I’m at a loss.
Water leaks into the starboard locker in the aft cabin. I can’t find the leak and it is making me insane.
There are two parts to finding the leak: how the water gets into the locker, and how the water gets into the boat.
This is a fresh water leak: the locker only gets water when it rains.
The locker is under the starboard sleeping area in the aft cabin.
This is what I know:
- The area above the locker is completely dry, always. Water is not dripping into the locker.
- The water is coming from the top of the locker. I know this because the locker will completely fill with water.
- I cannot find a place where water is leaking into the boat, though I am getting water in the bilge. There is a gully that runs under the cockpit that has fresh water in it; it shouldn’t. I presume this is same water that is getting into the locker.
- A steering cable runs through the locker, but it is never wet.
- When the locker’s dry I have placed tissue paper everywhere in the locker and the water does seem to be coming from the forward top outside corner. I have caulked that area and the seam along the top of the locker with 3M 4000. My goal was to at least keep water from getting into the locker.
That did not work.
- This morning after a very large rain there is water in the locker, but no place I touch in the locker is also wet. I am presuming that the water is still coming down the same way, but by this morning at 5:30 AM the trail had dried.
- There is a cockpit locker forward of the aft cabin locker. But I can find no place in that locker that is wet. The locker did leak quite a bit, but I’ve worked hard to seal all the entrances and now can find nothing that is wet.
- There is a shelf support that did get water on it when the locker leaked, but (1) no longer gets wet and (2) I sealed it’s seam with 3M 4000. (See Picture)
- I have wrapped tape around the opening where the steering cable enters the locker. That should keep water from entering the locker. The cable and the area is not wet. It never has been.
The caulked shelf support is visible. The yellow shelf was trimmed back to reveal the support (and make it easier to retrieve tools that have fallen.) Wiring is from the MPPT charge controller for the solar panels. Batteries are stored under the yellow shelf. This protects them from flooding.
If I don’t have this solved by the time guests start arriving, I’ll drill a small hole in the forward bottom of the locker to allow the water to drain forward into the bilge!
NOTE: It is raining again at 7 AM. The the downward sloping caulk in the aft cabin locker is wet.
