Brown Water Leak Under Cockpit

[Rich6705]

Hello all. I have a 1981 O'Day 25 that has been leaking brown water into the bilge since I bought it. The water is leaking down in the compartment under the cockpit where my battery is. It is leaking down the bulkhead and splattering on the water tank.

I thought it was coming in from the traveller since it is right below there. I sealed the traveler and no water comes in at all. I went to the boat this morning after a strong rain and there was no water in my catch pail....until I took the boat out for a short sail and the water started leaking.

I'm assuming water must be coming in through the windows or somewhere forward, rotting the core, then dripping out the back when the boat is in motion. Again, assumption is that the brown color is from a rotting core.

Everywhere else on the boat seems solid and there really isn't water coming in from any other location that I can tell.

Has anyone else had this issue?

 

[Scott On Eagles Wings]

Yes, I had to rebead everything, and I mean everything and the water stopped.

 

[Ward H]

I think a lot of water leaks travel between the deck and cabin liner making them very hard to trace but for it to be running all the way back and not out to the side somewhere makes it sound like it is near the bulkhead.

Is it running down the plywood cabin bulkhead or the cockpit side fiberglass bulkhead?

If the fiberglass side, it may be from the pendant tube.

If the plywood side, then I would first check any deck penetrations along the cockpit bulkhead wall like the compass, depth finer or any other items mounted to the bulkhead.
I would work from there forward.

Around the mast step and other deck mounted hardware are frequent areas that leak but for that to make it all the way back to drip onto the water tank seems to be unlikely.

I agree with Scott you will need to eventually want to re bed everything but the boat lasted 34 yrs so don't panic about it and take it one step at a time.