Stormy Weather
20 08 2009 Posted by Daniel
Hello again! Lauren and I sat out the tropical storm “Claudette” while below decks in our new boat, and while it wasn’t at all a scary experience let’s just say I was keeping myself as aware as possible of what was going on in and around her. Lauren was trying to stay cool despite the sweltering humidity, and we found a very noisy but effective cabin fan that was our saving grace. With all the ports and hatches closed, and fully disconnected from shore power (no lovely huge fan to suck all the hot air out of the boat!) we really had to get creative with ways to beat the heat and humidity. New, quieter, fans are presently on order (from the folks at Hotwire Enterprises, their fans came highly recommended).
When you’re in a storm that’s dumping about an inch of water every few minutes onto your deck and continues to do so for several hours in a sustained manner, you notice very quickly where all the leaks in the cabin are. We found only four, really. The most annoying was the forward hatch right over our bed, which also happened to be the worst leak. The previous owners did not hide this leak from us, but boy, they weren’t joking either. We had to go topside in the middle of the storm pretty much wearing swimwear, and lash down a tarp over the hatch. We did such a good job with that tarp (she hardly moved despite the intense wind) that we left it on when we left the ship, just to prevent any further rainfall from soaking into the cabin. In the meantime, I’m actively soliciting information on how to fix a leak that’s coming from between the acrylic clear “window” and the upper frame (fortunately this one is NOT seeming to leak from around the base of the hatch and deck joint). The other leak that concerned me was from the deadlight directly over the chart table. Since its a deadlight, this one is in fact leaking from the frame/cabintop joint, which concerns me, but the surveyor had not found significant moisture penetration into the core in that area, so I am hoping this is just another case of failed sealant. The other two leaks were typical: water seeping down the wiring that goes up the mast, and water seeping through a port light with an aging seal. We didn’t find any others, and we looked about as many places as we could easily access. In addition, the bilge pumps didn’t even get enough water in the bilge to be able to pump it out, which I suppose is a very good situation to be in.
On another topic, Lauren and I are beginning to think about the various things we would like to add to the ship, and a bimini/dodger is definitely high on the priority list. We know very little about good companies who can do this level of custom fabrication so we’d love to hear what you all have to say about that. And of course, we are thinking about how to fit a shower into the head (it has a grate and a drain for one, but no graywater tank and no pressurized freshwater system), get a hot water heater installed, put solar panels on the boat (along with new AGM batteries)… etc etc etc. You get the picture.
Our next immediate priority, though, is getting her old name off, so that we can properly rename her. Due to the storm we were not even able to really get a good look at her markings and determine if they were paint or vinyl. Either way, we need a nice sunny day with no rain for us to be able to sand off the letters (if its paint) or use a heat gun and peel them off if they are vinyl, and the previous owner was nice enough to letter both sides as well as her stern! Oy! So much work!
Anyways, its getting late and I have stuff to do to prepare for our next visit to the lovely girl.
Categories : My BoatWhen you’re in a storm that’s dumping about an inch of water every few minutes onto your deck and continues to do so for several hours in a sustained manner, you notice very quickly where all the leaks in the cabin are. We found only four, really. The most annoying was the forward hatch right over our bed, which also happened to be the worst leak. The previous owners did not hide this leak from us, but boy, they weren’t joking either. We had to go topside in the middle of the storm pretty much wearing swimwear, and lash down a tarp over the hatch. We did such a good job with that tarp (she hardly moved despite the intense wind) that we left it on when we left the ship, just to prevent any further rainfall from soaking into the cabin. In the meantime, I’m actively soliciting information on how to fix a leak that’s coming from between the acrylic clear “window” and the upper frame (fortunately this one is NOT seeming to leak from around the base of the hatch and deck joint). The other leak that concerned me was from the deadlight directly over the chart table. Since its a deadlight, this one is in fact leaking from the frame/cabintop joint, which concerns me, but the surveyor had not found significant moisture penetration into the core in that area, so I am hoping this is just another case of failed sealant. The other two leaks were typical: water seeping down the wiring that goes up the mast, and water seeping through a port light with an aging seal. We didn’t find any others, and we looked about as many places as we could easily access. In addition, the bilge pumps didn’t even get enough water in the bilge to be able to pump it out, which I suppose is a very good situation to be in.
On another topic, Lauren and I are beginning to think about the various things we would like to add to the ship, and a bimini/dodger is definitely high on the priority list. We know very little about good companies who can do this level of custom fabrication so we’d love to hear what you all have to say about that. And of course, we are thinking about how to fit a shower into the head (it has a grate and a drain for one, but no graywater tank and no pressurized freshwater system), get a hot water heater installed, put solar panels on the boat (along with new AGM batteries)… etc etc etc. You get the picture.
Our next immediate priority, though, is getting her old name off, so that we can properly rename her. Due to the storm we were not even able to really get a good look at her markings and determine if they were paint or vinyl. Either way, we need a nice sunny day with no rain for us to be able to sand off the letters (if its paint) or use a heat gun and peel them off if they are vinyl, and the previous owner was nice enough to letter both sides as well as her stern! Oy! So much work!
Anyways, its getting late and I have stuff to do to prepare for our next visit to the lovely girl.
