Small leak in hull

I

inlandfreddy

Member
Last October I bought my first laser 167 xxx, when I first examined it and opened the one hatch on it, it was pressurized, at that time I thought it was a good sign that i should be free from leaks. But as I started to sail it, small amounts of water, a deciliter or so was found in it after every time.

I wonder when it held pressure from becoming sun heated i the morning will I find any leaks with soap bubble test?

When I realized that the hull from production has o little hole for realesing pressure I found it closed with some kind of filler, and opened it up, and can't see that, that changed the leak.

Any thoughts?
 
if that little breather hole was blocked you could have burst bonding paste out of a seam and that is one of the reasons why you should never leave the bung in the boat so check the gunwhales and the bailer the fittings should all be sealed on with silicone and therefore should not leak you could also fill your mast pot with water to check it holds but I doubt the pot would have gone on a late 90's boat
 
if there is a leak you'll see bubbles, be sure to use low pressure for leak testing otherwise you can damage the hull

check all the seams, centerboard trunk, bailor, all fittings, and especially inspection ports
 
Thanks for Your answers!

Almost 4 months later, having tried with a soap bubble test without any result. Having refitted and sealed the drain plug, gudgeons, and the auto bailer including the brass fitting all without any change. Also checked the mast step by filling it with water.

Further idea is to seal the centerboard trunk with tape put the hull in water and load the cockpit with 80-100 kg and leave it a couple of hours and then if dry take the tape away and do the same thing again. Then i'm out of ideas.

I could recheck the autobailer by taping it inside and outside so my refit is OK.

One thought is that the leak is load dependent somehow, like if something happens in the mast step while the mast is under tension.

It's not a big problem now but when the winter comes nearer and temperature sinks to below the freezing point.
 
Any of the fittings that has a screw could leak, including the deck fairleads, mainsheet block, centerboard brake, or the cockpit railings. Silicon is the answer.
 
Hi,
You guys get Sikaflex over there ?
Recommend it 100%, Remove EVERY fitting, one at a time and dip the screw in sikaflex, you may /may not wish to do the sponge/epoxy screw hole thing while you're at it. But once done its done.
 
Yes we got Sikaflex and I use somthing similar from Casco called "Marin o Teknik" here in Sweden.

One thing is that I get the about the same amount of water when I just glide on flat water in light wind without any rolling manouvers, without exposing the hull over the waterline much.
 
Also check the back of the daggerboard case. I have seen boats that have worn through here and a small amount of re=glassing and gelcoat fixes the issue.

As you say the leak occurs when keeping the boat flat in light winds it must be on the lower half of the hull so Rudder pintles, Drain bung, self bailer screw, cockpit drain brass fitting or daggerboard trunk. If none of those appear to be at fault then you must has a leak through the gelcoat, this is usually obvious though!
 
inlandfreddy said:
Yes we got Sikaflex and I use somthing similar from Casco called "Marin o Teknik" here in Sweden.

One thing is that I get the about the same amount of water when I just glide on flat water in light wind without any rolling manouvers, without exposing the hull over the waterline much.
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If you can, post up a pic of your stern drain plug, there are a number of different styles used, some only seal with a rubber o-ring, even though they are screw-in. I had a similar issue, and it turned out someone had "borrowed" my o-ring. I never found it during my soap test, since I was blowing air in thru that hole... Once I replaced the missing o-ring, the boat was bone dry
 
Thanks!
That means that my observations from different sailingsessions with different weather and boathandling can be trusted. So the leak is definitly pretty consistent over a wide range of conditions.
 
inlandfreddy said:
Thanks!
That means that my observations from different sailingsessions with different weather and boathandling can be trusted. So the leak is definitly pretty consistent over a wide range of conditions.
Click to expand...

Are there any scratches underneath ?
 
At last, almost totally dry inside after 3 hours sailing including 3 capsizes. My main problem seems to be solved. It look like it was the autobailer screw, wich was the first thing I refitted, and probably got it right, but the brass fitting was also not sealed OK, and when I fixed that later I thought that the old sealing of the screw looked so good that I only put a little more fresh on top and put it together, did not work.

The last test I made was without the bailer assambly, tape over the screwhole an a sealed bung in the big hole, resulting in dry boat.

Here is one happy sailor. Thank You all for Your input.
 
What I first and foremost have learned ist that its so easy to definitly locate problems with the drain or the autobailer with a little use of tape.
 
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