. second pic a bit further down. third pic, at the base, the drain hole (in sunlight) is huge and not stopped up. fourth pic shows corrugated tube. I think that's near the base of the corrugated tube.
Dave in Charlotte Harbor.
1. there's a "mess" of wiring there. the coax type for the radio antennae, plus a wiring harness.
2. there is the corrugated tube (shown in the diagrams above).
3. the drain channels are huge, nothing pooling (the drain channels are the bright sunlight pouring through from below as the base of the mast was in sunlight when I did this).
I couldn't get the scope to accurately record the top or bottom of the corrugated tube. would want to see those. will try again later to see if I can get a better pic....only had a couple minutes to get these.
I'm thinking, if it isn't leaking in the top or base of the corrugated tube, it might be leaking in the next layer down, the plate that the mast step sits on. need further investigation....
Pics below (by the way, I just had a colonoscopy this week, somehow these pics looked like those!) (also, in my draft here, it somehow shows the first to pics repeated, hope that doesn't show that way for you all) first pic shows a jumble of wire, those are the wiring for the antennae. They look huge, but those are only about !/4 inch in diameter. second pic a bit further down. third pic, at the base, the drain hole (in sunlight) is huge and not stopped up. fourth pic shows corrugated tube. I think that's near the base of the corrugated tube.
Dave in Charlotte Harbor.
Hello All
I also have water that appears to be leaking into bilge when it rains - there is a stain from where the mast wiring exists towards the bilge...I have removed the mast as suggested - but there is no obvious source for leak - hose around wiring is intact - and mast step is firmly affixed to deck - did anyone find source of leak upon mast removal? Any suggestions or advice? How did others end up solving this?
Thank you!
I also have water that appears to be leaking into bilge when it rains - there is a stain from where the mast wiring exists towards the bilge...I have removed the mast as suggested - but there is no obvious source for leak - hose around wiring is intact - and mast step is firmly affixed to deck - did anyone find source of leak upon mast removal? Any suggestions or advice? How did others end up solving this?
Thank you!
I finally addressed this problem while the mast was down to replace standing rigging. The photo posted earlier in this thread by @sailingdeac shows Selden's diagram of the mast base including a blue "cable hose", which was missing on my boat. I purchased the cable hose assembly from TOAD Marine Supply, part #SLD-319-639-01. Without any installation instructions, I guessed and installed the O-ring first, applied some clear silicone sealer to the mast base riser, then the cable hose, and finally the zip tie clamping the hose onto the mast base riser about 20mm from the end of the hose. The cable hose is a tight fit over the mast base riser, so not sure how necessary or helpful the O-ring, silicone, and zip tie really are, but they're easy to add.
It was a little difficult for the riggers to guide the cable hose assembly into the mast with all the wires sticking out, but they succeeded without breaking the seal at the mast base. After the mast was up, I tied the wires in a loop above the cable assembly as shown in the aforementioned diagram, and... the darn thing still leaked a little bit! The final touch was to add a cone shaped bit of duct tape around the top of the hose. Apparently more water than you would think runs down the wires and finds its way into the hose. Now the bilge stays dry.
Here are some pictures of the process. Hopefully someone finds them helpful.
It was a little difficult for the riggers to guide the cable hose assembly into the mast with all the wires sticking out, but they succeeded without breaking the seal at the mast base. After the mast was up, I tied the wires in a loop above the cable assembly as shown in the aforementioned diagram, and... the darn thing still leaked a little bit! The final touch was to add a cone shaped bit of duct tape around the top of the hose. Apparently more water than you would think runs down the wires and finds its way into the hose. Now the bilge stays dry.
Here are some pictures of the process. Hopefully someone finds them helpful.
Noticed same problem on my 2006 Catalina 309.
First I tried to eliminate possibility of water leaking throughout the cable flex hose. I was able to slide a softer and bigger diameter sleeve over the flex hose. With cables I bent the sleeve downward to stop water from entering the flex.
Still water was leaking to the bilge after the rain.
In the next troubleshooting step, I poured small amount of water to the mast base area - starting from the bottom.
No leaking was detected from the deck to lower base plate joint.
Poured more water to the main T base - where mast heel sits.
Bingo - found water rushing down to the bilge.
With the sailing season over I decided that this winter the mast needs to be un-stepped to further investigate the problem.
Now mast is on the rack. Yesterday I was able to unscrew the T base.
I think I found the problem.
Picture below should explain everything.
First I tried to eliminate possibility of water leaking throughout the cable flex hose. I was able to slide a softer and bigger diameter sleeve over the flex hose. With cables I bent the sleeve downward to stop water from entering the flex.
Still water was leaking to the bilge after the rain.
In the next troubleshooting step, I poured small amount of water to the mast base area - starting from the bottom.
No leaking was detected from the deck to lower base plate joint.
Poured more water to the main T base - where mast heel sits.
Bingo - found water rushing down to the bilge.
With the sailing season over I decided that this winter the mast needs to be un-stepped to further investigate the problem.
Now mast is on the rack. Yesterday I was able to unscrew the T base.
I think I found the problem.
Picture below should explain everything.
Thank you! Appreciate the advice. I recently did the same thing - and resealed the area between the top and bottom plates as well. As you say, it seems to have stopped the leak! Really appreciate you reaching out. Regards!