leaky teak
We have a DeFever 44 built in 1982 that has the original (unfinished) teak aft deck. It appears to be in pretty good shape, but it leaks. First we suspected that it was the hatch, since that is where the water drips into the rear cabin, and we spent a lot of time pulling it out, re bedding it, and sealing it up, but it didn't help. Now we suspect that the leak is somewhere else.
We have two questions: where is it he leak likely to be, and how do we stop it?
Regards, Tom and Doris Sanders,
Aboard Second Fantasy,
now lying at Coney Island, NY, enroute to Kilmarnock, VA
Hi, Tom. Our DF 41 had a leak when there were heavy rains accompanied by
strong winds. I rebuilt the aft companionway hatch cover completely
(vacuum bagged the whole thing back together and made some minor design
changes so there isn't a chance that the hatch cover leaks) thinking
that was the source. Still leaked. Now I've placed a small diameter
piece of finger caulk along the outer edge of the hatch frame (where it
meets the deck) on the inner side (seems to be where any water would
pool slightly during rain) and that seems to have stopped the leak. Once
in awhile we get a little water through the companionway doors during
heavy rain and wind (they don't join water-tight), but that's it.
One of these days I'll take out the aft companionway hatch frame and
rebuild the whole thing, then I can do away with the piece of finger
caulk. Until then it seems to be resolved.
<><><><><><><><><><><><>Mozilla Thunderbird<><><><><><><><><><>
Bob McLeran and Judy Young Manatee Cove Marina
MV Sanderling Patrick Air Force Base
DeFever 41 Trawler Melbourne, Florida
Blog: http://mvsanderling.net/Blog
Web: http://cruising.mvsanderling.net/
On 9/3/2014 9:04 AM, Sanders, Tom wrote:
We have a DeFever 44 built in 1982 that has the original (unfinished) teak aft deck. It appears to be in pretty good shape, but it leaks. First we suspected that it was the hatch, since that is where the water drips into the rear cabin, and we spent a lot of time pulling it out, re bedding it, and sealing it up, but it didn't help. Now we suspect that the leak is somewhere else.
We have two questions: where is it he leak likely to be, and how do we stop it?
Regards, Tom and Doris Sanders,
Aboard Second Fantasy,
now lying at Coney Island, NY, enroute to Kilmarnock, VA
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I have had good luck with this sealant. It is a clear liquid that runs
into the crack. You apply it several times until it seals the crack.
Looks pretty hokey but it works well for me.
http://www.westmarine.com/buy/captain-tolleys--crack-cure-sealant-2-oz--243990
YMMV
Frank Burrows 79 43' Viking Piney Narrows Chesapeake Bay
I am not too aware of the exact configuration of Defevers, but I did solve a
pesky leak in my aft cabin companionway hatch which consists of a
traditional sliding hatch on wooden runners on the aft cabin top combined
with a pair of small doors in the aft cabin bulkhead.
I noticed the leak slowly dripping off the interior trim of the hatch during
a heavy rain day on the Tennessee River. I could replicate the leak with by
spraying water on it once I got home to my covered slip; so I was pretty
confident that I had fixed it when I could no longer replicate it after my
repair.
Despite the fact my boat is 100% wood, I think this approach could apply to
boats constructed out of other material but with any sort of hatch in the
cabin top or deck.
I removed the sliding hatch top and closely examined the two runners on the
cabin top looking for any source. On my boat, cracked paint at a joint
could end up being trouble, but I could find no smoking gun. Since there
was no other likely candidate on the cabin top, I determined that despite
finding nothing obvious, the leak HAD to be in the runner-to-cabin top
joint.
I drilled about fifty small holes directly into the aforementioned joint
(each hole about an inch or two from its neighbors on either side) at 45
degrees off vertical and then began an all afternoon session of injecting
clear penetrating epoxy (not regular epoxy, but the sloooooow setting CPES).
I went round and round and round injecting the stuff until each hole stopped
sucking it in. Down in the cabin I had previously removed the surrounding
headliner and taped up plastic sheeting under the area to capture any drips
of CPES that might sneak through. After a couple of days of setting up, I
filled and sanded and repainted the joint (total width about 1/4 inch) .
Now I couldn't create a leak with a fire hose.
Rich Gano
Calypso (GB-CL42 Hull 295)
Panama City, FL