Leaky Bits

The more you dig the more you find. The story starts in Florida in 2011. I noticed that there was water in the lazerette under the deck plate in one of the hatch covers.

The deck plate is there in case you have to use the emergency tiller. The tiller post fits thought the opening and attaches to the steering mechanism in case of a hydraulic steering failure.

I asked Dan Cross to have the deck plate rebidded to prevent further water intrusion. This was done before we shipped the boat to the west coast.

However I noticed that the condition continued once OceanFlyer made it to Bellingham. I had it re-bedded again in 2012. But in 2013 it was still a problem. Now, I blamed the fact that the deck plate was made of plastic. I had seen a deck plate made of stainless steel and that was my next idea to stop the wet lazarette.

Therefore, I gave North Harbor diesel the project of replacing the plastic deck plate with a stainless steel version.

De-lamination and rotten wood as a result of water infiltration.

Then it got interesting. What North Harbor found when they removed the plastic deck plate was that the interior of the lazarette hatch was full of water. The condition of the caulk between the teak deck planks was allowing water to pass and then settle inside the hatch itself.

The culprit: caulking not doing its job.

More evidence of rotten wood under the hinges.

The fix “to do it right” was almost $6,000. This involved rebuilding each of the three hatches and replacing the decking on each. The budget for this does not exist at this time. There were many more pressing items that were on the must do list.

We came up with a suitable and inexpensive temporary workaround. North Harbor Diesel drilled two drain holes in the forward edge of each hatch. When the hatch is raised, any water that as accumulated drains. The hatches are still structurally sound, so we’ll add the more extensive repair to the list for future attention.