Leak Half Fixed

A

Alan Zametkin

New Member
I have a oldish Laser. I recently noticed A LOT of water (10 minutes drain time) in the hull. Read a lot of posts and 95 percent solved the problem by taping up bottom of hull where the bailer outlet is with rubberized Gorilla Tape made for underwater uses.. Here is the strange part: After putting the boat in the water to test the above FIX (it worked very well) there appears water (a cup or two approx) in the cockpit!!. I had plugged securely the inlet of the bailer before putting the boat back in the water..
#1.WHERE IS THE WATER in the Cockpit coming from?
#2 I assume the big problem is the so called "bushing" in the bailer housing... Where do I get one and and a place (youtube??) telling me how to install.
Thanks in advance... Alan Z
 
some of the really old boats had a plastic fitting for the drain which can crack/break away and allow water ingress through the bondo-type stuff they glue that part of the cockpit and hull together with. Laser dealers sell replacement brass fittings: DRAIN PLUG COCKPIT BRASS, but if the boat already has a metal fitting there then you can simply re-use it.

Remove the self bailer if it has one, then the nut for the brass fitting is removed from the hull-side. Push the fitting out into the cockpit area and you will find crumbled bondo/filler in the joint between the cockpit and hull. I dig out the bondo and repack the area with new fibreglass/resin to seal it up. A dremel tool is really handy for cleaning out the old bondo, and then for also making the hole round again for the fitting after it's glassed up. Install the brass fitting with some sikaflex and that particular leak should be fixed. The screw for the self-bailer goes straight into the hull from underneath also, so it's important to seal that well with sikaflex or similar when re-installing.

Other common leak places are the rudder gudgeon screws, top of the centerboard case to deck joint (same sort of bondo used there), the bottom of the mast step and then the deck to hull gunwale joint where it's also glued together with the bondo stuff. With a bit of work you can get back to a watertight boat :)
 
Do the above. The water that is still coming into the boat is likely due to the fact that Gorilla tape was used. It's tough stuff, but it's no substitute for a legitimate fix with epoxy and/or proper sealant/bedding compound. Best of luck!
 
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