Topside Leaks

[OldRover]

During the process of gutting my F39 I have been amazed at the amount of rot, mold, and actual water I am encountering especially since she has been high and ‘dry’ for years. Early on I could see issues with the large ports and after researching and speaking with Paul Dennis I developed a design change to address. Presently I am under the impression that there are multiple ingress issues. I believe that the lower issues on the port side may be a water tank and/or hot water heater leaks (my guess is the tanks were not drained when pulled and no winterization performed). But the soggy headliner backing boards led me to think about more aggressive topside leaks. A couple of years ago someone must have thought the same and mistook the usual deck hairline cracks, so they epoxied over much of the deck including nonskid… Sorry for the digression. I will soon be pulling all deck hardware. I found an old posting in the Yahoo archive by, I think, Mr. Schults which dealt with the issue. A couple of questions before I dig into this next phase. Any issues with the toe rail (I have pulling toe rail and never did on a larger boat)? Any opinions on the hatches specifically with deck sealing(mine seem to need seal replacement and one is cracked)? Any damage to the core (I have seen some boats requiring large sections replaced, but looks and sounds real solid on the F39) from poor bedding?
Thanks

[Mike Holibar]

Hi Dean,
That all sounds a bit grim. Fyne Spirit has been notable for her general dryness but there have been some issues around some of the Lewmar ports and hatches. Hose testing showed the Lewmar ports would leak around the seals with direct pressure, indicating new seals were required. Also, several were leaking around the frame/hull join and as I have refitted these I have noted they are less than an ideal fit. I have used construction adhesive sealant to refit them and all leaks are now fixed (for the time being anyway). Have had no propblems with the pilot house windows but these were replaced by the po not long before we bought her. I had to refit one of the deck hatches- again the deck to hatch flange seal was leaking. The other point of ingress was an opening port through the forward cockpit bulkhead. It took me a while to pick up on this one as it appeared sheltered and I would leave it open for ventilation. However any water draining aft from the coach roof would often find its way in here. I also found many of the deck fittings were not bedded in sealant and so have refitted them. The core appeared sound in these areas when probed. (phew!)

[Michel]

Dean,

I have been through many of your issues. I'll try to address some of them.
-toerail leaks: check the bolts below, especially midships. Rusty bolts = leaks. You probably won't have to remove the toerail; I partially took out most bolts and redid them with Sikaflex (3M 5200 or likewise). You need a Houdini to do the below decks work of holding the nuts.
-deck hardware: I found on my '81 F44 the balsa core was not sealed around bolt holes. I redid all my deck hardware with epoxy filler in enlarged holes and redrilling to size after epoxy had cured. Some small parts of the core had to replaced, e.g. around the anchor chain hawsepipe. Since my deck was going to be spray painted fore to aft, We did the job from above.
- hatches: not only check the hatch seal, but also the seal between deck and hatch base. I had several leak points.
- headliner: mine was mostly rotten and mildewed. The ply was cheap interior grade, I believe. Most problems arose from condensation between deck and headliner. Headliner mounting battens (some kind of untreated pine) were all in good shape. I replaced all headliners with foamed PVC sheets.
- Port edges were gooed from the outside and covered with Awlgrip during the spraying of the topsides.

Hope this helps a bit. Perhaps you don't have to do everything I did.

Michel

[OldRover]

Mike, Michel,
Thanks for the replies. Overall very helpful. The hint I have a bit of an ingress issue was the fact that the boatyard drilled a hole in the hull to drain water... As the headliner was removed I found not only rot/mold, but also standing water. Seems the naugahyde holds water pretty well. I work alone almost all of the time and have not confirmed leaks through the toerail. But the evidence is there. Next time my wife is with me, she can hit the deck with the hose. I suspected the hatches, so I will pull all. That way I can clean them up at home and properly seal on install. I do plan on removing all deck tackle and hardware. Hopefully the toerail will be limited to only certain offending bolts, so I will try to identify and seal without removing everything. I am still waffling between gelcoating or painting the deck, but will be totally refinishing since the areas around the ports looks real bad (aesthetics mainly) along with the mentioned epoxy related damage. My hawsepipe area also needs attention, but so far no other core issues. During my research I think I remember seeing a pic of Michel’s boat being sprayed in a shop and I am very jealous since I am in an open yard (but very thankful I am allowed to perform the work). I like the idea of oversizing the through deck holes and using epoxy. I may go that route too since it’s not much additional work. Michel’s PVC headliner was very impressive and I thought about that, but really like the naugahyde. My new plan is to use the PVC in the small sections against the hull and maybe in the heads.
Also, thanks for the replies since I gain moral support that is needed with such a huge undertaking.