MacGregorSailors.com

Starscream wrote:Water can only get in from a few places:

Ballast cracked: eliminated
Ballast vent: eliminated
Thru-hull: I'm still betting this is your problem.
Waves coming down the companionway: would be obvious.
Hull: A crack? A transducer drilled through the hull? Unlikely.
Rain: Eliminated
How else?

Other below/near the waterline areas to consider...transom motor bracket bolts, compression post base atop centerboard trunk, centerboard hangar strap bolt, and area of hull notch for centerboard pivot pin.

Using the Murphy's Law method... it'll be the least accessible, least convenient thing to find and work on!

Check the archives for Catigale's story on his compression post leak issue.

K9Kampers wrote:

Starscream wrote: Other below/near the waterline areas to consider...transom motor bracket bolts, compression post base atop centerboard trunk, centerboard hangar strap bolt, and area of hull notch for centerboard pivot pin.

How do I get at these components?

Tea coloured water would suggest that the water is spending some time in the bilge and picking up a slight stain, the little bit of water I get in the bilge due to various small window leaks etc usually ends up slightly brown.

What I have found is that water that gets between the cabin roof and the liner can actually come out almost anywhere, for example I have a small crack in the glass on the starboard cockpit seat, but the water comes out near the transom, you have no idea how long it took me to track that sucker down, I thought it was the usual leak in the engine well, but on much much further investigation and head scratching finally found the culprit, now just for the nasty job of reglassing that sucker of a crack from the inside

DaveC426913 wrote: How do I get at these components?

The motor bracket and anything else thru bolted on the transom is accessed behind the flimsy panel at the back of the under cockpit berth.

The compression post is the vertical SS post next to the dine table in the cabin. Towards its base is a plexiglass cover that needs to be pried up - it's secured with caulking. Revealed will be were the post base is secured to the centerboard trunk. The centerboard hangar strap bolt is forward of the compression post, accessed in the underseat storage of the v-berth.

For a reference illustration of everything associated with the centerboard trunk, download any of the manuals from the Resources section of this forum.

Did you check the henwiegh yet?

K9Kampers wrote:Did you check the henwiegh yet?

First thing I checked of course.

Checked the head through hull. Dry as a bone.

sailboatmike wrote: What I have found is that water that gets between the cabin roof and the liner can actually come out almost anywhere, for example I have a small crack in the glass on the starboard cockpit seat, but the water comes out near the transom, you have no idea how long it took me to track that sucker down, I thought it was the usual leak in the engine well, but on much much further investigation and head scratching finally found the culprit, now just for the nasty job of reglassing that sucker of a crack from the inside

Great. Just great.

What I'm hearing is that any part of the entire topsides - any part at all - is suspect.

This is quite possible, as my cockpit seats are a bit spongy, and I've suspected f or along time that they have cracks.

That's why I stopped powerwashing her.

K9Kampers wrote:The centerboard hangar strap bolt is forward of the compression post, accessed in the underseat storage of the v-berth.

I thought it was accessed under the starboard settee, not the V berth. No?

DaveC426913 wrote:Great. Just great.

What I'm hearing is that any part of the entire topsides - any part at all - is suspect.

This is quite possible, as my cockpit seats are a bit spongy, and I've suspected f or along time that they have cracks.

That's why I stopped powerwashing her.

I think you can narrow it down considerably in your case. Isn't your issue happening only after a sail where the boat is healed? Indicating it is a thru hull issue of some kind and not rainwater?

Or can it be that you are collecting rainwater from behind the liner, and after a sail, the water is being displaced and becomes visible in your bilge?

That's right Paul

To access the compression post, you have to pop off the smoked plastic cover that is glued to the ridge on the floor of the table area.

Sorry, my pictures have been screwed by photobucket so I'm still struggling with a new solution.

paul I wrote:

K9Kampers wrote:The centerboard hangar strap bolt is forward of the compression post, accessed in the underseat storage of the v-berth.

I thought it was accessed under the starboard settee, not the V berth. No?

Yes, that would be under the forward starboard sette. It is about a foot fwd of the post.

I called it v-berth as on my boat, everything fwd of the dine table is used as a berth.

I mentioned the hull notch for the centerboard pivot pin only because I could imagine chaffing between the metal and fiberglass there, NOT because I have any reference of that ever happening. I mention that bolt because like any bolt-thru-the-hull, could develop a potential leak source.

And while we are at it, the chainplates are thru-bolted in the upper hull.

The water incursion seems to have stopped as mysteriously as it started.

A few weeks ago, I pumped out every last bit of bilge, then dried it out with a cloth, just so I could see immediately when and where water was starting to trickle in.

I've been out several times, under various conditions, and it is still dry as a bone.

Yesterday, I scrubbed down the entire bucket from gunwales to floor with cleaner and lots of running water - a virtual guarantee that water should have gotten in somewhere - yet still not a single drop in the bilge.

Mysteriouer and mysteriouser.

My current theories:

1] Great Lakes water levels are highest at the start of the season, and lowest in September. The water level has dropped enough that no more water can get in.

2] The water molecules outside the hull are seeing the water molecules in the hull as trapped prisoners and are mounting frequent rescue attempts. Once I mopped up every bit of water in the bilge, their brethren stopped their nightly forays and called a truce.

Rain?