Wendy Leaks.
No, thankfully not from the bottom up, but instead from the top down.
Since the launch I’ve learned that every time it shats it down with rain Wendy develops two reasonably annoying rainwater leaks. One is through the engine room skylight, and I’m still scratching my head about how best to fix this. The other was through two of the wheelhouse windows. The wheelhouse is an original part of our vessel, and survived not only our big rebuild, but also seventy years of service largely intact. It has these (for want of a better word) sash type windows, which slide down into spaces in the wheelhouse structure when opened. Any rain that makes it’s way down the windows and into these spaces is supposed to be caught by these sort of built in tray thingies underneath and then directed outside again through little brass spouts mounted in the bottom of each tray. Trouble was that the tray that looks after the two forwardmost windows was mostly missing. Our previous owner had made an effort at reinstalling it, but in doing so the little spout holes had been covered up. As I discovered at the beginning of the extra wet winter we’ve just endured, this resulted in a rather large amount of unwanted dihydrogen monoxide (lit. ‘get me a cagoule and a flask of weak lemon drink’) making its way into our accommodation. On Tuesday I hope I dealt with it. Ripped out what was left of the previous owners tray thingy, cleaned up and drilled out the drain holes, then installed a new tray of marine ply with plenty of mastic sealant underneath, before lining the interior of the thing with glassfibre.
I’m afraid it’s another one of those dull, dull photographs, but in case you’re at all interested in the above, here’s a picture of the result so far, I just need to epoxy in the new brass spouts and give the tray a splat or two of protective paint and it’s done.
Hopefully I can now rid myself of one of the two drip catcher buckets that’ve become a near permanent feature of my vessel’s interior design, but not before I’ve indulged in a little ‘storm simulation’ test, which is also known as throwing a bucket of water at the wheelhouse and seeing what happens. I shall have to make sure I’m wearing my best cagoule for this one…
Since the launch I’ve learned that every time it shats it down with rain Wendy develops two reasonably annoying rainwater leaks. One is through the engine room skylight, and I’m still scratching my head about how best to fix this. The other was through two of the wheelhouse windows. The wheelhouse is an original part of our vessel, and survived not only our big rebuild, but also seventy years of service largely intact. It has these (for want of a better word) sash type windows, which slide down into spaces in the wheelhouse structure when opened. Any rain that makes it’s way down the windows and into these spaces is supposed to be caught by these sort of built in tray thingies underneath and then directed outside again through little brass spouts mounted in the bottom of each tray. Trouble was that the tray that looks after the two forwardmost windows was mostly missing. Our previous owner had made an effort at reinstalling it, but in doing so the little spout holes had been covered up. As I discovered at the beginning of the extra wet winter we’ve just endured, this resulted in a rather large amount of unwanted dihydrogen monoxide (lit. ‘get me a cagoule and a flask of weak lemon drink’) making its way into our accommodation. On Tuesday I hope I dealt with it. Ripped out what was left of the previous owners tray thingy, cleaned up and drilled out the drain holes, then installed a new tray of marine ply with plenty of mastic sealant underneath, before lining the interior of the thing with glassfibre.
I’m afraid it’s another one of those dull, dull photographs, but in case you’re at all interested in the above, here’s a picture of the result so far, I just need to epoxy in the new brass spouts and give the tray a splat or two of protective paint and it’s done.
Hopefully I can now rid myself of one of the two drip catcher buckets that’ve become a near permanent feature of my vessel’s interior design, but not before I’ve indulged in a little ‘storm simulation’ test, which is also known as throwing a bucket of water at the wheelhouse and seeing what happens. I shall have to make sure I’m wearing my best cagoule for this one…
posted by IsmilebecauseIhavenoideawhatsgoingon at 3:29 pm
3 Comments:
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I don't know of any that don't leak. Seems with all the flexing that happens things stretch and move/dry out it is a constant vigil hunting them down.
Thats a usual design for non sea boats (long term sea that is)and they can be a pain but it is one of the best I`ve come across as long as the spout is kept clear and free from wasps searching out a nesting site and the collection area is of a suitable size and will take 20% of a bucket of water or the rain required of it before it finds its way out. it seems that you have ease of access by removing the panels so maybe a periodic inspection could be done with an easily removable panel? a finish with GRP seems to be the right way to go too. nice job! Rob :o))
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