Mid cabin got soaked

randallh82w8

Well we tried our first night on the boat. Of course it rained. That’s how we found out that the mid cabin got soaked, mainly on the port side, soaking part of the mattress as well. 

I’m now trying to troubleshoot this issue. I have read through many threads on here and tried most of the tips. Unfortunately I’ve not seen any solutions - this was too much water to come in from one porthole or from a leak around shore power connection, and all the other parts I could look at seemed dry (arch bolts, anchor locker, etc). 

Here’s the nuance here. We have both the camper canvas as well as a tonneau cover. We normally have the tonneau cover on, which goes over the windshield. The camper, of course, snaps to the top of the windshield. Since we were on the boat we used the camper top. We’ve had many hard rains while the tonneau cover is on and never had any water issues in the cabin. But since we had the camper on that night we had the rain water in the mid cabin. The rest of the boat, including the cockpit area was perfectly dry. 

So I am curious about the windshield - if it’s leaky, then where does it drain to and maybe that’s the culprit? It makes sense it has something to do with the windshield since it’s normally covered with the tonneau cover and that it would have “collected” a lot of rain that night coming off the camper canvas. 

Any help on drains, etc would be great.

The midship bilge seems to be working fine, and I could see through that bilge area to the port side hull and it looked dry. 

aero3113

Pull the black rubber trim from the bottom of the windshield frame and reseal all of the screws. I used to get water in my mid bilge, once I sealed all of the screws it was dry.

Cableguy Greg

Check the sealant on the port light in the mid cabin. Between the stainless beauty ring and the white frame. There should be no gaps. If there are, dig out the sealant and reseal with life caulk or 3m4000uv. That is most likely where the water is coming from. 

randallh82w8

Thanks - I am willing to try both those, though in my limited expertise I am more convinced it’s the windshield given it only happened when the windshield wasn’t covered by the tonneau cover. 

My nagging question is - if this all should drain to the mid bilge, then where does that drain run? Clearly mine is blocked / broken / loose as it didn’t drain into the bilge like it should have. 

YYZRC

AC drain should go to aft bilge or shower sump

aero3113

@randallh82w8 you mid bilge most likely doesn’t drain into the aft bilge. There’re separate from each other.

randallh82w8

aero3113 said:

@randallh82w8 you mid bilge most likely doesn’t drain into the aft bilge. There’re separate from each other.

I’m not sure, but I’m wondering if the windshield should drain into either the mid or aft bilge, and if that drain route is plugged or something and that’s what it backup up into the cabin. I’m assuming it shouldn’t leak at all! But if it did is there a back up drain that runs to the bilges?

aero3113

The windshield doesn’t drain. If you think water is coming from the windshield it’s definitely coming from the screws. Reseal them and replace the black rubber seal for good measure. The new seal with fit much tighter.

randallh82w8

aero3113 said:

The windshield doesn’t drain. If you think water is coming from the windshield it’s definitely coming from the screws. Reseal them and replace the black rubber seal for good measure. The new seal with fit much tighter.

It’s my best guess, so I will try the screws and the rubber. 

Thanks for the help. 

J3ff

aero3113 said:

Pull the black rubber trim from the bottom of the windshield frame and reseal all of the screws. I used to get water in my mid bilge, once I sealed all of the screws it was dry.

Same, DO THIS FIRST! It would have saved me HOURS and hours of work. 

randallh82w8

I’ve just now realized that we had the tonneau cover installed this spring and it’s possible that all those snaps that were added at the bottom of the windshield were not sealed. That would certainly help water get in behind the black seal…

Back to the marina to have a look and then to get some sealant. 

aero3113

The snaps that were added, do they look like this? If yes, they screw into the channel with an adapter in the frame. They don’t screw into the fiberglass. You can see that the channel is above the seal in the last 3 pics.

randallh82w8

Yes. That’s exactly how they look. I was thinking that they caused a hole that allowed water to get in behind the black seal, but guess not. 

J3ff

Pull that rubber seal off, and go through and seal each screw one at a time.. the one that was leaking for me was the screw to the left of the walk through.