[Rhodes22-list] Center Board Well Leak

[R22RumRunner at aol.com]

Dave,
Welcome back to the list. Finding leaks can be a real problem when there  
are previous owners possibly involved. I have been inside five centerboard  
trunks over the years and everyone one is different. No two were identical.  
Previous owners or who knows who had been changes to the pulley systems and  
parts that operate the centerboard. I can pretty much assure you that the 
use of  UHMWPE was not a factory fix. Glad you were able to make the repair 
once you  knew the problem. Working in that area certainly is not fun. I 
can't kneel for  extended periods anymore. Old age is beginning to take it's 
toll on my poor  abused body.
 
Rummy
 
 
In a message dated 7/13/2009 3:43:30 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
david.walker5 at comcast.net writes:

Greetings to the list. 

I haven't been active on the list  for a few years but have been actively 
sailing my boat, Windswept, out of  Salem harbor in MA. I re-signed up to 
share with you all something I found  this spring that I think should be 
brought to all owners attention.  

For the 11 years I have owned my R22 (bought from Stan in 1998 as  
recycled) I have been fighting a slow leak. Many helpful suggestions pointed  at 
rainwater leaks, which I did have and were mostly fixed. However there was  a 
consistent salt water leak that I could not find. I pretty easily ruled out  
the thru hulls and was left with the centerboard well. Two years ago I 
removed  the cap and cleaned the mating surfaces, replaced the fender washers and 
 removed a small block that was through bolted to the top of the cap (part 
of  the 4:1 board raising tackle). This didn't make any change. 

Last  summer returning to the boat (at her mooring) after a weeks absence I 
found  water about a foot above the sole. The battery was under water and 
completely  shorted out. Its unclear whether the bilge pump failed or the 
increasing leak  rate caused the pump to discharge the battery. Anyway, I 
limped to the local  marina where I winter store, pumped out the bilge with a 
home sump pump, had  an emergency haul and had it blocked for the winter. (I 
was pretty discouraged  and was about to leave on a 3 week trip). 

This spring I resolved to  find the leak once and for all. When I opened 
the boat I found a little rain  water in the bilge but nothing was leaking 
out. I filled the bilge to above  the cap and a steady trickle started to run 
out of the aft end of the CB slot.  I lowered the water with a pump to just 
below the cap seal and the trickle  continued. I lowered the water level to 
about halfway from the cap to the  bilge and the trickle stopped. Very 
strange. This eliminated the cap seal and  the pennant thru hull as a leak. 

I removed the cap (fun job) and  carefully inspected the inside of the 
well. At the aft end I found a piece of  UHMWP in the shape of an upside down V 
wedged from side to side at the top of  the well. My guess is its job is as 
a seat for the top of the CB when it is up  to keep it from moving side to 
side. The critical thing is that this piece was  screwed in place with long 
screws from the top of the piece, diagonally down  through the side of the 
well from inside to outside. The tips of the screws  were actually though the 
outside of the well about halfway up from the blige  to the cap. After years 
of the board banging into this, the screws had  loosened in the fiber glass 
and I could literally just pull them out with my  hand. These screws were 
loose in their holes had provided literally two holes  in the bottom of the 
boat. I took them out, dried out the area, ground it down  and patched with 
epoxy and two layers of glass inside and out. 

My  point in this post is that this may or may not have been done at the 
factory  and I'm not blaming anyone, but it was present in my hull. If anyone 
has a  slow leak in this area, it would be worthwile to check it out, and if 
you pull  your cap for any reason definetely check it. Now I just have to 
finish all  those pesky port light rain leaks!! 


Dave Walker  

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