Forepeak deck leaking General Forum Forums

Not normal at all. However from the description are you sure it is a leak and not condensation. This time of year with the cold weather if you heat the inside of the boat and it is  cold outside you can get  condensation. It can seem like a leak as it can generate extreme amounts of water. Flip side of that is usually your looking at ports hole fittings, through hulls fittings on the inside and other areas that get much colder that the rest of the interior due to the cold outside. I have never noticed that much condensation even in just below freezing conditions here in the south where it is relatively humid.

If it is a leak you will notice water during/after a rain. If it is staying damp or condensing water over a longer period of time and on dry days then it's a condensation issue. The original deck core material was foam which because of how insulation it is reduces general condensation on exposed areas inside the boat. If someone recored at some point and used plywood instead of foam, then that area might get colder than the foam core areas and produce more condensation.

Basically I'm just throwing stuff at you to think about. I would take and mop up all the water on the exposed overhead and then just watch it. Is the water dripping from somewhere else and running there? Or is it just getting damp and dripping. One is possibly a leak while the other is condensation. Usually the vinyl seals those areas off in a dead air space so that you can't get airflow over the underside of the deck. This keeps it from condensing water out of the air. However if you did have a leak in to that area then it would trap water inside it..

Maybe you have a two fold problem? A leak and with the vinyl off it is condensing. Careful observation is going to tell you what you have going on. maybe run a hose on a spray setting on deck to simulate rain for 15 or 20 min.. Or just hang out on the boat on a rainy day and observe. Also on a dry day just hang out for a few hours and observe. You can take a  couple towels and get that area dry and then see what happens over the next few. does it stay dry? slowly condense water where you dried? leak water from somewhere else.

If you have a leak sometimes it is not obvious where it is from. Just because you find out where inside it is leaking doesn't mean it is from on deck right there. Some times water can follow a screw in one place and run downhill to another screw that leaks inside. Or a cavity inside the the foam can fill up till water goes uphill a bit because of the pooling of water and leak out around an slightly uphill screw.  One of the irritating things about our boats and honestly most other boats built is that most manufactures don't take the time to properly do penetrations of the deck. They just drill a hole through the deck and bolt stuff on. So you have a screw going through the outer skin into the core and then through the inner skin. If you get a leak it then gets the core wet and can leak into the boat as well as into the core. Properly done they drill a hole, in the outer skin take out the foam between the two skins and then back fill with epoxy or resin. Let it cure and then drill the hole through the solid plug that has been made. At this point if you get a leak it is guaranteed to only be from that one hole and your core isn't getting wet. Most of us when we do repairs, upgrades or fix leaks on our boats will do this so that we gradually fix all these potential issues with core penetrations.

I hope some of this helps.. I'm basically just brain storming and spewing it out with the keyboard. You probably already know a lot of this but sometimes it helps to hear it again if so.

Good luck,

Scott

Couple of follow up notes:

First the propane heater 🙂

So the major byproduct of un-vented propane heaters when running is moisture into the air. So if you run one for a while it will up the humidity in the cabin which causes your condensation to go crazy. I have used them in my boats before and it is a balance as they do work great for heating but they will leave the whole inside of the boat covered in condensation in cold weather. I had a vented propane heater on valkyr for a while that worked brilliantly when it worked. Most of the time it didn't like to start, but that is a different issue all together. When running it radiated heat but vented the combustion products outside the boat so you got the heat but not the moisture.

Next..

Not saying you do or don't do this but just wanted it mentioned on this thread for completeness.  I only ever caulk and seal deck penetrations on deck, never inside the boat. I actually want water to drip where it is leaking outside so that I can catch it quickly before the water causes lots of problems with the core or other areas. If I seal inside and it leaks outside but not inside, then you can get water traveling through the  core if it isn't sealed and coming out somewhere far removed from where the leak actually is. Even worse is if it doesn't leak into the cabin but just stays in the core forever. with it never drying out it leads to core separation, loss of insulative capacity, bulging from water freezing in the core etc... lots of  bad things happen and you won't know it's happening till it is to late. Also even if it is a penetration that is properly done with no ability for water to get into the core  if it leaks on deck, you can get crevice corrosion of your stainless screws of bolts over time as they sit in a pocket of fresh water for months or years. Again you won't know you have an issue till something fails or you happen to take it apart for whatever reason and see the issue. I would rather deal with a small leak when it happens on deck than find out about it long after it causes residual damage to the areas around it.

The core on deck in a couple places has been replaced on valkyr where we had soft spots due to the above listed issues with leaks on deck but not below getting into the core. Most of the places it was replaced you can't tell at all. So it sometimes isn't obvious if it is original or now. Wish i could claim I had done that work to that standard myself but my father in law that we purchased the boat from had the work done the year before we bought it.

Hmmm.. ok another thought.

Samson Post leaking. I do keep it sealed so that when green water comes over the bow we don't get gallons of water at the time getting into the forepeak. However I don't worry if it leaks a little. The core is sealed with resin/epoxy on all cut open edges that the sampson posts go through. I have never had an issue with water in the forward  cabin so just haven't paid much attention but my belief is that any water leaking around the sampson post just drips into the chain locker. I actually sealed the lower chain locker from the rest of the boat with a through hull fitting in the bottom most point. I think ran a 1 1/4 inch hose from there back to a bilge box under the forward cabin floor hatch that pumps water from the shower, condensation from the A/C if installed, and water from the chain lockers overboard above the waterline from in the starboard forward cabins closet where I installed a anti siphon loop and through hull for the discharge line. I also put a one way valve in that discharge line just past the bilge box/pump itself as the discharge line even at a smaller 3/4 inch holds a bit of water in it over it's 7 or 8 feet of length till you get to the anti siphon loop in the top of the closet on the aft bulkhead of the closet. With this setup my bilges stay mostly bone dry.

Before I put in a bilge box to handle water in the front of the boat such as shower and chain lockers, the water from the shower was pumped to the main bilge where it was pumped out. Chain lockers just had openings permanently cut that allowed water to flow from upper chain locker to lower, then from lower to under the bed where the black water tank was located, then to the little compartment  under the step/seat at forward end of bed, then it flowed through the upper bilge the length of the boat under the water tanks and fuel tanks and then into the main bilge under the engine. Talk about a nasty design. I purchased a already designed plastic box about 12 inches on a side from west marine with, large debris filter and  a small bilge pump already in it for a bout 100 dollars. It is one of my best of projects for  get rid of wet bilges and odors in the bilge that I have done. That water is also the reason our fuel tanks and water tanks sometimes have corrosion issues. It carries dirt and debris with it that pile up on the leading edges and under the tanks, holds moisture there and contributes to pretty much 100% of any external corrosion you might have.

It has it's own pump and a pumps overboard through a through hull in the starboard closet in the vberth. I think these links have some of my past conversations on it or that talk about this in general.

http://downeasteryachts.com/fo.....-locations

http://downeasteryachts.com/fo.....bilge-pump

http://downeasteryachts.com/fo.....ump-advice

http://downeasteryachts.com/fo.....ain-locker

scott