By Rich

There is plenty going on down at the boatyard and in the shop. Much of the salon’s headliner has been taken down to chase a variety of small leaks. 

We gave Seb a winter blanket to keep her warm at night, and to improve working conditions. 

Our diesel mechanic pulled off the transmission to access the worn-out damper plate. 

I got a start pulling out and re-bedding the opening portholes. The one below leaked again after I re-bed it a couple of weeks ago, so it had to come out again. That was frustrating, but I learned a great deal about how to do a better job. 

After reading some guides online, I have learned not to seal the inside edge of the porthole where it mates with the headliner. If water gets that far in, you’d rather know about the leak anyway. 

Below: evidence that the portholes sealant had been patched without fully re bedding the portholes. The strip of sealer on the left is from the bottom of the porthole. The dirt on the sealant shows how far water had been making past the outside edge of the sealer toward the interior. The two strips to the right are both from the top of the porthole. The original strip is in the middle; the lighter one on the right was added later when someone tried to stop a leak by cutting out some of the original seal from the outside and adding this new strip. When we bought the boat the porthole didn’t leak in the rain, but did leak when the boat was being sailed. That’s not a very effective fix for a sailboat, now is it?

Below: although the boat is wrapped, I carefully sealed the holes where the portholes normally live. It was a good thing I did: in heavy rains this Tuesday I learned that small amounts of rainwater do indeed make it through the shrink wrap boat cover and water would have gotten inside. 

Below: an assembly of parts to be worked on during dark weeknights in the shop. I’ve learned that work on the boat is fine on the weekends, but I hate cold, dark nights in the boatyard. The shop is a much nicer evening work environment.