This winter has been a good one. It snowed several times, which is a rarity. On the last occasion it snowed enough, maybe 7 inches, and stayed cold enough for it to turn into a good icy mess. While this made the news quite entertaining, with car wrecks and stories of sledding, it did not make sailing fun or possible.
It was a good two weeks before I got back to the boat. On the outside, Ventolines looked none the worse for wear. But on the inside the bilge had quite a bit of water in it. Of course, i was concerned since I had just repaired the keel trunk the fall earlier. That repair seemed solid when done and the boat floated for months with a dry bilge. I emptied the boat of water and waited. Nothing seemed to happen, but I was still concerned so I pulled the boat out the water and place her on her trailer.
Something similar had happened before, before the keel trunk was suspect. Before my trips to Florida in the winter. The boat was on the hard when it happened. Some how, while on the trailer and after a snow storm I had found a great deal of water in my bilge. I chalked it up to a leaking port, specifically the one near the head, which had a sink under it. That sink was full. So, my guess was that a lot of water came in and overflowed the sink. But there was a curious wet spot under the cockpit, inside the cabin. I didn’t give it a second thought; until now.
Back to today… I started taking apart the teak surrounding my companionway. I thought, maybe it has a leak. While doing so, I saw what looked like a scratch or crack in the non-skid of the cockpit sole. I scraped at it with my screwdriver tip. It flaked up to expose some sort of compound under the paint. So out came an oscillating scraper. The scraper cut through the paint to reveal that the compound was an ordinary household polyester resin, somewhat like bondo. Under it? A pattern of holes into the laminate and one long gouge through the laminate into the cabin.
I appears that the ice made a dam in the cockpit. As it slowly melted it got under the paint and into some of the holes not filled properly and that gouge. In normal rain conditions the water just runs out the back of the cockpit. But with the amount of snow, it slowly made its way inside.
So now I have another story about glass, epoxy and the art of the grinder. I’ll get to it in the next few posts, after I give some thought to a permanent fix to this problem. Right now I am thinking, grind to the glass, drill out the holes, fill with new glass and epoxy, cover with more glass/epoxy, then a primer (maybe even a bottom coat) and a rolled on non-skid. I’ll let you know.
To the person that owned the boat before me and did this repair: Thanks.