Hi Everyone, I imagine my recent repairs are relevant to most Seidelmann owners. From what I've experienced on my boat, none of the deck mounted hardware was properly mounted into a balsa cored boat. This spring having decided not to endure another season (it's my second) of drips into the cabin, and having learned something about the damage deck leaks can lead to, I began this repair. During the first week of March I pulled both the genoa tracks and my large acrylic cabin ports out. I had light water damage on the port side track and light, and moderate water damage on the starboard side. I removed what I could of the damaged balsa from the port openings and after 2 months of weekends and week nights of electric heat and hair drier action began in earnest. I treated the port opening with CPES, and continued working on the genoa tracks. After some initial trials with the bent nail method to remove balsa from the 3/8” openings on the track hardware, I re-drilled the holes to ¾” using a forstner bit. This gave me enough room to get a dremel attachment into the opening to remove balsa from around the opening and again treated with CPES. This allowed me to key into the deck when I refilled the holes with West epoxy. I used West epoxy and 404 filler for the genoa track holes and a blend of 404 with 406 for the port openings. Using a refillable caulking tube the job was fairly neat and efficient. Adding the 406 filler while blending the epoxy to about the consistency of mayo, gave me very good anti sagging properties when filling in the overhead port opening. Cheers Larry
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track & leak repair
Everyone, Good to see I wasn't the only one doing this repair this year. I used the same technique as you except I didn't find the need to use a forstner bit. I used a small allen tools of various sizes to remove the good, bad and ugly material along my port track. I used the West System with the fast hardener and high density filler with the smaller syringe type injection tools from West. This seemed to work good and allowed me to do a few holes at a time of the 20 something hole track. I used a 3M sealant and all was good since it rained pretty hard this past week and no leaks. The only leak which I have yet to tackle is the one along the mast. This is not the deck to mast leak that is normally discussed since mine is good, but the Kenyon mast has the track groove (on the back side) that goes all the way to the bilge. I am told that you just blob some silicone in there but wasn't sure if anyone has the same experience here and how to get in there when the mast is up. Boat goes in this Friday - hopefully... Neal
Everyone, Good to see I wasn't the only one doing this repair this year. I used the same technique as you except I didn't find the need to use a forstner bit. I used a small allen tools of various sizes to remove the good, bad and ugly material along my port track. I used the West System with the fast hardener and high density filler with the smaller syringe type injection tools from West. This seemed to work good and allowed me to do a few holes at a time of the 20 something hole track. I used a 3M sealant and all was good since it rained pretty hard this past week and no leaks. The only leak which I have yet to tackle is the one along the mast. This is not the deck to mast leak that is normally discussed since mine is good, but the Kenyon mast has the track groove (on the back side) that goes all the way to the bilge. I am told that you just blob some silicone in there but wasn't sure if anyone has the same experience here and how to get in there when the mast is up. Boat goes in this Friday - hopefully... Neal
Hey Blitz
there has been lots and lots of discussion about the mast track leaking into the bilge. Here is what I am doing at this time. Plugged the track right where the insert begins with plumbers putty. I do not know if this will cure the problem, and it isn't permanent. Next time it rains, supposed to be this weekend, I will have a better idea of whether or not this will be a fix. If it seems to solve the problem, then I will remove it and make a more permanent fix.
there has been lots and lots of discussion about the mast track leaking into the bilge. Here is what I am doing at this time. Plugged the track right where the insert begins with plumbers putty. I do not know if this will cure the problem, and it isn't permanent. Next time it rains, supposed to be this weekend, I will have a better idea of whether or not this will be a fix. If it seems to solve the problem, then I will remove it and make a more permanent fix.
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