Hi,
 
I am after a bit of advice. I have boat number 791 and it leaks water (usually about 2 pints over a day) but when its warm the boat hisses air as it expands, but there is water in there as well.
 
This makes me think that its leaking water whilst sailing and when you get it on shore the water inside blocks the leak and the air heats up and cant get out hence the hiss.
 
Does this sound likely and are there any usual places to look / that are common leak areas. I was thinking centre case but advice greatly appreciated.
 
Thanks in advance 

Hi, they normally leak between the join in hull and deck, particularly shroud area.  Pressurise and use soapy water to test. Epoxy/filler the leaks and make the breather hole in the transom bigger to allow the boat to breath more easily.
Mark

I had one last year which was in the last place that you would look, symptoms sounded similar to yours. The leak ended up being between the bung and the hull. It looked like the bung hole had been drilled too large and patched up with lots of silicon, which had degraded. Redoing the silicon gave me a perfectly dry boat. What steered me towards it was that even in super light winds I was still getting water in the boat and I couldn't find anything in the centreboard area etc.
 
Cheers
 
Alex 

Hi,

Recently purchased a boat (not in water yet) and noticed some tape around bowsprit strap, looks like strap has been changed from stainless steel to plastic. The chrome tack bar at front also has tape around edges where screws enter deck. Are these know points of entry for water? Looks like some type of filler has been used between metal and deck.

How do you pressurise the boat? bicycle pump with some type of modified bug plug? Wheres the breather hole?..is there a smoke pellet you can pop in there?

Sorry for all the questions new owner/sailer of old boat!

Appreciated

Harry

I not sure a smoke pellet will work very well inside a damp boat. Tension up the boat, stick a bit of tape over the breather hole (under the top rudder fitting on my boat) and cover it in soapy water. I use a hose with a enough insulation tape wrapped around so it is larger than the hole and then press it against the hole. 

Its much easier with 2 people but I have found if you stick a load of tape over most of the hole first and then use the hose, it is possible to stick a bit of tape over the last bit and seal in some pressure while you run around looking for bubbles. Don't over pressurise the boat - it only needs one big breath. 

I have been surprised at how much water can leak under fittings (back to that cooling the boat surface when you capsize that sucks the water in). On my boat when I first had it, I discovered under a cleat older holes that had not been filled when the fitting was moved a bit and that really seem to suck it in.

I'm also a huge fan of using plexus rather than epoxy or silicone as it really sticks to the boat and is easy to file and will take a screw direct. I'm also using it to repair foil edges at it is harder, quicker and easier to use than gel coat - shame it goes yellow but hey.
   

Harry - A photo of the bow and its straps may be helpful. There should be 2 metal loops on the front of the bow that hold the pole when it is extended and a plastic strap further back that just guides the pole when it comes in - the plastic one does get modified with tubing and cable ties etc. Sounds scary if either of the front ones are now plastic. All the screw heads are covered to stop the fibres in the kite from snagging underneath. Everything needs to be rock solid though so if they are loose you need to solve that. My own preference is to take off the fitting, remove anything loose and then fill everything with MA300 plexus including pumping a bit down the hole. After it cures, you can just re-drill the holes. Suspect you can do it with other gloop too. If the front metal hoops, the bow bar or shroud mountings are loose, that could be a bit more serious but there are other on the forums that can help if that is the case. 

 Adrian, sorry I haven't been on this forum in a while just seeing this now, a few pictures of bowsprit attached. When I removed the tape it looks like a previous repair had been made, structurally there's no movement in the u bolt. I see on the LDC site there is an upgraded U bolt, take it its a larger diameter 6mm to 8mm? I'm going to remove u bolt and gel coat the point and use that high strength epoxy as you mentioned and redrill holes.. The second metal bracket seems to be fine, and the one at the inner end of the bowsprit is plastic which is ok too.
 
Thanks for your reply
 
Harry 

..update on removing the bowspit I could see where some of the gel coat had cracked, on tapping with my hand along the channel it was hollow sounding and more gelcoat was removed, kind of delaminated from the fibre layer so had to remove about 8 or 10 inches along it. The guy fixing it said there was a slight incline or dip which could have been there from the time of manufacture, for now just building up the layers with gelcoat.