Sealing cockpit lockers

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rajjes

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Hi,

One of the survey recommendations on my 80's Moody 36S is to seal the cockpit storage lockers and cockpit floor hatch. At the moment these just have a fiberglass lip which goes over a simple raised edge. Slight volumes of water are handled by the drains, but when I hose down the cockpit considerable water finds its way in especially in the floor compartment.

I'm thinking of fitting a rubber strip with a U profile around the hatch lips. Is this the best approach? Any recommendations on specific product to use?

Regards,

Duncan
 
It's probably the easiest possible seal, but not guaranteed to effect a perfect cure. Before investing in the rubber strip, try putting some plasticine on the lid and close it to find out what gap there is. If the gap is indufficient, the new seal may not allow it to close and flexing the lid could even make matters worse! Is there a blade type of seal (like you'd fit on the bottom of a door) that can bend to suit the gap both with or without someone sitting on it? That will hopefully stop any water draining down the groove from going into the locker, just down the drain.

Rob.
 
I'd certainly suggest putting the seal on the lid rather than the rim of the locker. Our cockpit locker clearly used to have a rubber seal glued to the lid, but when we bought the boat this was missing and a U-shaped rubber moulding had been slipped over the inward-facing rim instead. This meant that every time you dragged something out of the locker, or slid it in, the action was trying to pull the rubber off the rim. It never stayed on for any length of time, and I've now removed it. Sooner or later I will get round to gluing a new seal onto the lid, where it's out of the way while the locker is open.

Pete
 
Thanks for the pointers so far on not interfering with the closure fit and avoiding fitting the rubber on the locker itself.

The thickness of the fiber on the hatches is some 4mm and I was thinking of fitting the U shaped rubber on this.

When you say 'rubber seal glued to the lip' are you referring to a straight rubber strip or some specific profile?

Duncan
 
Sounds a good idea to put a seal on the lid so that it doesn't get damaged when dragging stuff in and out of the locker, a very good, practical point! Unless someone has direct experience of sealing a Moody's lockers, the rest of us can only suggest basic principles, not a specific profile to suit. I was imagining the fit to be like a biscuit tin, in which case a deformable D section fitted inside the lid rim would compress against the fixed lip face, hopefully without obstructing the drain channel.

Rob.
 
This seems to be a common problem on boats. I'm not sure why cockpit lockers are designed so that any water that gets in can travel through into the rest of the boat. Wouldn't it make more sense to have an enclosed box, sealed onto the lip of the cockpit locker. Then if water got in it would only get the stuff in the locker wet and could be pumped / sponged out, rather than making it's way into the bilges? Perhaps there's a reason why this isn't done?

Nicola
 
rajjes said:
Thanks for the pointers so far on not interfering with the closure fit and avoiding fitting the rubber on the locker itself.

The thickness of the fiber on the hatches is some 4mm and I was thinking of fitting the U shaped rubber on this.

When you say 'rubber seal glued to the lip' are you referring to a straight rubber strip or some specific profile?

Duncan
Click to expand...
Closed cell neoprene sponge strip , adhesive backed or not according to your preference, glued around the under sides of the locker lids where they close on to the raised edges of the locker openings may be the way forward.

Also available from seals direct http://www.sealsdirect.co.uk/shopping.asp?intDepartmentId=1
 
ninky said:
Wouldn't it make more sense to have an enclosed box, sealed onto the lip of the cockpit locker. Then if water got in it would only get the stuff in the locker wet and could be pumped / sponged out, rather than making it's way into the bilges? Perhaps there's a reason why this isn't done?
Click to expand...

Cost, basically. It'd be a fairly substantial extra step in construction to make the specially-shaped box, then to insert it into exactly the right place in the hull before the deck moulding goes on. The accountants will ask how many extra sales it will make, and the answer is apparently "not enough".

Pete
 
prv said:
Cost, basically. It'd be a fairly substantial extra step in construction to make the specially-shaped box, then to insert it into exactly the right place in the hull before the deck moulding goes on. The accountants will ask how many extra sales it will make, and the answer is apparently "not enough".

Pete
Click to expand...
On the contrary, I think this is the common approach for most modern mid size yachts. Gives you a couple of shallow lockers under the cockpit seats and above the aft cabins. Much better than the single very deep locker that I have in my fifteen year old trad design. Unsealed deep lockers are a bit scary in a big sea.
 
Hi, did mine a few years back with a U section rubber, one mistake I made on the first locker lid was to stretch it too tight, was originally concerned if it got hot and expanded it would become slack and loose, re did them to how they settled best and secured with CT 1 sealant and all OK, have seen others use stuff with wire embedded in it like that used on cars but this does always leave rust marks eventually, another site is portmere rubber.

Hope that's of some help.
 
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