J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Leaks!!

Paul,

The only thing that would worry me about your boat is the water in and around the rudder. That is a relatively high stress area. I had a J24 with some water in the core of a rudder that almost broke! I think you can still buy a new J30 rudder for less than $1,000 from TPI.

The deck around the chainplates and the bow pulpit are not high load areas, and, believe it or not, neither is the bulkhead. The chainplates are bolted in a region of solid 3/4" - 1" fiberglass; then there are triangular sections down and out from the chainplates of 3/8" glass heavily tabbed to the hull. The bulkhead is very lightly tabbed to the deck outboard of the chainplates on the foreward side (this connnects a 1/4" sheet of plywood on the foreward side of the bulkhead to the deck and I cannot see what this acomplishes). Otherwise there is no connection between the bulkhead and the deck. The rest of the bulkhead is little more than two sheets of 1/4" plywood with 1" of balsa sadwiched between. I think it's little more than a wall. Mine was soaked soon after I bought the boat after a two day soaking rain and a leaking chainplate. However, it dried fairly rapidly after the leak was sealed.

I have a lot of water in the deck around my chainplates. I know because I just finished drilling a few hundred holes into it. However, the vast majority of the core is in excellent shape, just needing to be dried. I honestly don't think I'd have known about the water had I not started dealing with small (3" - 4") areas of rot around the chainplates.

The deck on my J24 had all of the hardwear set in solid epoxy. Essentially sealing off the balsa core from the environment in a more permamnent fashion than 3M 5200. We are starting that job with the chainplates and bow pulpit this winter. We plan to do the handrails and genoa and jib tracks this summer.

Good luck with your new (old) boat!

Mark

If you really want to go "hog wild", you should consider isolating the core from the holes for the fitting in question. The recommended procedure is to drill out the holes oversize, tape the inside, fill the hole with epoxy, let harden, and redrill through the epoxy. This method will abolutely prevent water from ever getting to your core.

Alan,

It is not absolute protection. The rudder on my J24 that I mentioned was treated that way and thus not also sealed with 5200. Some hairline cracks developed in the epoxy, probobly many years ago, and water slowly got in. I think you still have to seal the hardwear down but the epoxy treatment with 5200 should be better.

Mark

Yes, you absolutely need the sealant, if just to prevent leakage into the boat. You also need to remember to use a washer or backing plate larger than the epoxy slug or you might find that you pull the slug out as the fitting flies off the deck.

This thread was originally about water getting in, probably through the mast. This is impossible to seal around the mast boot alone because rainwater gets into the mast through the halyard entrances and exits, and runs down the inside surfaces of the mast exiting at the mast step, and going into the bilge. It is amazing how much water gets in this way. While stored, my boat would fill to the floorboards in 4 weeks or less if the weather was nasty.
There are only two solutions. If your boat is in the water, then put in an automatic bilge pump. If your boat is stored for the winter with the mast up, then install a flush drainplug into the keel sump just like Etchells 22's have, and let the water that enters drain out.