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    RL24, RL28, and RL34 Trailable Yachts
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    RL Yacht Owner's Discussion Forum
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    Water Leak
    Help andadvice is needed . I have just spent 5 months completely restoring a MK1 RL from a derelict condition,launched last weekend and boat went great, lived up to my expectations BUT a bad water penetration appearing at the rear section under the cockpit floor in the area behind the "Stringer" below the cabin entry. water also appeared inside the storage area under both quarter berths although this was not a sinificant amount. We completely replaced the "Bulk" heads at the front of the outboard well area and made sure these were heavily glassed due to being a wet area.The only explanation I can come up with is the Keel Plate housing must be leaking, the pressure of the water must be travelling between the inner and outer mouldings and coming through where bunk mouldings are glassed to the hull although there appears to be no obvious breakdown areas of the glassing.The above really put a dampner on the day as the water was not noticed until it showed up on the cabin floor. Has any one else experienced this type of leak and what steps were taken to fix.
    alan10-Mar-2009    Edit    Delete 
    Re: Water Leak
    Alan

    I would take a punt and say that the water could be coming in through the keel bolt hole. Over the years the sealant between the big alloy plates and the centreboard box has broken down and it is the reason for the leak. The water runs down under the floor boards through the buoyancy foam and appears at your stringer.

    I suggest you check this out and then remove the keel bolt nuts and the alloy plates leaving the keel swing bolt/stud in if possible. Clean up the side of the centreboard box and the alloy plates and re-bed them using a good quality marine sealant adhesive. It could also be that the plywood in the centre board box has rotted away close to the keel bolts and resealing the large diameter alloy plates may stop the leak. I had the same problem as you with the outboard bulkhead.

    Alastair Russell11-Mar-2009    Edit    Delete 
    Re: Water Leak
    Thanks for your advice Alastair, the centre board/keel cover in the boat does have a thickening/ply area glassed over as part of the casing on both sides but this double skin of glass does not extend below to the cabin f/glass floor in fact there is an area of approx 100mm above the floor where the casing appears to return to a single skin. the keel bolt is approx 40mm below the double skin and appears to be through a single skin. the thickened area is only approx 400mm deep.No leakage is appearant at the pivot bolt internally, we did remove the keel as this needed attention to the area where the winch wire attached and we resealed the pivot point, and the keel housing appeared to have no obvious break-down externally where attached to the hull.The inner cabin floor has obviously been glassed to the keel housing as there is a 100mm wide area clearly visible bothsides of the casing, my question is has anyone previously cut into this area to visibly check the internal sealing of the casing and what clearance should there be between the inner floor and the hull (for cutting purposes) Should the casing have been the same thickness all the way to the cabin floor and beyond then the pivot bolt would certainary be suspect.I might add the boat is ,I believe, a late MK1 with fully moulded furniture but still with the narrow "cowling " in the cockpit area.
    alan11-Mar-2009    Edit    Delete 
    Re: Water Leak
    Alan

    Your Mark 1 is certainly different to my mark 1 as Parahandy just has a lightweight plywood floor laid over the transverse hull stiffeners. I once tried to find out my sail number and I contacted Rob and he reckoned that my boat was one of a group of RL24 kits sold in Newcastle for home completion. He thought that my sail number would have been in the 70’s.

    If you can’t visually see any cracks or damaged structure I suggest you get a marine surveyor in with a modern moisture meter as he should be able to check out the state of the plywood or fibreglass layup in the centre board box.

    Alastair12-Mar-2009    Edit    Delete 
    Re: Water Leak
    Alan.
    The construction of your keel case and floor seems foreign to me, and it could have been a Western Australian built boat, I cant think of anything other than what Alastair has already mentioned that would help you, other than asking if you had flow coated your new glass work in the motor well,as often air trapped in a laminate can form almost invisable tubes, and they are hard to detect untill the laminate is coated. If your boat is on a trailer try tilting it to see if water will run out. Keep trying.
    Rob.12-Mar-2009    Edit    Delete 
    Re: Water Leak
    have taken some photos of the casing . .the sail no is 58.RL originally from WEIPA.. is there any sketches or Dwgs on how the casing should be. will send a photo next week
    ALAN13-Mar-2009    Edit    Delete 

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