Issue 21 : Nov/Dec 2001
Tired of tasting bilge water to see if it’s fresh or salt? Puzzled by deck leaks when you’ve cornered the 3M 5200 market? You say your leak recurs every time your kids wash the dog in the cockpit? Say, does your boat happen to have an inboard engine?
If the answer to all of the above is yes, your leak is not in your chainplates. It’s not under your hatches. It’s not around the mast. It’s in the cockpit engine hatch gasket.
Remove the companionway steps and look above the engine. Do you see light peeking through around the edges of the hatch? Your gasket is dead.
Oh, you replaced it last year? And what did you use? Home Depot’s finest screen and storm door self-adhesive foam? That porous sponge stuff wasn’t designed to keep out a gentle mist, much less standing water from clogged cockpit drains or, perish the thought, a wave in the cockpit. You can see it squish down on your storm door. How often do you check the cockpit engine hatch gasket? Even if you installed new foam last year, it’s flat as a pancake by now.
What should you use? Your boat manufacturer was history years ago. The OEM custom gasket is no longer available. Home Depot foam is the only thing available. Right?
Hold on. We’re talking about a hatch over a motor, much like the hood on your car. Hood gasket material was designed to keep out water and wind at speed and remain flexible in temperatures that range from freezing to tropical. Cockpit engine hatches have the same requirements.
There are a number of shapes available. They tend to be vehicle-specific. I used generic self-adhesive “Bulb Gasket.” It’s a 9⁄16-inch tube on a 3⁄4-inch flange. Made of real rubber, it does not stick to ice, remains flexible at all temperatures and will bend around 90-degree corners without bunching up. At $29.95 for 10 feet, it costs more than Home Depot foam, but it’s worth the difference.
Peter has his head in one engine compartment or another much of the time. A Newport 27s Mk II is his engine on the water. On land his tastes run toward a 1987 Avanti coupe and a 1967 Land Rover 109. In the air he flies a Schemmp Hirth Open Cirrus, a classic Open Class sailplane.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
