cabin top hood removal -leak deck crack

[d-marko]

I’ve been tracking down a leak from the companionway hatch area. It’s been leaking from the forward starboard corner of the companionway hatch. I pulled back the lining that goes around the companionway entry to find a wet crack in the deck. There are no obvious water intrusion points from above, The intensity of the crack points to water intrusion towards the forward end of companionway deck. I suspect rain water is pooling in the channel the hatch slides on and somehow entering into the deck at the forward end.

It’s very hard to see underneath the cabin top (not sure what to call it- spray hood? See pic) Has anyone had a similar issue or knows the construction of that area?

Are there water points of entry underneath the hood? Water drains out at the aft end but I’m unsure about the front.

How do I remove the cabin top hood or see underneath? It looks to be sealed in with a silicone type sealant.

Are there other likely water intrusion points? I saw another post mentioning screwholes in the teak strips. Again, didn’t see any exposed screwholes.

Thanks

 

[weekendrken]

D
On the mk-I, water will drain out the fwd end and along the teak cover of the slide rails there are drain slots. I typically shoot a hose into the slot (aft end) to flush out spiders and junk that gets into underneath the teak.

If you cross-post your Q? over on the ‘official’ international Catalina 30 association forum you may find one of the 1600+ owners has tackled your problem.

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Cheers,
Ken

 

[d-marko]

Thanks ken I’ll also try over there

 

[Tally Ho]

I have a different boat (O’Day 322), but the spray hood construction may be similar (at least I can tell you what I needed to do to remove mine).

My O’Day 322 had teak trim that ran along the slider hatch and continue along the spray hood to a point near the mast.
You can see some of the team trim in this photo...


I am making my boat a little less “high-maintenance“ by removing the brightwork....teak hand railsmon the cabin top are already replaced in this photo with a brown plastic wood material. I like the way teak looks, but I hate taking care of it...

The next item was to remove the teak slider trim, that also runs along the spray hood. To remove this, I had to drill out all of the bungs covering the screws. I wasn’t trying to save the teak, so I just used a course thread deck screw and drilled it into the bung, and when the screw hit the fastener under the bung, it either popped the bung out or at least a piece of it. I used a screwdriver to clean out the rest of the plug. I took out all of the screws, and pried up the teak. There was some sealant under the teak, but it came up ok. The other side came off the same way, but the adhesive was much tighter, and I broke the teak in 3 pieces trying to get it off.

Once the teak was off, the spray hood just lifted up. I moved it to the dock where I could spray it off. Under the hood, the cabin top was sort of “dished” where the sliding hatch would sit when open. There are a few “channels” where water would be able to drain out. You can get an idea of what it looks like in this photo...my hatch is partially open and visible on the right hand side of the photo. There is a wood and rubber “stop” on the left hand (forward edge) of the spray hood. The slider hit that when fully open.



I washed this area out before reinstalling the spray hood.

I cut new trim pieces from white PVC boards, rounded the outside edge, and counter sunk the screws so I can plug the holes. In this photo, I am just checking the fit of the board...I didn’t like the fit and made new ones. Those are now screwed down, but I forgot my camera the day I installed them.


The blue cordage is there because when I removed the teak, there is nothing holding the sprayhood and slider down. We were expecting some weather and I didn’t want to come back to find my slider or spray hood blown off and sunk in the slip.

I have one last thing to do to finish the slider rehab...the HDPE plastic runners that the hatch slide on are broken and wavy...So before I seal down the new trim, I want to replace those runners.

Any way, I know that I have a different boat, but thought maybe this will help you visualize what is under that spray hood.

Good luck with the projec.

Greg

 

[OS2Dude]

The teak trim to either side of the companionway hatch have bungs (small dowels of wood) inserted in the screw holes that hold it (and the hatch 'garage') in place. If you look closely, you should see little circles about every 10 inches or so. (Grain direction different and/or slightly different color) Drill these out with a 3/8" forstner bit, or use a screw to try to pull them out. When replacing, get new bungs from West (or other source) cut them to shorter pieces with a razor or other thin knife and glue them back in. Then cut and sand them smooth. (Some folks have glued bungs in while it is off and just drilled a screw hole and changed to visible pan (flat bottom) screws instead of the flathead screws used originally.

If there is no rot in that separation, then get some clamps and epoxy it back together. You may have to go to a thru-bolts instead of screws.

 

[d-marko]

I wanted to share my experience and ask a question about resealing the screw holes (unique situation)

The insights posted above were very helpful. After periodic moisture meter monitoring, I had a suspicion that water was entering the deck through the screwholes attaching the wood trim to the cabin top. This weekend I took the trim piece Off and confirmed this is an entry point. The holes had some water in them but the core was wet but fairly intact. The symptoms were brown water leaking into the cabin around the mast hatch. The cause was Water runs off the top of the companionway hatch and into the channel underneath the seahood, and water pools around the forward end where it was leaking into the screwholes. The three forward screwholes are exposed to water in the channel, each one moving aft showed less water entry. the three aft holes are raised and were dry. So a heads up to other C30 owners that I don’t believe these holes were sealed from the factory and may need attention.

The complication with a fix is that there is a open space between the underside of the wood trim and the surface of the deck where the screwhole is (see pic). With this in mind my fix was to build a butyl dam around the two forward holes, and stick a small pea size ball of butyl into the hole in hopes it will seal the hole once the screw is screwed back in place.

I contemplated sealing the holes with epoxy first, but decided against it because I didn’t have any epoxy on hand and the holes are very small (1/8”) and getting a bit in to the hole to remove core material is unlikely. I am open to redoing the fix with epoxy if anyone feels it is worth it in this specific instance

So my question: rate my repair, specifically What’s the appropriate way to seal the hole in this instance when there’s a gap between the trim and deck surface? See pictures for a visual.