[C38] Leaking windows, Steve has the solution

[Steve Smolinske]

Jim, we pulled ours  had it painted and replaced all the wiring and
lights.

 

Steve

 

From: listserve-bounces at catalina38.org
[mailto:listserve-bounces at catalina38.org] On Behalf Of Jim Busteed
Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2013 9:06 PM
To: Donald Strong; hlhowell at pacbell.net; Catalina 38 Listserve
Cc: Catalina 38 Listserve
Subject: Re: [C38] Leaking windows, Steve has the solution

 

Hello

Has any one had experience replacing their mast with a new one?

 

Thanks

Jim Busteed

firefly San Diego


--- On Sun, 12/30/12, les <hlhowell at pacbell.net> wrote:

	
	From: les <hlhowell at pacbell.net>
	Subject: Re: [C38] Leaking windows, Steve has the solution
	To: "Donald Strong" <drstrong at ucdavis.edu>
	Cc: "Catalina 38 Listserve" <listserve at catalina38.org>
	Date: Sunday, December 30, 2012, 4:48 PM

	Hi, Steve,
	    While that no doubt works, the frame and the fiberglass do
expand at
	different rates, so the seal is not permanent.  And as Don
pointed out,
	even pulling things apart and sealing will not provide a long
term fix.
	On Jace, we ordered new seals from Catalina Direct, and replaced
the old
	seals as described in their documents.  One thing that I did
that was
	not mentioned was using lemon juice (actually acetic acid) to
clean the
	aluminum channel before installing the new seal with silicone,
using the
	silicon they suggested.  The frames were sealed to the hull
using caulk,
	which is flexible and seals better.  This was done quite a while
ago,
	and from what I can tell of the blog, the folks cruising Knee
Deep are
	not having any problems.  That is about 8 years since I did the
work.
	
	It is paramount to clean every trace of the old seals, caulk,
silicon or
	whatever off the interfaces to get a good seal.  It took the two
of us
	about 5 days to do the whole job working a window or two at a
time.  But
	I did not have to do it again.  
	
	Another leak is the stantion bases.  I hired someone to help
with that
	task (places I cannot fold my bulk into) but we removed all the
	stantion's, the pushpit, the pulpit, then cleaned and rebedded
each one.
	I replaced all the screws and nuts at the same time.  Each screw
is now
	double nutted to prevent backing off.  I am not sure if they all
were or
	not when we took them off, but I think they were.  We used caulk
on
	these, too.  Caulk is better than silicon for a water proof seal
on
	dissimilar materials.
	
	Regards,
	Les H
	
	On Sun, 2012-12-30 at 07:26 -0800, Donald Strong wrote:
	> Steve: 
	>     For years we had a full boat cover on Discrete Charm and
did not
	> have to face the music of a 30-odd year-old boat in winter
rains. Two
	> years ago we switched to cover just the cockpit, and all of
the
	> windows held forth with big leaks. 
	>     After reading and messing around, I found that the leaks
come in
	> between the aluminum frame and the window as well as between
the
	> aluminum frame and the fiberglass of the house. On the
outside, remove
	> the old silicone with a probe (frame-window) and a razor blade
	> (frame-fiber glass), tape, and apply new silicone. You don't
even have
	> to remove the inside frames. While San Francisco is not nearly
as
	> rainy as Seattle, this year has been very wet. NO LEAKS YET! 
	>     The mast, of course, leaks onto the depression on the
floor and
	> into the bilge. A tiny Rule bilge pump empties the bilge into
the sink
	> and out the sink through hull. The other two large bilge pumps
would
	> come on automatically if the little guy failed.
	> Regards, Don   
	> 
	
	
	
	
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