Water leak below port bulkhead

[Windancer808]

Aloha All,

I have not posted in a while. My Cal -2-30 has undergone extensive refurbishing in the last 3 years and I thought I was ok for a while, until I noticed water entry below the port bulkhead. It looks as if the water is coming from the wood sandwiched between the 2 glass sheets. Has anyone experienced the same issue? I do not see any wet areas inside the boat from hardware attachments in the area. Could it be from a bad or leaking hull to deck joint? I have a rub strip all around the boat and don't want to rip it off unless I am sure the it needs to come off. The Cal 2-30 has a gap in the toe rail in that same area. Does anyone know if the hull to deck joint could be the culprit? If so, how do I go about fixing it. You would think the joint does not have any vertical gaps when attached to the hull.

Thank you for any input. I appreciate your advice.

Joe Hillje
s/v Kuulei

C:\Users\JoeHi\AppData\Local\Temp\4fb46eac-6cb6-4b12-b9b5-04042a5c30c9_cal.zip.0c9\IMG_3574.jpg
C:\Users\JoeHi\AppData\Local\Temp\8a076ba9-1113-41ef-ab76-b4ccf35ef197_cal.zip.197\IMG_3575.jpg

[rcvesselstyn]

Hi Joe. your pictures did not come through and they would be very helpful to make some educated guesses. The deck to hull seam is bolted and then glassed. The leaks that I have seen in the past were related to impact, but now possibly just age related stresses. Odd though that it would leak in only one spot without impact damage. The first thing my mind went to was a leak further up that just shows lower. Specifically the chain plate. water can travel along the margin of the bulkhead till it finds a exit point below. If the leak is indeed at the deck hull seam it is not a killer job if you can just pull the rubrail off in a small location. It will depend on how brittle the rubrail has become. I look forward to your photos.

[Windancer808]

Thank you for your reply. I got to find out why the pictures did not go through. Nonetheless they just show the spot right below the aft wooden bulkhead where the water enters into my newly painted cupboards. Looked at another CAL 2-30 yesterday. The owner showed me where he applied 5200 sealant to stop the same leak in the gap between the rub rail and the toe rail. I have done so thing morning and we'll see if that did the trick, albeit a temporary fix. The rub rail is coming off when I haul out in April. Also a good time to reseal and look at the chain plates again. I have done extensive removal of the core on the stb side and it's dry. Time to go back to work on the port side. Unfortunately that core is a big problem on these old boats. Aside from that they are build like tanks compared to today's yachts where you can see through the hull with a flashlight.

Thank you for your input!
Joe Hillje
s/v Kuulei
Honolulu

[rcvesselstyn]

Without the pictures I was thinking of the main bulkhead so my theory was less than accurate. It sounds like the suspected leak would be about at the area of the scupper, the gap in the toe rail. I personally have issues with the 5200. Their motto of "sticks anything to anything, forever" indicates what a pita it is to take apart when the time comes. If you find you need a source for a new rub rail we do have a couple of places on the site. Hopefully the sealant will do the trick.

[Windancer808]

Unfortunately the 5200 did not do the trick. I still have the leak and am now chasing each deck penetration from stern to bow. My windows need resealing as well, but should not be the culprit as the top of the deck appears to be solid glass, or am I mistaken? Does anyone know where the coring stops?

A slip neighbor suggested using a pancake air pump to blow air into the space where the water exits, which in theory should produce enough airflow to produce bubbles on the top after rubbing some Dawn dishwashing soap on it. But even that produced no results.

[rcvesselstyn]

Well one of our primitive ways of finding a source of a leak involves a roll of paper towels and some patience. You cram paper towels into every nook and cranny near the leak. We even go so far as to tape little pieces of paper towel to some of the flat surfaces so we can track the trace of water. Then hose off the boat and check the paper towels repeatedly. Really old school and time consuming but it might give you an indication of where the leak originates.

[rcvesselstyn]

Once you found where the water is coming through down below hopefully it will make it easier to find where it's coming through on the deck.

[Windancer808]

Thank you rcvesselstyn. I have now resealed the first 4 penetrations and they are watertight. Going forward I noticed a suspicious area around the first chain plate that reads wet with the moisture meter and feels damp from the inside of the cabin. Good thing I kept a quarter sheet of 3/16" Koosa Board initially bought when we did the starboard side. Koosa board is great to replace larger areas of wet wood underneath the first layer of glass. Combined with "Splash Zone", which bonds to we surfaces it does get the job done. When I did the stb side deck I unfortunately listened to someone who suggested to cut into the wet areas from the inside. In my opinion that was bad advice. Not only is it very messy, it is also difficult to get pressure on it from underneath. With the help of several bottle neck jacks and wooden blocks from old pallets I finally got the bad areas sealed.

Having said that, even cutting into the deck from the outside one has to be careful to not accidentally cut right through. It's like pressing a warm knife into butter. In any case worst thing that can happen is that you have to fair from both sides. Done right, you won't have problems after that. Just my 2 cents for anyone reading this and attempting to do the repair. Any vintage vessel with cored decks will likely encounter this issue, unless you get lucky and the previous owner had already fixed it.

Aloha,
Joe
s/v Kuulei