SHETLAND OWNERS ASSOCIATION

Simon,

Followed your advice and checked the anchor locker yesterday and OMG, huge split and hole and I guess the water ingress mystery solved. It had a galvanised steel anchor with some brutally sharp edges and bolts sticking out of it so I guess at some point whoever stowed it away has punctured the lining and started the rot from there.

Out of interest, what did you do with yours? I'm due to take her up on her moorings in a couple of weeks so I need to think of a solution. The timber is completely rotten but not knowing the structure of it I'm loathe to start ripping everything out for a major repair (I'd almost prefer to seal up the locker than do that!)

The good news is my whale has turned into a barrage balloon after pumping all the water out. I can barely keep her from floating away in a breeze she's so light!

Cheers for now,

David

Glad you found one of the water ingress points. I'm taking my boat to Phil at GGF Boat Repairs near Bridgend. I'll let you know how I get on.

Si

My mk4 was beautifully dry until it was towed uncovered in the rain. If it helps anyone the water in my cabin appears to be making its way forward from the cockpit, will be taking the carpet up tomorrow to see what I can do about it, at least I know where it came from though.

My hop is that I can fit an inspection hatch and a bilge pump or two, where are the best places to pump from?

David,

Pull back the rubbing strake and see if there's any sealant in the join between the hull moulding and the cabin moulding. There isn't any in mine! This is the prime source of water ingress on my boat.
Good luck

Simon

Hull join under rubbing strake now sealed with sikaflex. Since then I've had no more water ingress into the hill despite heavy rain and going out in the Bristol Channel in strong winds and choppy seas. Hopefully that's the water ingress on my boat finally sorted.

Regards

Simon

Strange that it wouldn't have been sealed from the factory, they appear to be capable little sea boats so it' was always going to be a problem.

TallyhoF4 wrote:Strange that it wouldn't have been sealed from the factory, they appear to be capable little sea boats so it' was always going to be a problem.

I think it may be a build issue; not sure mine was finished that well as it had a couple of other quality snags. If it was a design issue they'd all leak like this. Having said that, I know of at least 3 of this vintage with significant hull water ingress.

The hull moulding to top moulding join shouldn't be an issue as it is bonded with glass fibre mat and resin internally; it is then riveted externally and then covered with the rubbing strake. The issue with my boat appears to be the join in the fwd part of the cabin.
On the right of the picture the hull and top moulding are bonded together. On the left, the top moulding is bonded to the deck/seat moulding meaning there's potentially a gap between the hull moulding and the deck/seat moulding that could let water into the hull space. It's obviously not intended that water gets in that way as there's no way to get it out and many boats are filled with foam beneath the deck, although mine isn't for some reason.

There's physically no other place the water could get in. Given the ingress has stopped since the external join has been sealed, I think this must be it.

Si

I've now traced my leak to a window, have done what I can to stop it for now, I need to retrim the whole boat so they'll come out and get done properly at some point.

I took up the cockpit carpet, my cockpit floor is fully fibreglassed in and slopes towards the cabin so it's no wonder the rain water found its way forward.