[Rhodes22-list] Probable leak in Bow Railing

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Rory,
 
You refer to a small amount of water in the bilge, perhaps just  
condensation.  If it’s not much water, one thing you might try  in dealing with the 
leakage is to get some of this chamois type of  cloth called Absorber (West Marine 
sells it and you can get it at auto parts  stores) and lay it in the bilge to 
soak up any small amount of water that might  get there.  The cloth soaks it up 
the water, when there is any, and then it  evaporates- or at least it’s held 
in the cloth.  If you find a wet cloth  you can just wring it out over the 
side.  This won’t work if there’s a real  pool of water in your bilge of any 
significant depth.
 
We leave folded Absorber in the bilge, and the bilge uncovered, every time  
we secure our boat.  Leaving the bilge uncovered makes checking the  bilge 
automatic when we come back next time.  Having Absorber in  the bilge helps 
mitigate the effects of any leakage into the bilge.  Also,  leaving the bilge 
uncovered should promote air circulation in the bilge -  and hence evaporation of 
any water in the Absorber cloth.  Finally, the  cloth makes a good witness 
cloth.  If the cloth is damp or wet you  know you’ve had some water in the bilge, 
even if it looks dry.  If the  cloth is rock hard, you know things have been OK.
 
We’ve had a leak in our lazz and I think a little of that water has found  
its way to the bilge, that’s why I came up with the above for the bilge - and  
I've also tried it in the lazz, with less success because often there's much  
more water.  We sometimes get a significant amount of water (perhaps  1 to 2 
gallons) in our lazz.
 
As to the leak in your bilge, is your lazz dry?  John Locks problem  was back 
in his lazz and he had some leakage to his bilge.  I think our  problem is in 
the lazz also (but I don’t think it’s John’s problem, we’ll see)  and that 
its draining to the bilge.  
 
Regarding tracking down a possible leak in your bow  railing.  After 
unwrapping your boat and checking for condensate,  you  might just leave it out of the 
water for a while;  let it get  rained on or hosed down several times, if 
there's no leaking when it's  out of the water and uncovered, your leak is below 
the water line, if the leak  continues the leak is probably from the top.  
Subsequently you might  cover the bow railing area of your boat that you suspect, 
leave the  covering on for a few rain storms and/or hose it down and  see if 
the  leak persists - it's easy to do if the boat's out of the water.   If the 
leak totally stops with the covering on, and it was leaking  before you put 
the covering on the bow railing, you've begun to isolate the  leak.  You might 
be able to use this approach to track down exactly  where the water is getting 
in.
 
We've pursued this strategy successfully over the winter.  We  often had 
water in the lazz last season, sometimes a fair amount, and  suspected a leaky 
drain connection (among other candidates), but when I took the  boat out I 
initially left the boat uncovered on jack stands and the  leak continued so clearly 
the leak was from above, not below, the water  line -  forget the lower drain 
connection.  Then I covered the aft  section of the boat with a tarp and found 
the leak completely stopped (so far, I  haven't been out to the boat in a 
couple of weeks) so I think the leak is  somewhere in the aft section of the 
boat; and I don't think it's the drains at  all since the drains had to drain 
water from the 1/2 of the cockpit that  wasn't covered over the winter.  I don't 
yet know exactly where the leak  is, but the evidence suggests it's somewhere 
between the point of the tiller and  the transom (the area that was covered).  
Also, it can be a lot of water,  which makes me think the leak is at a point 
where a lot of runoff  aggregates - like maybe the lazz hatch and gutter behind 
the lazz  hatch - and that's a real start.  My next step is to climb in the  
lazz and have the admiral hose it down - I'm not looking forward to that.  
 
Whatever, it's a strategy, and it's worked so far, but one reason it  may be 
working for us is that there is/was so much water leaking in.  If  you're just 
concerned about a very small amount of what could be condensate, it  might 
not work.
 
Dave



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