Hi all,
We've had issues with water coming in through our salon ceiling lights similar to many Hunter 376 owners (and maybe other models too).
I removed my top panels that cover the line management/blocks and tried resealing the screw holes, but had no luck. I then actually epoxied those holes shut (with just the panels resting on the deck, not secured)...no luck, we still had water intrusion. We have snaps around our top windshield (for attaching a windshield cover), I rebedded all of these, but still had leaks. I was resolving myself to next having to rebed all of the line management blocks, although I wasn't very excited about that (and will say it didn't make sense that water was coming in there, as those blocks are all on raised mounts (above what I would assume is the normal amount of water that flows past that space, and rain/water doesn't directly fall on them as they are covered).
As I was racking my brain on this I happened to get down low and look underneath the windshield window. With that I found something interesting....
It appears that Hunter added three metal brackets, presumably to support the windshield section in the area where the lines run through. Each bracket appears to be held in place by two screws. On my boat I found that two of the three brackets were missing. Three out of the four screws that would have held those brackets in place were missing, just leaving holes in the fiberglass (I'm assuming that at some point in the boats 28 year history a line or lines got snagged or caught on the brackets and ripped them out).
The brackets are 1-3 inches back from the lip of the glass. The area is tight and hard to reach with my fingers, and would have been hard to get any type of sealant or epoxy into the space. The space is tight enough that the picture here is the best I can get. I removed the one remaining screw (it was loose) and cut a thin plastic scraper into strips that were long enough to cover both holes for each section. I then slathered the bottom of the scraper pieces with 3M 4000 and slid them into place.
You can see the edge of one of the scraper pieces under one of the lines (red circle).
Here's the final piece of scraper after cutting it (for reference):
Fast forward 24 hours, I soaked the area with a hose and have not any leaks through the salon lights.
Now, I've gotten excited and called previous efforts a "win" then found myself disappointed (and food on the table under the lights soggy)...but so far so good, and definitely a new ingress point that I had not previously addressed.
At this point, the third support piece is still there in place, but would not be at all "re-beddable" (with out removing the window) should it start leaking too...so there's that. If I see more leaks I may try to go in and remove that piece then use my final strip of scraper to seal things up.
With that, hopefully this proves useful for other 376 owners (or other Hunters with a similar design who are experiencing the dreaded salon light drip). If you haven't had luck in tracking down salon light drips, give these brackets a look and see if maybe they are the source of your woes.
Also, bah to Hunter for installing almost impossible to see and definitely impossible to maintain hardware...I think future boat designs were different, though, so it was probably just a product of refining things until problems go away.
Thanks for reading!
Doug
We've had issues with water coming in through our salon ceiling lights similar to many Hunter 376 owners (and maybe other models too).
I removed my top panels that cover the line management/blocks and tried resealing the screw holes, but had no luck. I then actually epoxied those holes shut (with just the panels resting on the deck, not secured)...no luck, we still had water intrusion. We have snaps around our top windshield (for attaching a windshield cover), I rebedded all of these, but still had leaks. I was resolving myself to next having to rebed all of the line management blocks, although I wasn't very excited about that (and will say it didn't make sense that water was coming in there, as those blocks are all on raised mounts (above what I would assume is the normal amount of water that flows past that space, and rain/water doesn't directly fall on them as they are covered).
As I was racking my brain on this I happened to get down low and look underneath the windshield window. With that I found something interesting....
It appears that Hunter added three metal brackets, presumably to support the windshield section in the area where the lines run through. Each bracket appears to be held in place by two screws. On my boat I found that two of the three brackets were missing. Three out of the four screws that would have held those brackets in place were missing, just leaving holes in the fiberglass (I'm assuming that at some point in the boats 28 year history a line or lines got snagged or caught on the brackets and ripped them out).
The brackets are 1-3 inches back from the lip of the glass. The area is tight and hard to reach with my fingers, and would have been hard to get any type of sealant or epoxy into the space. The space is tight enough that the picture here is the best I can get. I removed the one remaining screw (it was loose) and cut a thin plastic scraper into strips that were long enough to cover both holes for each section. I then slathered the bottom of the scraper pieces with 3M 4000 and slid them into place.
You can see the edge of one of the scraper pieces under one of the lines (red circle).
Here's the final piece of scraper after cutting it (for reference):
Fast forward 24 hours, I soaked the area with a hose and have not any leaks through the salon lights.
Now, I've gotten excited and called previous efforts a "win" then found myself disappointed (and food on the table under the lights soggy)...but so far so good, and definitely a new ingress point that I had not previously addressed.
At this point, the third support piece is still there in place, but would not be at all "re-beddable" (with out removing the window) should it start leaking too...so there's that. If I see more leaks I may try to go in and remove that piece then use my final strip of scraper to seal things up.
With that, hopefully this proves useful for other 376 owners (or other Hunters with a similar design who are experiencing the dreaded salon light drip). If you haven't had luck in tracking down salon light drips, give these brackets a look and see if maybe they are the source of your woes.
Also, bah to Hunter for installing almost impossible to see and definitely impossible to maintain hardware...I think future boat designs were different, though, so it was probably just a product of refining things until problems go away.
Thanks for reading!
Doug
