Leaks and Your Yacht
Careful!
These audio interviews are candid conversations with highly experienced staff from our shop—people who have worked on boats for years. However, the content of these interviews does not imply any particular result on your boat nor extend our warranty in any way. Please contact us directly for specific project questions or bring your boat to the yard for a consultation.
Listen to “Leaks and Your Yacht” now.
Sooner or later almost every boat owner will find a puddle of water inside where it doesn't belong. Unfortunately, the puddle and the leak are usually in different locations. In this interview, Leif Erickson draws on years of experience finding leaks to help you know where to look.
In our tenth installment of the Townsend Bay Audio Interview Series, “Leaks and Your Yacht” (4.19 MB streaming MP3), Leif Erickson discusses:
- Sources of leaks
- Dorade boxes and leaks
- Wood trim and leaks
- Manufacturing processes that can result in leaks
- Finding leaks
Common causes of leaks are windows, port lights, hatches, dorade boxes, deck teaking, with the great percentage of leaks coming from caulking.
Boats that are assembled in parts (window mouldings, fashion boards, stairways to boat decks) tend to leak where the seams are caulked as the caulk dries up and goes away.
Any part installed on a yacht is a potential leak source. Fittings or thru-hull fittings, every cleat and every stanchion is a possible leak.
Sliding windows deteriorate with age; window seals should have drains, and those drains need to be unplugged. Rolling up/down windows need their own dorade boxes.
Dorade boxes themselves are a source of leaks and a definite maintenance item: look inside them for caulking coming undone.
Leaks are almost always caused by a lack of maintenance. Wash your yacht regulary, get below and inspect. Re-bed as caulking ages, re-caulk hatches, and replace gaskets.
Ultimately, though, if you don’t want leaks, don’t use your boat.