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Frustrating leaks

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booyacht
1st Mate

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53 Posts

Initially Posted - 06/22/2011 : 13:05:19

Well, I too have been graced with the opportunity to be in the wet aft berth club :(

A few weeks ago, I discovered that my Starboard propane locker had a gallon or so of water sitting in it. For some reason I didn't give it much thought - also there was a horrid smell inside my cabin but I aired the boat out, assuming it was the head, and tossed in an application of deodorizer. My brother mentioned the aft cushions were wet but I assumed condensation.

Fast forward 2 weeks, the smell is worse and I have an inch of brown water in my bilge. I clean it out and follow it aft... cushions were so bad that I tossed them, battery locker water had overflowed the lip long ago. I think the PO also had a head holding tank leak that was just allowed to dry up. I'm glad I could be the one to get to rehydrate the mess. Anyway... I huge comedy of errors and I learned the hard way to address any water immediately - but at least I learned!

We've had a ton of rain over the last few months but I really can't see how rain water could physically go over that lip and enter the locker. Thankfully I have these forums so I checked all of the usual culprits and they all seem to blame

My coaming caulking is all cracked, my outboard wire boot is ripped right up the middle on the topside, and the water was gone from the starboard cockpit locker... bottom was still moist so I think it leaked through the 4 screws that hold the propane box to the fiberglass floor.

I'm heading out this weekend with silicon. I'm mostly venting but I really wanted to thank this forum and the members for the constant stream (no pun intended) of good advice! I'm quite comforted knowing you've all been there before.

Much appreciation,

Will Osborn
2000 C250 WK #478

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booyacht
1st Mate

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53 Posts

Response Posted - 06/22/2011 : 13:10:24

Oh, on the bright side I had beautiful sailing on both weekends with clear skies and a steady 15 knot wind. Also, I have 2 nicro solar vents to install - I'm putting one in the bow hatch but I'm still undecided on where to put a rear vent... I think it'd be convenient to have the forward vent suck air into the boat and the aft vent blow air out from the battery compartment but I don't see a good way to make that happen.

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 06/22/2011 : 15:32:11

One thing to consider, I found my aft berth wet a couple of weeks ago. I knew it had been dry for months & months, mostly because the boat was sitting in my side yard and the only way for it to get wet was from rain.

I crawled back to hook up my battery charger after rearranging the cockpit cushions that have been back there pretty much since we took the boat out of the water months & months before. When I got toward the back, I noticed the berth cushions were wet, but there was no smell, no mildew, no evidence at all that they'd been wet for any length of time. This was a puzzle, how in the hell had they gotten wet all of a sudden?

It turned out that my cockpit cushions sat directly under the hatch, which apparently drips a bit, the cushions just soaked up the water like a sponge (that's pretty much what they are, giant sponges), and when I upset them by moving them to the side to get to the battery compartment, the water leaked out the zipper onto the aft berth cushions. The cockpit cushions are pretty mildewed, but we cleaned them with a bleach solution on the interior and rinsed out the material. I'll most likely get some closed cell replacements for them in the future, but for the time being they're OK.

When we turned them on their sides, water ran out of them, so there was quite a bit in there, probably a gallon or more each. I was pretty surprised that the vinyl did such a good job of keeping the water inside the covers.

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KD4AO
Navigator

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USA
202 Posts

Response Posted - 06/23/2011 : 07:17:47

Port and Starboard cockpit lockers have a tendancy to fill with water during heavy rains because of the way the C250 sits in the water with the bow high. Any slight list to port or starbord will accentuate the problem for the coresponding locker. This can be proven by lifting the lid on the locker and investigating the outer edge where the lid overlaps, at the aft end. If it has been occurring for an extended time you should be able to see a slight waterline mark that indicates overflow into the locker. This occured on my C250 Port locker, after a few heavy rains it would have water in it. I took steps to level the boat, weight in the bow and boom centered in the cockpit, and that solved the problem. No water ever got inside the boat that way but I would thing that the Propane locker may allow water in through holes that pass the lines and/or the wires.

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.