Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Monday 14 March 2011

What do you do if your hatches leak slightly? Do you rip them out and put new ones in...or are there other practical solutions........here are some possible answers:


1. Use silicon grease – it doesn’t rot the gaskets

2. Vaseline (petroleum Jelly) – keeps them free because the hatches are prone to sticking and surely it adds a level of waterproofing? Until you take things out of the hatch when everything gets smudged with the stuff!

3. Build a more weatherproof tarpaulin over Arwen – because the hatches leak due to the standing water that collects in her floor well!

4. Make sure the hatch is well embedded on sealant and that screw holes are fully sealed. This can be checked by lightly pressurising the compartments with a vacuum cleaner set to blow and spreading a water/detergent mix around the hatch and surround (assuming there is another opening the air can be blown into – or so I am told).

5. For plain lubrication of the threads a Teflon spray works well - apply it to the hatch only, well away from the boat, being wary of contaminating the paint and causing trouble at re-paint time.

6. Check that there is no grit/dirt in the gaskets!

7. Perhaps put in a plug at the end where the water collects? A drain plug would also make cleaning the boat after sailing much easier. (thanks for the idea Osbert)

8. Pete sent me this tip: “I made up a wooden 'spanner' to tighten and undo stuck screw in hatches. The idea came from George Cunningham in Tennesee. You can see a pic under Houdini "Dexterity" mainsheet changes in the Photo Albums on the Welsford yahoo site. This should enable you to give the hatch a last little tweak to get a good waterproof seal”.

9. You can get good quality sponges that should leave the floor almost dry. (nice idea Pete – thanks)

I have this magic list. It's called 'a things to do list'. It's magic because it doesn't matter how many things you cross off it as 'done'.....the list always seems to get longer....especially the closer you get to the fair sailing weather arriving.  Funny that!

Steve

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