Hunter 23.5 rain water leak

[Orbweaver]

Greetings all. Last week we had a fair amount of rain (at least for Montana). Yesterday I thought I better check on the Hunter 23.5 and see if I had any water inside. The boat has been on the trailer for a couple weeks now. Unfortunately I found about 5 or 6 gallons of water in the far back of the boat, and some along the storage area port side rear quarter. After pumping all the water out and drying things up, it appears that most of that water came in on the port side, at the far back. I say that because there is an obvious trail from previous leaks in the carpet. I did some investigating and found that the little pocket in the cockpit sole was dry. We had enough rain that I would have expected that to be full of water. Of course, there are a number of small cracks in the corners there, so I'm assuming some water made it in through there. But, I don't think that would be enough surface area to accumulate the amount of water I had. I am in the process of re-bedding deck hardware with the good butyl as specified by MaineSail. The problem is, where else could the water be coming in? Keep in mind, this was rainwater for sure and certain.
I'm planning to stitch up a good cover for the entire boat, but until I get that done it'd be nice to have a likely place to dig in and start really plugging the rain leak(s). So, any suggestions for other places to look?
Thanks!
GH

 

[rgranger]

I had a leak in that same place on my H26
It took me a few seasons of trying things to run it down. A companionway cover helped a lot ( avail right here at the SBO store) but did not completely solve it. For me a small persistent leak was coming from the rubber stops screwed into the companionway hatch track. Water would collect there and a few days later find its way into the boat. Raw fiberglass was exposed and water got into the headliner.

 

[rgranger]

Here is a pic of the companionway
cover

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[SkookumZac]

Everywhere! After 25+ years pretty much all the original sealant will have failed. The water comes in thru leaking fasteners in the transom, cockpit, and deck, then drips onto the fiberglass headliner inside, then flows along the headliner to one side or the other, and down onto the floor.

Water in the rear berth is likely from the bimini hardware or cockpit table mount. Previous owner fell or pushed on the table leg, causing the mount to crack. It can leak a lot of water unto the headliner. When I bought my boat, there was a square piece of plywood siliconed over that hole.

Water on the cabin floor is likely from the companionway. Lots of ways for the companionway to leak. If the boat is tilted forward theThe screws attaching the wood to the plexi were the culprit for me.

Water under the settee cushions can be from deck hardware or from the windows.

Water in the forward berth is likely from the anchor locker, or again, windows.

-Z

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Spoke with owner today advising to leak check by pressurizing the cabin and brush over everything wth soapy water to find air bubbling out

 

[Orbweaver]

Thanks for the call Dave! It's very kind of you take time out to personally help. I took your advice on leveling the boat, and sure enough a fair bit of water was trapped around the forward hatch. That's now dried up. I'll keep updating as I troubleshoot, the pressurized boat method sounds like just the ticket to pinpoint leaks!

 

[Orbweaver]

I was finally able to get the boat sealed up and go to finding the leaks. It turns out I have 5 different leaks, so this weekend's project is re-bedding everything that leaks, and then going through and doing anything else that time allows. We are also building a custom fit winter cover with some billboard vinyl, but I'm not sure if that'll be ready to go by tomorrow evening.
Pics:

There is also a rather large hole behind the depth/fish finder bracket that will need to be sealed up. I won't call that a leak because it's not even an attempt at sealing, just a good 3/4" hole where the cables come through. I have a chart plotter that I want to add to the boat, so that bracket will most likely be removed anyway. Speaking of that, does anyone know if I can use the depth transducer from the Humminbird on a Garmin chart plotter? It's a thru-hull with speed wheel, although I'm pretty sure the speed wheel is defunct.

Thanks again to Crazy Dave for the tip on pressurizing the boat to find leaks. It works AMAZINGLY well, and is very simple to do. We used 33 gal garbage bags cut open. Even on the lowest setting the cover looked like it was a balloon, so my son had the idea of reinforcing in the middle (hence all the green tape) which worked great. In the future if anyone needs a good way to find leaks, this is definitely the best I've ever used.

 

[rgranger]

Thanks for posting those pics

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Pictures of hole please

 

[Orbweaver]

I’m going to try posting pics directly from my phone..

First up is the cover we are making to protect her from the sun/snow/rain while she slumbers for the winter.

Here's the fish/depth finder

And I'm not sure why it rotated this one but up is left, and that was installed without a single drop of any type of sealant.

And I thought maybe this would show, but this last pic is after I cleaned that area up and gooped some 4200 in all five holes.

I also got the rest of the leaking parts rebedded (sp?) this weekend. The most surprising one was the u-bolt where the aft end of the port side lifeline attaches. That's where I was getting the most water coming in, and looking from above/below that fitting it didn't look like there was much chance for it to leak. I thought any water that went in from the top would just go out the bottom under that lip. NOPE. Once I got it cleaned out and dry again I was able to see why so much water could get inside the boat. Where the bolt holes penetrate the deck/hull seam, inside there was a very noticeable void fore and aft of both holes. I used my flat putty stick and pushed 4200 into those until I couldn't get any more to go in, then a ring around the holes top and bottom and put the fitting back together. I got a nice bit of sealant that oozed out all the way around, so that one should be good.
The other one that was a bit surprising is the starboard bow pulpit. The upper screw had a small leak, so I removed both screws and found that only one was actually threaded into anything. The lower screw has machine threads, the upper is just a stainless screw with what I would call sheet metal threads. There is a nut down inside both holes, but the upper one is too far forward and will require that I twist the holes in the pulpit leg to accomodate the angle. For now, I just put it back together with a dollop of sealant on the upper hole and proper sealant/machine screw on the bottom. I'll have to noodle on the best way to fix that little problem.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

@Orbweaver

Let’s discuss first tarp over mast. I strongly recommend that you remove the spreaders from the mast and block the mast every 5 feet. Why? The weight of rain or snow on that tarp will bend the mast requiring a new mast! There are other suggestions to look up in archives.

As for the hole with four screw holes it could have been an instrument readout panel, two prong 12 volt connector or something comparable. Look on the 12 volt on and Off switches to see what each switch goes to inside the cabin to see if anything is missing if labeled.

 

[Orbweaver]

Thanks Dave! Yes, I'll block the mast up and remove the spreaders. When it's complete I expect the snow will mostly slough off. I used the same setup on the 26.5, but ended up sweeping a few times after heavy wet snowfalls.
The hole issue was behind the fish finder, it's all sealed up now.

 

[Orbweaver]

Just wanted to close out this thread: I got home from work with JUST enough daylight left to go back and test all the areas that had air/water leaks. No more bubbles! Thanks again to Dave for the method used, it most definitely worked and was easy to do.
Now if I can finish the cover up and get the boat washed and waxed she'll be ready for slumber over the winter.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

You are welcome sir

 

[CrispyCringle]

Thanks for posting the results of your leak check. It just goes to show why its so hard to find leaks by just looking- they show up in places that just dont seem like they would leak.

Ive got a wet spot in the bilge right now that has got me stumped for the time being.

May your boat be dry for many years to come!