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Hull to Deck Leak

larossa

Member II
Hi all,
In the process of tracking down the couple of water leaks into the cabin of my E31, I was able to track the water coming in through the hull and deck joint and the through two of the bolts for the toe rail. The compound that was used to seal the hull to the deck was both wet and loose in the gap. What type of sealing should be used to reseal this joint? Also, would I use the same type of sealer to reseal the teak toe rail to the hull? Spring is coming and I need to get going.

Thanks,

Brian
E31C
Novi, Michigan
 

Emerald

Moderator
Hi,

really really surprised if you could be having a gap opening up in the deck to hull joint on this boat - not only does it have a sealant, but it was bolted and had glass layup. Here's a picture of how it was done. Is this what you are really seeing?

If you are dealing with a deck-hull joint, I'd use 3M 5200 since you want as much strength as possible. For general bedding of the toerail, chainplates etc., I'd use the 3M 101 - polysulfide. The 101 should be about as good as it gets for joining dissimilar materials that will flex and move in relation to each other and have different coefficients of expansion.

Hope this helps.
 

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larossa

Member II
David,

Yes you are correct concerning the joint, but when further probing of this leak some of the glass was not saturated when built. It was badly discolored over the years. After sitting for an hour during a rain storm I could see the water dripping through the poorly saturated glass. I ground away some of the lay-up and found a wet joint and loose sealent in this area of the leak. I had tried the previous year of resealing/ torque the bolts that hold the toe rail on but to no avail.


Thanks,

Brian
E31C
Novi, Michigan
 

Emerald

Moderator
Hi Brian,

this additional info is interesting. Glyn or Martin might have some good input here, but from what I can remember of hearing of toe rail replacement on our boats, a real incredible bear of a job, like, it may seem it's going to come off/apart OK, but turns out it takes tons of work to really do it. So, with that as a caveat, I think the next step would be to possibly remove and rebed the through bolts in the toe rail in the area, make sure the bungs are sealed on top of them - perhaps even epoxy, and then run a bead of 101 down the deck/toe rail seam on the exterior. Done nice and neat, I think it will look fine. I don't think you're ever going to get compound into the actual joint. If you did the first part and it was showing itself to be truly dry, I'd then think about putting the glass back on in the area. I wouldn't put the interior glass back in place until you knew for sure you had stopped the leak, as trapping water in would be worse than omitting a short section of glass IMO.

Keep us posted.
 
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