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I have been fighting a series of leaks on the starboard aft cabin in my 1980 tri-cabin - so far I have:
1 - Stopped leak around aft escape hatch door
2 - Sealed the flag staff holder
3 - Sealer the starboard slider window frame
Each step has made progress, but now I have one stubborn leak. The leak seemed to be wicking on the headliner, so I pulled back the headliner and I can see water running what looks to be along the seam between the cockpit structure and main deck structure.
I am assuming somewhere the leak is coming from the windshield mounting screws along the starboard side??
I sealed all of the screw mounts on the front part of the windshield as I did have a leak in the salon down through the bolts.
The pictures show the leaking area (near the rag) with the headliner pulled back. Anyone else have this issue and knew how to stop it?
mines a f26 but I traced one of many leaks right to where your pic is showing as well. I found that trojan had sandwiched I piece of plywood between the fiberglass to act as "meat" for the window screws the problem I found was that sandiwched piece of plywood was totally rotted.I just found this within the past 72hrs so planning on just removing the windows and getting in there to replace the wood. for some reason they did not glass the bottom part so should be easy to dig out and slide a new one right up there. wont be tackling that one for another week will lettcha know how it goes
first off, welcome to the forum and the tri cabin club. second, i've noticed a series of cabin leaks over the 40 days and 40 nights of rain we have had here in baltimore that have interesting to track. the aft cabin leak you have is similar to the one i have on the starboard side, right at the very back corner above the dresser. i think i've managed to trace it when the rain stopped (for about an hour) yesterday. what i discovered is the way the wiper wires are run through the hollow windshield. they come up from the cabin on the port side into the storage compartment and then run up along the port side of the windshield frame. when the windshield cover is off, this windshield leaks like nothing i've ever seen before and as a matter of fact, was a constant source of frustration for my dad on our tri cabin for almost 40 years. anyway, water runs along the inside frame and down the wire pass through hole then collects at the back of the inner liner of the storage compartment. there is a small drain hole there, where it goes i have no idea but in 1986, trojan FINALLY did something about it with the final redesign of the boat and put in drains that go directly to the aft deck. with the head liner down, look up at the very back of the cabin and you should see where the bottom of the storage area is. it would be great if i could see a pic of this so i know where the drain holes exit. anyway, as a temporary stop gap measure, i used butyl tape to seal the area on the inside of the bridge near where the wires come through as the caulking on the inside was gone. i then wire tied the wires into a nice neat ball and dropped them into a small bucket inside the storage compartment. then, i used a small piece of butyl tap to plug the 'drain hole', again, as a temporary stop gap measure to see if this is going to stop the drip onto the drip pan on the dresser. over the summer i noticed that when i washed the boat, i would get water, again, port side dresser area, only this was on the aft bulkhead. i removed the panel and i noticed water trails from below two of the port aft stanchion bolts....... after rebedding these, i do not have a leak on that bulkhead. you should also run a bead of caulking around the vent hoses in this area as they too are prone to throwing water when wind blown into the cabin. do not discount the helm station stanchions either, or, the small screw/bolt that holds the side railings in place. remember, anywhere water can enter, it can travel. distance does not matter. do not discount the 30 amp shore connections either as the rubber seal can decompose over time. these are right above the aft bunk. let me know what you find out.
on a final note, while we were in the midst of irene, my partner phil went down to the boat and noticed a leak in the galley above the counter where the port window slider is. now granted, these poor windows took the entire brunt of the hurrican force winds and rain for nearly 12 hours. no weather stripping will stop that and even some of my friends with 'sealed frame' windows experienced small cabin leaks. what phil noticed during the storm was the weather stripping rubber that is attached to stationary window frame had moved down into the window track leaving a gap of roughly 3/4 of an inch at the top of the frame. water, pushed by wind, was forced into this opening and into the cabin. the next day, we pushed the weather stripping up so that the gap is now at the bottom of the window and 'drains' into the frame and out the rain channels. this weather stripping is rubber, and looks like a modified 'D' with a 'T' that mounts into the window frame. it's not exactly the most pliant and will need to be replaced. now, my question to all you tri cabin owners out there, where in gods name can i find a replacement for this rubber weather stripping. i know that the windows were manufactured by taylor made, but, thus far, they have been unable to locate an exact replacement. any and all ideas would be appreciated.
finally, how did you end the leak in the aft escape hatch? what did you find out when you removed it and what did you do to fix it? my hatch was 'fixed' by the previous owners, however the job is really sloppy. the hatch is pushed out from the outer bulkhead about 1/2 inch due to to all the weather stripping they put on. this hatch is supposed to be flush and i assume the original weather stripping/gasket was either glued to the hatch or the frame. i'm scared to death to touch this and remove it since, for right now, it does not leak.
thanks.
tri cabin aaron in baltimore
1982 F-36 TRI CABIN ENTERPRISE
PARKSIDE MARINA IN MIDDLE RIVER, MD aaronbocknek@gmail.com
As for the aft escape hatch - I first rebedded the wood trim piece that was along the top. Then I purchased some rubber weather stripping and resealed the entire hatch - with the door open. I also put two strips along the bottom of the door.
I made sure that I also was able to get the door very tight when closed. We had some impact from Irene in Maine - mostly some rain and no leaks from that aft hatch.
The flag staff holder also had a hole in it - which was not appartent to me at first. I had put the flag out when I got the boat in August, and while we had some rain - I never had a leak over the middle drawers. I took it out for Irene, and the water just dripped in. During the rain I stuck the flag back in and it slowed then stopped. Once the weather cleared I removed the flag again and found about a 1/4 inch hole in the bottom of the staff holder - who knew? Put some silicone in there and problem solved.
I also had a severe drip on the galley counter - and when I removed the trim piece on the salon headliner I saw the bolts dripping. I had sealed them all with 3M 5000 - but found that it had not set properly - with pliers I could pull off big chunkc of it. Since I am not taking this windsheild off again (had to for over the road transport to Maine), I sealed all of the bolts with several tubes of Lock-Tite epoxy putty. The struff dries rock hard in about 30 minutes and has saved me on many projects. It will stand up to high water pressure as well. Once I did this my salon has been dry as a bone.
I suspect that my aft leak now is from the side screws on the windshield. I am going to redo all of those, as well as resealing all of the individual windsheild windo joints this weekend since it is finally dry here for a few days. We will see how it goes.
