Leak

mcrandall · Post by **mcrandall** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:57 am

...dagnabit!

Got the boat in the water yesterday to check how well my reseat of the keel brackets went. First off, the boat floated perfectly flat. Starboard list eliminated--success!

Got inside to check the keelpin thruhulls. Portside-good. Starboard-not so good. Water just above the bottom of the keelpin housing. Didn't seem to be rising though. Sopped it out with papertowel, but it came flowing (from further starboard) untill it reached that point. Is that where the waterline is?

I was able to sop up the water and dam it back to starboard with the papertowel enough to know there is NO water coming in around my keelpin bracket--phew! But where the heck is it coming from.

I resealed all my thru hulls except one--the keel cable thru hull. Any experience out there with it leaking? Looks like it might have a clear path between the hull and floor/keel trunk for water to flow to the starboard side.

gregcrawford · Post by **gregcrawford** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 11:49 am

I know whenever I put my boat in the water (including two months ago) a puddle of water comes up in the keel pin area, even though my keel pin does not leak. I do have some minor window leaks. It is my belief that any water that gets in between the inner liner and the hull travels to the low spot. On the trailer, that low spot is located differently than when the boat is in the water. After I dry up the water, it stays dry the whole time the boat is afloat. That may not be your situation, but it seems to be with me.

When I first got the boat two years ago and put it in the water, I did have some minor leaking around the keel pin bolts. I used some Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure on them and they haven't leaked since.

hadaveha · Post by **hadaveha** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 12:18 pm

When I first got my boat the guy I bought it from promised me that i didnt need to replace the keel pin, but it did leak around the keel pin and it leaked into the void you are describing but stoped once it reached a certain level, and just from laying on my back and looking under the boat at my keel trunk what I can see of my backets which is very littlethey look nowhere neer as bad as some of the pics I have seen on here, Ill be very intrested in what your find out, and could it be something you could live with

mcrandall · Post by **mcrandall** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 2:29 pm

Thanks for the input, Guys.

Here's an update: Pulled the keel cable thru-hull fitting out. Solid glass about an inch thick is what it looks like. I'll seal the heck out of it as I reinstall, but my guess is it didn't come from there.

Next culprit: the rudder fitting. I caulked the outside of the fitting a while back, that is, between the plastic and hull on the outside bottom of the boat. Looking in side under the cockpit was ugly. Tons of caulk piled up around the bottom of the hose and a touch of water seeping from it. I still don't think this is the source of my problem unless the hull and the inside shell of the boat are sandwiched there and water can flow to my keel pin area under the flooring. Nonetheless, it is a problem that I'm going to tackle. I'll do a search tonight on the forum concerning this to see what others have run into, but I'm gonna pull the whole rudder thru-hull assembly (rudder is already out) to re-do all the seals. One note here, the "nut" that holds the fitting tight in place is split. Looks like it was machined that way or purposely cut if not machined. Too clean a break. This look normal to anyone? Note the gob of caulk I pulled off...

Greg, you and I are of a like mind on this. I have removed all the foam on the starbord side aft of the bulkhead and bilge because of all the water coming in through my toerail/deck/hul seam. But, I did NOT cut into the settee forward of the bulkhead, nor into the area under the vee birth hold. Makes me wonder if the trip to the lake with hills, etc and the steep angle of the launch ramp allowed some trapped water from those unexposed areas of mine to migrate over to the keel pin area. I too believe I have water coming in from hardware/windows and plan on reseating all of those. So maybe I was sopping up rainwater trapped from our previous days of rain (lots of it) and not lake water afterall. I never checked it before I put it into the water, just checked it before I left the house. That would explain the oddity of it NOT rising past the bottom of the keel pin housing (I believe to be well below the waterline) AND why I was able to dam it up with paper towel so easily. MAYBE I didn't dam it up. Maybe I just finished soaking it all up. Never checked, was in a rush to get out of the way of others trying to use the municipal ramp. When I pulled out the dam today, there wasn't any excess water behind it. I'm a good thinker, just a little slow at it.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that was the source. Or is that just wishful thinking?

David Anthony · Post by **David Anthony** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 3:47 pm

I too had a problem with water inside the well , I replaced both the plastic thru hull fittings, one for the winch cable and one for the sink drain with bronz fittings from Defender.Com. No problems since.

Banshi · Post by **Banshi** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 3:58 pm

FYI on launch I always have a little water in the floor, it comes up through the keel cable tube as I launch. If I rap a blanket around it at launch this solves the problem.

mcrandall · Post by **mcrandall** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 2:08 pm

So I pulled the fitting for the rudder out and low-and-behold, water soggy glass had delaminated in a couple spots.

I'm going to seal it with epoxy then replace the fitting with either stainless or bronz--no plastic on this one, I want it tight and strong.

Thanks for the advice on the site, David Anthony. Good resource!

Alanhod · Post by **Alanhod** » Sun Aug 07, 2011 2:45 am

I've never had an issue like this but I will be inspecting this before I float it again.

Thanks
Alan