leaking mast

[vit lanka]

my mast is leaking during a heavy rain. what are the remedies, any recommendations. thank you.

 

[Steve Dion]

Deck stepped or Keel Stepped.

Vit: If your mast is deck stepped I would recommend that you get the area around the deck sealed ASAP. If you get water in the bulkhead and deck area it will cost quite a bit of money to repair. Even as a temporary fix just fill the area with some type of sealant until you can get a permanent fix.If you are keel stepped, I don't know anything that you can do, except try to keep the bilge dry.

 

[bob]

40.5 leak at base of mast

i have a 40.5 which leaks a little through the wiring harness at the base of the base...i and others have discussed this problem in the past, and some suggestions are in the archieves...there've been some good ideas, but i've never been able to solve my problem...it may be the mast will have to be unstepped...however, it hasn't been a serious enough problem to go to that length....i see that you keep your 40.5 in punta gorda...i currently have mine in tampa...for 6 yrs i kept her and a prior boat at burnt store marina and commuted down on weekends...i love the sw fl area...i'm retiring in jan and will be in an out of sw fl....

 

[fred]

40.5 Leak

We have a 40.5 that had a similar problem. Our leak stemmed from the weep holes being clogged at the base of the exterior of the mast. This allowed water that came into the mast via openings in the mast to pool at the base of the mast rather than drain. The pooled water then entered the cabin via the wind instrument cabling. Once we cleaned out the weep holes via a garden hose the leak stopped.Hope that helps.

 

[bob]

thanks for the suggestion, fred...

i hadn't heard the idea of blowing out the weep holes with a water hose before...i did it this morning, and all kinds of junk blew out...stay tuned for a report on whether this solves my problem

 

[Steve Dion]

Not the fix.

Okay, you have temporarily fix the apparent problem. The real problem is that if is leaking down the wires you are still going to be getting moisture in the deck core. If this does happen you are going to have a bigger problem. The deck may start delaminating, the bulkheads can start to rot, the cross member can rot and the compression post may start to go too (don't know if yours are wood). Anyway I would recommend that you have the mast pulled and get the raw edge sealed with epoxy and then completely seal the entrance with a good caulk to prevent water from getting into this area. Our boat ended up costing over $3k and was out of commission for about 2 months.