When we bought the boat, we checked and rechecked for any leaks, and fixed any we found. We went all last year without any leaks.
This spring, I checked again for leaks, and found three very small ones and fixed those. Good for another year!!! Wrong!!!
After a heavy rain, we were up on the boat, and my wife put her hand under the pillow, and it was wet. There was dampness along most of the back, starboard seat edge.
We checked and found that the "roof carpet" was wet around one of the stanchions. So, we pulled that one, re-bedded it and tightened it down. End of problem!! Not really!!
Next time on the boat, we found dampness in several places along that rear seat edge. How was the water getting in? How was it getting into physically different locations?
We went up yesterday to specifically find and maybe fix the problem. Maybe it wasn't the stanchion bolts that were leaking. But that location was the only wet spot, except at various locations down at the seat edge. Under the stanchion bolts, I pulled the carpet away from the wall. Then I tried to pull it away from the ceiling, but had problems, it would not come loose for about two inches near the stanchion bolts. I used a set of locking pliers to grab and finally get the carpet loose. I found a fibre glass pocket (part of the hull) running the entire edge of the boat that held a teak strip of wood, to which the the inside wood trip piece was screwed. The top edge overlaps the hull edge, and the rub rail is screwed into place (probably with a glue between the top and hull edges) holding the two parts together until the glue sets.
Water is getting behind the rub rail, and there must be some gaps in the "top to hull seal".
Finally the problem! They must have installed the carpet before they assembled the top to the hull. In this case they didn't trim the carpet properly. A small piece(maybe and inch or less in length) was caught outside the hull edge. When water gets behind the rub rail, this little piece of carpet acted as a wick, and carried water over the top of the hull edge and into the thin fibre glass pocket that holds the wood strip at the top inside of the hull edge( open at the top but sealed on the bottom). This pocket then carries the water all along the starboard side where it eventually found several places to leak out, and run down the wall behind the carpet where we could not see it unless we lifted the cushions.
So we think it is solved and fixed, but we have been there before!
Another question: Why didn't this unusual leak ever show up before? Probably no way to ever find this out.
This spring, I checked again for leaks, and found three very small ones and fixed those. Good for another year!!! Wrong!!!
After a heavy rain, we were up on the boat, and my wife put her hand under the pillow, and it was wet. There was dampness along most of the back, starboard seat edge.
We checked and found that the "roof carpet" was wet around one of the stanchions. So, we pulled that one, re-bedded it and tightened it down. End of problem!! Not really!!
Next time on the boat, we found dampness in several places along that rear seat edge. How was the water getting in? How was it getting into physically different locations?
We went up yesterday to specifically find and maybe fix the problem. Maybe it wasn't the stanchion bolts that were leaking. But that location was the only wet spot, except at various locations down at the seat edge. Under the stanchion bolts, I pulled the carpet away from the wall. Then I tried to pull it away from the ceiling, but had problems, it would not come loose for about two inches near the stanchion bolts. I used a set of locking pliers to grab and finally get the carpet loose. I found a fibre glass pocket (part of the hull) running the entire edge of the boat that held a teak strip of wood, to which the the inside wood trip piece was screwed. The top edge overlaps the hull edge, and the rub rail is screwed into place (probably with a glue between the top and hull edges) holding the two parts together until the glue sets.
Water is getting behind the rub rail, and there must be some gaps in the "top to hull seal".
Finally the problem! They must have installed the carpet before they assembled the top to the hull. In this case they didn't trim the carpet properly. A small piece(maybe and inch or less in length) was caught outside the hull edge. When water gets behind the rub rail, this little piece of carpet acted as a wick, and carried water over the top of the hull edge and into the thin fibre glass pocket that holds the wood strip at the top inside of the hull edge( open at the top but sealed on the bottom). This pocket then carries the water all along the starboard side where it eventually found several places to leak out, and run down the wall behind the carpet where we could not see it unless we lifted the cushions.
So we think it is solved and fixed, but we have been there before!
Another question: Why didn't this unusual leak ever show up before? Probably no way to ever find this out.
