Sealing lazarette lids against water intrusion?

[sgbernd]

Last summer, I took a breaking wave which flooded my cockpit with salt water (and swamped my towed dingy but that is a story by itself). I later discovered that a significant amount of water had made it's way thru the closed locker lids and into the lockers below. The lockers were closed with the locks in the hasp, and the lids remained closed.

I have since sought to make the locker covers more water tight by adding weather proofing edpm seal around the inside of the lid and got as far as ordering the seal material from Master Carr. However, after consideration of the design, I believe that the lids were intentionally designed to serve as ventilation for the locker with an effort to drain the liquid water away with the drain channels, while permitting air to escape. If I water proof them, I will create a problem of excess humidity within the lockers. They don't leak appreciably in rain, washdowns, etc. so for normal use, they are fine.

One locker is used for the anchor, rode, dingy oars, dingy wheels, etc. which are often put away wet so I assume the moisture either goes out the lid. I don't have mildew problems in the lockers and things which are put away wet are dry a few days later and want to keep it that way.

Does anyone have experience with sealing these up and if so, what were your results? Did it result in excess humidity in the locker? Or does the moisture find it's way out thru the engine room vents?

Thanks in advance,

Steve Bernd

[Vincent]

I have been thinking about this issue. I had a buddy climb in the port lockerwhich I closed. I eventually let him out. I don’t know how I would seal the lockers without rebuilding them. I have started thinking about leaving them as is, and maybe installing an inner removable hatch that could be set up offshore that would shed most of the water, but let the hatch vent for the majority of the time. Still thinking.

[Kickin Bears]

Funny as I was just thinking same thing after this wknd. Was washing the cockpit and found that water had gotten into the lazarette, wetting everything, during the wash down. I was a surprised at the amount of water let in during a wash, and made me ponder what would happen if pooped.

Really good point about the design being possibly intentional to dry; we see no issues with mildew and prefer to keep it that way. Didn’t even think about airflow ...

I was thinking of putting in a gasket (think along the lines of a Bomar hatch gasket). One idea would be to install a gasket in segments as opposed to a single piece; intentional spacing intended to reduce the amount of water let in while ensuring air can still escape. Maybe even a single piece running along the high side of the lazarette to use gravity to advantage to shed water down, and leave gaping on low side so air can escape.

Thinking / typing ideas real time here so watch out

[Doug Gibson]

While I haven't had the cockpit fill from a breaking wave, I did have water intrusion into the cockpit lockers after rain or a good wash with hose. At least under these circumstances, I don't think the water is somehow flowing up and over the teak trim that mounts around the perimeter of the hatch opening (at least on my boat). So, I figured the sealant between the teak trim and fiberglass had failed after 30+ years. I removed the teak trim, cleaned up surfaces and reinstalled with new sealant. Seems to have done the job.

[Vincent]

I think I have a possible solution for my boat. I was staring at the open aft lazarette and I noticed the lip around the perimeter. Attaching a sea cover to that lip would divert most water and certainly prevents large inflow under the hatch cover. The cover will have to be easy to remove, perhaps a combination of Velcro and screwed down battens. I could see these covers in use in heavy weather or on an ocean passage, and leaving them off in moderate to light conditions.

[Vincent]

I checked the clearance under the hatch today and 6mm marine plywood does not interfere with the hatch closing. I am going to cut the plywood and paint it, and then screw it to that lip when underway in heavy weather. That should shed most of the water in the event the cockpit is pooped.

[Steve Laume]

Your lazarette is built like Raven's cockpit lockers. Some Cape Dories I have seen have an additional teak rim that comes up to the lid itself. Evidently CD knew there could be issues here and solved the problem on some of the boats and not on others. Making up the teak curbing would be a bit more difficult but would be a more trouble free and somewhat more elegant solution. Someone else may have pictures of their boat with the teak curbing. I have often thought about adding this to Raven but just haven't gotten around to it. The inner cover may work out fine but it will be a PIA to deal with each time you want to get in that locker. The high curb seems like it would be pretty effective and it is a passive fix, Steve.

[robwm]

The problem is that the front of the opening is much lower than the back (you can see the slope on the sides). Because of that, whenever the decking over the closed lazarette lid takes on water, it drains into the channel at the back and then down the side channels. When that happens, the water at the back is much higher than the water at the front and instead of draining out of the channels it simply build up and overtops the opening. The best way to deal with this is to build up the perimeter lip on the opening so that it is the same height as the back and horizontal all around. You can do this by building a simple frame with wood cut at the appropriate angle on the sides to overcome the slope and give you a horizontal surface at the top of the opening. For good measure, you can also install some weather-stripping/gasketing around the top of the frame so that the lid seals against it once it comes down. A little fiddly due to getting the angles right but actually easy to do. Good luck,

Robert,
Hunky Dory, CD22

[Paul D.]

I have this issue too. Though it's lower on the priority list, I thought a good solution would be to crawl in with a good headlamp and measuring tools, have someone close the locker and see if I could measure the gaps athwartship and fore and aft in order to build a wooden or starboard curbing and gasket the inner side of the lid.

However, I would want to add better ventilation to that locker if that was installed. Everything is in there, fridge compressor, batteries, AC charger, calorifier, echo charger, autopilot head. That locker is basically the CPU of the whole boat!

[mgphl52]

Instead of crawling to measure, you could simply get some modeling clay (even play-doh), make several piles along lip, cover with wax paper and close the lid. Then you'll have exact heights of the gap!

[tjr818]

Instead of crawling to measure, you could simply get some modeling clay (even play-doh), make several piles along lip, cover with wax paper and close the lid. Then you'll have exact heights of the gap!

Great minds...that is exactly what I did. I started with four golf ball size wads of PlayDough and then closed the lid. The back two were smashed down to about 1" tall, the front two were not even touched. Those front two balls need to be a bout the size of a tennis ball, or you could use a shim for the first inch or so and put the PlayDough golf ball on top of the shims.
when you have the final dimensions, subtract about 2/3s the thickness pf the gasket material that you will use. Build the wooden fram to size and then the wood gets screwed in from the bottom through the fiberglass lip.

[Paul D.]

Good idea. Any tip to prevent going in the hole!

[Vincent]

That’s why you have kids, you make them go in the hole. No kids? Plenty for rent on the southern border.

[hilbert]

I believe that the lids were intentionally designed to serve as ventilation for the locker . . .

I am of the opinion that hatches are designed to seal off a compartment and vents are for circulating air.

If sealing off the compartment is only a matter of adding a gasket, then it can be done with 1" strips of neoprene of varying thicknesses.
The back edge probably requires a different thickness than the front and the depth of the sides will need to vary from end to end.



For an adhesive, I used 3M 1300 Neoprene High Performance Rubber & Gasket Adhesive.



If your lids are cored, it is worthwhile to seal the holes with epoxy and re-bed the hinges to prevent core rot.

[Kickin Bears]

^^^ looks great and is what I had in mind originally (though admittedly I was thinking of putting the gasket on the deck side of box vs lid)

Any issues with mildew?