Leak at top aft of daggerboard trunk

C

Chris123

New Member
My boat has a leak at the aft end of the daggerboard trunk (discovered by soaping the hull and blowing through the drain plug hole) I've looked on drlaser and on the laser list archives and haven't found much specific about this problem.

The aft end of the daggerboard trunk is too skinny to get even my little finger in there to probe around, so I can't really tell if I have a crack in the trunk or just a minor failure of sealant where the top of the trunk joins the deck. I'm assuming it's the latter since the leak seems to be right at the top of the trunk.

There's an inspection port located where I can get my hand to the aft edge of the trunk. There's about an inch of clearance between the aft end of the trunk and the front wall of the cockpit, so not much room to feel around, but the glass in there feels original and intact.

Should I just use a butter knife or summat to mush a little sealant in there and hope for the best, or is this a known sort of failure for which I ought to be doing something more substantial?

Thanks
 
I have been told that the butterknife trick can work. Once plastered on you can use a rag with a little acetone to clean up the residue from around where the split/crack is.
 
I had an old boat that leaked like a sieve from around where the deck joins the hull, in the centreboard case. My suggestion:

Go to your local pharmacy/doctor and get a (some) big syringe(s) (free if ya ask nice!)
Go to the supermarket and get some flexible drinking straws, or the hardware store for some plastic flexible tubing.
Whilst at the hardware store get some epoxy.
Go home, place a piece of tape over the vent hole in the forward end of the cockpit, and turn your boat upside-down. Rest it on something relatively high, as you will be working under the boat from below. Make sure its stable and wont fall on you! Try to get the levels inside of the centreboard case horizontal, you will see why soon!

Mix up a thin batch of epoxy and fill the syringe. Fit the straw/tubing to the syringe and from below carefully squeeze some epoxy into the lip of the centreboard case.

Now the disgusting part: instead of blowing up the boat through the bung hole, suck out the air to draw a vacuum inside the hull to suck a little bit of the expoxy into the gaps. Don't suck too hard! An OLD vacuum with little power works, but dont use a new suck-start-a-harley vacuum cleaner else you will just suck all the glue into the hull and the gaps will still be there!

Leave to cure for 24 hours, and do it again, and again and again until when you try to suck in the expoxy, you cannot! Your hull should now be watertight, and gastight!

Hope this helps.
 
Myself I would rather determine the exact source of the leak before attempting repair, the lower aft corner of the centreboard may have been forced into the top back corner of the case when the board is only a few inches into the case and pushed the case away from the deck lip or cracked the top of the case. To get a better look at what is going on aim a bright light source at the area from inside the hull, be careful they can get hot, do the job at night, turn the lights off in the shed and carefully probe around the affected area, a long screw driver with a small ball of tape on the end will do the job. If you cant open a crack up to reveal a sliver of bright light I would continue with your semi random epoxy filler repair, maybe even suck it in to the area with a very slight vacuum applied to the hull to make sure it finds its way home. If it is cracked you will have to glass tape it from the inside, forcing some epoxy into the crack prior. I wouldn't stop drill the crack prior to repair, you don’t want to weaken it further, the stress on the case is taken by the deck and hull, not the sides.
Have fun,
Darryn
169711
South Australia
 
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