Water in stern lazarette

[Scott Wagner]

I have a 1985 Hunter 31 (31' 4"). I am the 3rd owner. When the boat is in the water, there is always 1/4" of water in the transverse stern lazarette. Also, the Quarter Berth area ia always wet! (The rear carpeting et.al. is always wet.)Where is this water coming from? The only thing that seems makes sense is that the rudder packing must be leaking. Does this make sense?scottwagner1@msn.com

 

[Steve Dion]

Going to fix mine in the next couple of weeks.

Scott:I am almost positive your water tank is leaking. If you will fill your water tank and let it run (may want to hold off for a few weeks in your case) you will see that there are bubbles coming out around the screw holes on the water tank cover. I am going to be repairing mine in the next couple of weeks. You should take a look at the Photo Forum and see what Rip Edmunson did (same problem). You will need to cut the caulking around the entire lid. Then you will need to remove the 25-30 screws that hold it down. When you go to lift the lid, be sure that the caulking is cut so you do NOT break the cover. Then the lid will need to be recaulked and all of the screws replaced.Not a big job but worth a couple of beers!

 

[Don]

What Steve?? No way..

Ugh Steve, how does water get from the water tank (under the berth) into the lazerette? On my former 31', I had serious leaks from the fuel fill cap coming through the deck. It was unbelievable how much rain water was coming in and how far it could travel. I finally got inside the lazerette and had someone spay water all over the decks to find the leak. My stern rails also needed to be rebedded, but I let someone else have that pleasure.Bottom line, with a boat that age, all the sealant can be dried up. Good luck.

 

[r and j dafoe]

water in stern laz

We also have a 1985 hunter 31 and found that we had to recaulk the seal on the cover of the fresh water holding tank. That seemed to take care of the wet aft berth. As far as the wet laz...check the drain... it may be fouled

 

[Chuck]

Similar Problem

I have a similar problem with the starboard lazarette of my 1984 Hunter 27. The lip around the opening into the lazarette is no high enough. When rainwater goes across the lid and area, the water overflows the channel around the opening and drains into the lazarette. I need to figure out how to build up the channel.

 

[John Noland]

Other considerations

On my H31, I found that the port side lazerette (rope locker) will get water in it when you hose down the cockpit vigorously. There was a drain hole in my port rope locker that would allow the water to drain into the section between the cockpit floor and inner liner, which leaked through into the aft berth through several places. Seal the rope lazarette; it's better to have wet ropes than wet berth and rotten cockpit floor substrate. However, it sounds like your leak source is one of the fittings above the aft lazarette. Re-bed everything. If the caulk is gone on ONE of those fittings, it's going on the rest. Re-bedding isn't hard, but it can be messy. If you don't get caulk all over the place, you didn't use enough caulk.