Is this thawed water in core?

[JPS27]

After a snap of cold weather I went to check the boat and found this. The pictures show the evaporated residue in the starboard quarterberth. I have been working on above waterline leaks since I got this boat and have made a lot of progress. This is new, at least new to me. I have leaky portlights that are high on the to do list. But I'm wondering if given the position of this leak and color if anyone has any thoughts about where to start looking. Thanks.

Jay

 

[Christian Williams]

Photos rotated. (Place pictures on desktop before uploading to confirm desired orientation)

 

[koltrast]

leak in starboard quarterberth

I had the same thing. Mine turned out to be leaking under the starboard winch.

 

[toddster]

I had convinced myself that re-bedding the ports would solve this problem. Especially after I discovered there was no seal at all around one of them. But no. It's looking like a systematic exercise in re-bedding every piece of hardware on the boat approaches. Which is probably, you know, good for the character

 

[Loren Beach]

Applying some Pressure to the Problem

Presented in the "for what it's worth" category....
I did observe while a friend chased some hard-to-find leaks in his 34 footer. He used his old shop vac.
He put blue tape over every (!) hatch edge, cockpit seat hatch and vent. He made a plywood replacement hatch board with a 3" hole in it for the vac hose.
With the vac sitting in the cockpit and pushing air into the boat, he sprayed soapy water over the outside from one end to the other. By Golly, bubbles did indeed started emerging from a cleat and some other places.
:0
The whole exterior was much cleaner after a good rinse off, too!

Finally the vac was switched off & the hull recovered from being temporarily 34.5 feet long! (just kidding... ! )

So, this is more than just a story from a magazine -- now it's a story on the internet. Some improvement...

However you find those pesky leaks, good luck.


Loren

 

[JPS27]

I must have tons of character by now!

Thanks for the reality checks, mates. Since I know my ports leak I'm reading all the related threads on this and other sites. I've been in contact with catalina direct (hoping I can salvage my frames) figuring out what is needed. The need to rebed all hardware is an accepted reality and, thanks, I'll take it as a character building experience.

Loren, thanks for the suggestion of a new use for my shopvac. I've read about that approach but wanted to avoid serving as cheap entertainment to the rest of the gang at the marina. But it won't be the first time, so maybe a blue tape covered boat is around the corner when it warms up a bit more.

Jay

 

[Shelman]

Speaking of funny leaks.... I had an opening port light start leaking recently and after lots of hunting and looking I finally found its mode of failure to be in fact the little plastic/rubber gaskets between the two halves of the exterior frame. (original Lewmar opening port light) The water didn't come clear through at the point of the failed gaskets however but traveled down inside the hollow outer frame and dripped out of the frame and into the boat through the six screw holes that hold the inner and outer frames together. I was able to fix the leak by removing the old rubber gaskets (now soft and cracking) and replace them with some 3M 4200. It was a bit difficult to find the leaks initially because the water was coming into the hollow exterior frame at one spot and back out of the frame at another. It took sitting on the toilet on many long rainy nights watching to see where the drips were forming to finally grasp the situation in full. (that's how your evenings are spent once you are a proud yacht owner)
And another bit of free advice.... Don't buy 4200 in the convenient little toothpaste tube. I know its tempting but the 4200 is many times thicker than toothpaste and is nearly impossible to get out of the tube with out saying words that make your wife not want to help anymore. I squeezed the little tube so hard the end cap popped off three times and then the bottom of the tube came un-rolled and then the whole tube burst open! It was at this point of course that I was actually able to access and apply the 4200 with the aid of a stolen bobby pin from my wife's collection, (perhaps another reason she is afraid to help me on boat projects.)
Good luck on the leaks!

Ps: for the sake of your own reputation never publicly announce that you have fixed the last leak in your boat, nor that your future life aboard will forever be free of drips and dribbles.... you will be properly denounced as a competent boat mechanic in due course.

 

[supersailor]

If you want to keep the opening port opening, Catalina Direct sells a seal replacement kit.

 

[Christian Williams]

Shelman, do the ports still open?

I'm guessing you fixed the vertical seam in the two-part exterior frame? Trying to remember what those Lewmars look like. I don't suppose you have a picture....

 

[JPS27]

An odd conversation with Catalina Direct

As I mentioned in an earlier post on this thread one leaky situation that has to be dealt with are my leaky portlights. I've read up quite a bit. And I called Catalina Direct to ask some questions. The nice fellow there told me to look at certain catalina year models in my marina and to send him pics of my windows and frames. So I did. He then said given what he saw they should be able to help me and to call their tech support for additional help. Well, the tech guy acted as if he'd never been asked about refurbishing portlights on anything but catalinas. In the nicest possible way I assured him that I'd heard of plenty of people who have used their repair kits on Ericsons and that I was just following the suggestion of his own colleague to talk with tech support. Being on the powerless side of this exchange I just kept up the self-deprecation, and it ended up with him pointing me to the repair kits, telling me to figure out how much length in material I need, and then assuring me that he in no way can guarantee that it will work (I knew that).

Other than the need to vent a little, my question to the forum is, doesn't it seem like a decent gamble to use this repair kit if all I'm trying to do is take out, clean up, reglaze, and rebed my port lights? Here are a couple of pictures. The larger frames are the source of the most visible leaks. The forward and smaller ports just look like they have and are gunked up and nasty. Here are a couple of pics of the offenders. I pulled the glazing down a bit for effect. Thanks, Jay

 

[Christian Williams]

Jay,

The big portlights leak two ways: through the rubber-like glazing channel, or around the aluminum frame where it seats against the cabin house.

A careful hose test should indicate which, or both.

If the glazing isn't the issue, just remove the entire unit and re-bed the frame.

 

[toddster]

The rubber seals are an exact replacement. I.e. the aluminum channel stock was apparently from the same source, even if the two boats had it bent into slightly different shapes. The actual material appears to be different than the original seals. I'm guessing some kind of polyester as opposed to natural rubber.

The only thing about the Catalina "kit" that made me worry was their instructions to use silicone caulking (included) to glue the seals into the channel and the glass into the seal. This seemed awfully irreversible and a huge PITA to clean up if it turned out wrong. Instead, I used a tiny amount of silicone grease (which I already had on hand). I figured that if I was wrong, it would be a much smaller job (and free) to take the ports apart again and do it their way.

Oh, BTW, a PO of my boat apparently rebedded one of the portlites using strips of butyl tape, instead of a pre-formed gasket. It appeared to have worked...