When I bought "Emerald" CD-28 four years ago, she had been allowed to leak from the decks for several years. The woodwork inside showed the damage pretty clearly. Of course I wanted to get this cleared up. It had lead to degeneration of my chainplates so I started there and replaced/reinforced them. I rebedded all the stanchions and any fitting that I was able to remove. While this was a good start it didn't solve the problem and even a heavy dew would cause my old girl to leak onto the self behind the settee. I finally contemplated removing my toe rail and with much trepidation remove the plugs, screws and pried it up. I was horrified to say the least. The wood was still in very good condition, but everything underneath was soaking wet. I was appalled at the gaps I found in the hull/deck joint. Anyway, I thoroughly cleaned all the old bedding from under the toe rail. There is a channel that runs underneath which traps any water that does find its way there (design flaw?). It was all cleaned properly, then rebedded with Boatlife caulk and screwed back down. I thought I had it, but nope. It still leaked. I had not applied enough caulk to entirely fill the channel and so water had found its way in again. Once more I removed the toe rail and repeated the process. Again I was fooled into thinking I had fixed the problem, but, NO, not yet. Finally I removed the toe rail for the third time. This time I used a different caulking. I went to an RV/Trailer supply and bought a roll of "putty tape". This is the stuff used by RVers to seal around their windows and doors, etc. My father had convinced me that this was the cure. He's an old RVer from way back. Amazing that the old man can still teach the Kid a few tricks, ha! The stuff comes in various widths and I used both the 3/4 in. and the 1 in. I recommend the 1 inch. The stuff completely filled any voids under the toe rail. I was able to pull the toe rail down tightly with the screws and then easily trim the excess putty with my jackknife. I suggest the best time to do this is in cool weather. Once it gets 90+ I expect my putty to be more compressable and to need additional trimming. We'll see. In the end, I made this fix last November and have watched for water leakage ever since. None has appeared, not even when we recently had some torrential rains. Hooray! I am so convinced that I have finally solved this problem that I spent the winter redoing the woodwork and cusions in my cabins. I removed all the cedar slats and refinished them. I had to rebuild the shelves. I had new cushions made for both cabins. You should see that baby now. What a differnce! Anyway, the leakage is a problem I fought for a long time and I suspect there are others out there with similar situations. If anyone requires further elaboration, please feel free to contact me. I don't check this site very often, so feel free to contact me directly at my email address.
Fair Winds,
Craig Scott
s/v "Emerald", CD-28, Hull #200
Crisfield, MD
rphscott@aol.com
rphscott@aol.com
Solving Deck Leaks-My Solution
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