Water under 31 Cutter cabin flooring can't escape to bilge

[Chris Shultz]

We have water under our main cabin flooring that does not seem to have a way down to our bilge. As we can find no other reason, we believe it came down our mast and settled into the step area during a heavy rainstorm. We can fix the leak by installing a tire material around it like suggested by a fellow CD 31 owner. But this creates 3 questions that we would like answered, 1) does anyone know if there is there a blocked drainhole that is under the floor between the mast base and the bilge that can be reached and opened, whereas ours was filled up to the floorboards and was even seeping up into the cabin through the port berth support rod hole, 2) if there is any wiring under there which seems somewhat likely, will it need to be replaced and 3) is there any remedy to this situation short of ripping up the floor boards? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.



oversear@nh.ultranet.com

[Tom]

Chris, On my 31 there is a hole on the aft side of the mast step box. Water that comes down the mast, if any, would run out through that hole and into the bilge before it got an eighth inch deep. Actually I've never had enough water in the mast step box to show. When I pulled the mast this year I did have a couple of feet of water standing inside the mast. I drilled a weep hole at the bottom of the mast on the side so this couldn't happen again. If you get a mirror with a long handle and a flashlight so that you can reach below the shower sump box, you can see back in there. As I recall there isn't any place for water to be trapped under the floors. I drilled a hole through the side of the mast step box to accept the new radar cable and then put a snake through it and back to the sink area where I brought the cable up. It was completely clear all the way with no bulkheads or things to trap water. It looks to me like Cape Dory just put a piece of plywood veneer down and glassed it to the hull. The mast step box supports it forward along with the bulkhead at the forepeak entrance and at the rear the shower sump box supports it at the joint by the sink. Outside of that it's open to the bilge. Are you sure the water is coming IN from the mast step? You could have a leaking water tank and the water is running to the mast step raher than the other way round. The krakor tanks tend to crack at the hose bibs and when heeled this will allow water to collect under the bunks and run out from under the sink.

There are wires that run under the cabin sole. You can see a fistful of them alongside the shower sump when you open that little hatch. But they just hang in space and wouldn't normally be underwater unless you had the bilge filled to the sole. Not likely you'd have to replace them and certainly not from having water run from under the bunks. Your drain hole at the rear of the mast step box might be clogged with fuzz and causing the box to fill up. Your mast might be full of water and draining into this area slowly keeping it wet. My theory is that when it rains heavily rain water gets past the sheaves in the masthead cap and collects inside the mast rather than running down the outside of the mast and getting past your mast boot. Either way it shouldn't ever build up in the box. Hope this helps. Tom

We have water under our main cabin flooring that does not seem to have a way down to our bilge. As we can find no other reason, we believe it came down our mast and settled into the step area during a heavy rainstorm. We can fix the leak by installing a tire material around it like suggested by a fellow CD 31 owner. But this creates 3 questions that we would like answered, 1) does anyone know if there is there a blocked drainhole that is under the floor between the mast base and the bilge that can be reached and opened, whereas ours was filled up to the floorboards and was even seeping up into the cabin through the port berth support rod hole, 2) if there is any wiring under there which seems somewhat likely, will it need to be replaced and 3) is there any remedy to this situation short of ripping up the floor boards? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

TomCambria@mindspring.com

[Ann and David Brownlee]

We had this problem on our CD 27: water that leaked into the cabin found its way between the wooden cabin sole and the fiberglas substrate. The only way to get it out was to suck it up with a drinking straw through the holes cut through the sole for the dowels that pinned the legs of the folding table in place. I imagine one could drill those holes clear through the fiberglas to promote drainage. (On the CD 31, the comparable holes are for the legs that support the extended bunk.)

Ann and David Brownlee
CD31 #1 Windrush
Havre de Grace, MD



abrownle@sas.upenn.edu