[Rhodes22-list] Center Board Well Leak

Tue Jul 14 15:02:28 EDT 2009

David,
Nope, no Kabooms. RumRunner has been on the hard for a little over a year  
now. Our lake decided to all but disappear and then suddenly reappear this  
spring. Hartwell dropped an amazing 23 feet before the Army Corps decided to 
 fill it back up. We are still currently four feet below full pool, but 
three  years of draught conditions really hurt. I took advantage of the low 
water and  had her repainted. I have a couple of additional upgrades and things 
to take  care of and then she will be back in the water.....soon I hope.
Work seems to be getting in the way of working on her.

Rummy

In a message dated 7/14/2009 11:26:44 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
david.walker5 at comcast.net writes:

Rummy,

Glad to  be back.  BTW how's your gas  tank?  Any Kabooms yet?

As for the UHMWPE, there is a lot of it on  my boat clearly from the 
factory. 
The pop top slider, boom slider and most  of the outboard mount.  Any way 
thats not the point.   I  just wanted to let people know what they might 
find.

The kneeling  to get the cap off was fun.  I used tile layers neepads and 
that  helped a lot.  The tough part was getting the backing wrench on the  
bolt heads under the flange.

David  Walker

www.davidwalkerphotography.com

Event  Specialists

781-639-2707 Office
781-718-8690 Cell
----- Original  Message ----- 
From: <R22RumRunner at aol.com>
To:  <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Monday, July 13, 2009 4:23  PM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Center Board Well Leak

>  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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