Leaky laser

S

Steven

New Member
After not sailing my laser for 5 years I've noticed that in heavy or light air that there is a significant amount of water to drain once back on land. My mast step does not leak as there is the same level of water when I come back to the boat a week later.

there are no cracks in the hull, so where is the water coming in from?
 
My boat did the same thing. What I did was connect an air compressor to the back drain plug and went around with sopey water. I found out that it leaked in the copit drain. To fix that all I did was take the fitting out and smear it with silacon.
 
43575 said:
My boat did the same thing. What I did was connect an air compressor to the back drain plug and went around with sopey water. I found out that it leaked in the copit drain. To fix that all I did was take the fitting out and smear it with silacon.
Click to expand...

Be very gentle with the compressor thing. If you consider that the deck area is maybe (guessing wildly) 40 square feet, or 5760 square inches, then putting even as little as 1 pound per square inch (1 psi) of air pressure into the hull will apply a force of well over 2 tons to the hull/deck joint.

I've found leaks just by blowing (with my lungs) into the drain hole while someone else soaps the boat.

Apologies to the rest of the world for my use of English units, but you get the idea.
 
when I took out the cockpit drain fitting it fits through a solid piece of fiberglass about a 6mm thick so I can not see any water seeping into the haul (into the cockpit I understand)
 
you might want to check where your daggerboard is on the bottom, i have seen boats leak in from there because they have the daggerboard down and go onto a beach and it can crack it.
 
You may have a point on this idea...before I put my laser in storage for 4 years I did hit a large rock that stopped the boat dead. I had to repair the bottom of the daggerboard and the trailing edge that got dented as it took the impact against the daggerboard trunk. I have not checked for cracks in that area, there are none however on the gelcoat on the hull
 
Steven said:
when I took out the cockpit drain fitting it fits through a solid piece of fiberglass about a 6mm thick so I can not see any water seeping into the haul (into the cockpit I understand)
Click to expand...

It's not really a solid piece of fiberglass about 6mm thick. It's two pieces of fiberglass, each about 3mm thick, pressed against each other and sealed together -- one layer belongs to the cockpit; the other belongs to the outer hull. If they have come apart from each other, it might be indicative of a major problem (see the archives) or it might just be something you can fix with a little resin.
 
theres also one problem that i had with my old boat when your sailing ur boat twists and turns so therefore a small littel pin prick in the wrong/rite (depending on which way u look at it) could lead to a hole about the size of the width of a pencil.

hope that helps
p.s. a pin hole wont always show up so make sure ur thorough.
p.s.s. sorry for the english but ive been flow coating all day.:)
 
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