Rain water leak - what to seal it with?

[Colvic Watson]

Just been to the boat and found some fresh water in the bilge. We used a hose pipe and discovered it was coming in via a couple of smallish leaky deck fittings. What should I seal them with? The joins will be

a. stainless to GRP
b. teak to GRP
c. possibly a GRP to GRP

Thanks for the help

 

[pvb]

Remove fittings. Re-fit with Sikaflex or LifeCalk bedding. Allow to cure before final tightening. Use masking tape! Remove smears of sealant immediately with suitable solvent (meths works quite well). Wear latex gloves (the damn stuff gets everywhere!).

 

[Shakey]

If you need a temporary repair, try Plumber's Mate.

 

[mirabriani]

When you do a permanent repair,
do not forget to investigate whether water has penetrated
any end grain balsa or whatever in the deck.
This may need specialist repair.
If so I recomend the advice of Oldsaltoz.
A search will reveal

Regards Briani

 

[boatmike]

Sikaflex

 

[Guest]

Asd a temporary fix - you can run car windscreen sealer or Contact Glue around the joint .... this will seal it till you get all bits and pieces sorted ready to do the job properly.

Its an old trick for ports and windows in boats ....... particularly when the rubber insert sealing the window in the ally frame is dried and shrunk - leaving a small 'valley' for water to sit in and eventually seep in through. One of ny boats - I used the sealer and it stayed that way for years .... regardless of conditions the boat went through etc.

Present boat has a silly drip - I mean a drip every few hours literally !! I've reseated the window etc. and its still there .... so back to the old trick .... instant success. So before I make the Baltic trip - that window will be lifted again and resealed with new rubber AND window sealant to make absolutely sure.

If anyone has trouble getting rubber strip to seal frame to window .... bicycle inner-tube does the job ... if you have one from Mums old bike that is punctured ----- ideal !!