Leak

L

Laserite

New Member
Hi, I seem to have a leak. I have completed the air and soap test - still can't find the leak. The amount of water is relatively small and seems to depend on the strength of the wind, I have really only tested this theory once and it may be a coincidence - a couple of tablespoons in the light and about a cup in about 15 knots.

Does anyone have any info on where the most common leaks occur. I think that it might be in the centreboard case, near the top where the case is joind onto the hull. If I push the sides of the case it flexes a little bit, however no air seems to come out of there. I thought that under pressure from the centreboard water might enter through there.

Any help would be much appreciated. The boat is a 171 no.
 
Leaks are common amung any older Laser and can unfortunately come from about anywhere. However, I've found that when I restore older Lasers the most probobly places of leaks are the centerboard trunk and the mast step. Where the deck meets the hull one the inside of the centerboard trunk the fiberglass overlaps and are sealed together with a 3M 5200 like bond, and over time it can weeken and in high winds where water is always swirling up the trunk some can find its way into the hull. What I do is grind away that large overlap with my Dremel tool and with fiberglass matt strips make a new one. The other place I commonly find leaks is the mast step as I said earlier. In heavy winds, your mast step is under the most stress of all, and even little chips inside the tube cause by rocks or what have you, can be expanded by the extra strain and let water in. In your case, with such little water coming in, it might just be a chip in the mast step or if it gets worse you may have to get a replacement kit that sells for around $300 USD. You also should personally inspect the hull to deck joint inch by inch and any hull fittings, like the rudder gudgeons on the stern and the cockpit grab rails....both have which leaked on some of my boats prior to restoration.
 
Laserite,

My old boat was leaking and I couldn't find it until I rebuilt the self-bailer. The hull was leaking through the fitting that its screw threaded into.

Just another thought for you to look into...

US 8783
 
How do you fix a leak in the mast step with out to many hassles. The leak is at the bottom of the step as I fill it with water and within a few minutes it is empty and the boats hull has water in it. There is some teflon in the bottom to stop ware but this is stuck from the mast pressure. The boat is less than a year old so I can not understand why it would leak.
 
If the boat is less than a year old, I would contact the dealer, hopefully they and the manufacturer will cover the repair under warranty (unless you managed to get a lot of sand or dirt in the step, it sounds like a manfacturing defect.

If you have to repair it yourself, there are a couple of methods that can work, one requires adding an inspection port near the mast so you fix from the outside of the tube, the other involves adding a small amount of resin directly into the step, allowing the resin to flow into the crack(s) to seal it.

I have done both, the second is the easier of the two.

You can find more info about both on the drLaser site in the Maintenence and Fitness section

drLaser article on mast step repair with resin
 
Have a look in the mast step, underneath the little lip in the centreboard case under the gunwales in fact look everywhere!lol :D
 
What I did to fix my step leak was to mix some very thin epoxy resin, poured it in the step, and pressurized it by plunging it with a rubber ball attached to a stick. Then I used a syringe to pump the excess out. After it dried I had to sand inside the step a bit as the mast was a little tight near the bottom.
 
> After it dried I had to sand inside the step a bit as the mast was a little tight

Hi, Chris,

I fail to see exactly how your mast step got "tighter". Did you end up coating the sides with some resin, too? How could you add any significant thickness to the sides if your epoxy resin was "thinned"?

The syringe part escapes me, too. Do you mean that you poured in 1/4" or more of resin and then syringed part of it out? How much did you end up raising your mast step base?

I'm just afraid that you may have turned your Laser into a "non-Laser" without any resale value as is.

I'm sure you knew what you were doing and were careful, but based on what you wrote, I can't help having doubts.

In general, when writers cut it too short, bulletin boards can be dangerous sources of information. We can all make an effort to prevent that. Let's never forget that three years from now, a Laser owner will search for "Leak mast step" and find what we wrote here.

Cheers,

Shevy
 
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