[C320-list] Water Leak

[Allan Field]

Kurt - I would be surprised that the leak is coming from where the tube goes
into the flange of the deck-mounted collar as that joint is at least one
inch above the deck - seems to me it would take a lot of water to enter at
that joint.  More than likely, water is leaking around the base of the
deck-mounted collar.  If this is the case (easy enough to determine; remove
the box in the overhead of the aft cabin, run water around the deck fitting
and see what comes in), then you need to lift the collar and seal around it.


Sea Shadow came with a ton of caulk in the port side tube.  The caulk was
packed in the hole in the deck around the wires coming down the tube.  I had
to remove this caulk in order to run an additional cable.  Despite using
rubber tipped mechanic picks, I still managed to damage every cable in the
tube and wound up re-splicing every one of them.  The point is that I
reluctantly decided to make sure I had a very good seal around the base
before re-mounting and took a pass on re-caulking the hole in the deck
knowing that at some point in the future, I probably would need to remove
that caulk again, somewhere I don't want to go again.  Of course, a downside
of doing it this way is the risk of cable chafe.

If you are not comfortable non-caulking, an option is to get the wires out
of the hole, drill the hole much bigger, fill the hole with resin and let it
cure, then re-drill a hole large enough to take the cables.  This won't
prevent future water leaks from leaking into the box in the aft cabin
overhead but will prevent that water from migrating into the deck core.

But if the leak really is coming around where the tube enters the flange,
you can run a bead of caulk around the fitting and use the mechanic picks to
remove in the future if necessary.

Hope this helps.

Allan S. Field
Sea Shadow - #808
Columbia, MD

-----Original Message-----
From: c320-list-bounces at catalina320.com
[mailto:c320-list-bounces at catalina320.com] On Behalf Of Kurt Budelmann
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 8:49 AM
To: C320-List
Subject: [C320-list] Water Leak

When washing off "gifts from heaven" in the cockpit water leaked into the
aft cabin.  I located the leak around the binnacle tubing where it fits into
the fitting collar on the sole of the cockpit.  The water leaks between the
tubing and the flange of the collar through the holes into the steering box
where the wires go through.  Any suggestions as to how to seal the space
between the two pieces of stainless steel?   It has to be a reversible seal.

__
Kurt Budelmann
Everwind, Catalina 320, #1035