Slight water leak (salt)

[john lewis]

Hi all i noticed the other day, under the stairs, looking back towards the stern, just in front of were the rudder shaft comes through,a small egg cup basin, full af salt water, so sponged it out, till it was dry, it took about a week, for water to form their again, not a lot about three to four ml, Has any one experienced this before?
Cheers John Lewis

[auriga]

John

I had the same issue, mine turned out to be a leaking bolt from the a bolt on the transorm, a little rain would seep through over a period of time and mixed with the general levels of salt in the cabin/deck to taste salty

If i were you id do a quick check of all the fittings in the stern after it rains and see if you can pinpoint the leak, if not it may be something else!

dan

[Tales]

Hi John,
Leaks can be very tricky to find.
If you dry it out next trip and sprinkle talcum powder around the water might leave a track when it does it again.
Cheers,
Tom

[john lewis]

Found the leak staunchion pole dripping when raining!!

[Shaun]

Good detective work John,
I have a couple of staunchion bases with the same problem...
& the fix i presume would be to remove the base, & squirt a pad of Sikaflex (or other?), nip up the nuts on the bolts finger tight...then let the Sika go off for a day or two & nip up the nuts from below, making sure that the bolt doesnt spin(2 person job) & break Sika bond around it, thats assuming you can get to the nuts below...
Anyone know a better way to do it?

cheers
shaun

[john lewis]

I just run a bead of silicone around the base of the pole and a bit over the screw holes,works every time.
Cheers John (oberon11) Belmont South

[Tales]

If the stanchion base is a reasonable fit to the deck I recomend remove stanchion, clean up and seal with Sikkaflex and tightnen bolts. If you leave a flexible pad beneath, the stanchion will move and eventually leak again.
If the stanchion is not a good fit, either shape it to fit or make a pad of filled epoxy beneath and seal as above when it is set.
Cheers,
Tom