Leak at shroud chainplate

enchantment · Post by **enchantment** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:55 am

I once saw a post on this site about putting some kind of rubber boot on the shroud chainplates. Can anyone tell me if (1)I there is such a thing or (2) other ways to seal around the chainplates other than caulk.

John

Quinn McCarthy · Post by **Quinn McCarthy** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 9:30 am

I had the same problem about 2 years ago. When you have a leak like that there is also a chance that there is water in the core as well. What I did was drew a line around the outside of the chain plate cover. Then took the plate and bars completely off. Then I took a Dremel tool with a carbide cutting tip and cut just inside that line and removed the loose piece. Make sure you don't cut through the bottom layer. Then I could clearly see that there was water intrusion into the balsa core at that point. By using a series of different tools I removed all of the balsa core that was wet. Then I used a heat gun to dry the rest of the open area as well as the balsa I could not reach with a tool. I then let it sit a few days to dry out more. Once it was dry I put the chains plates back into place and bolted them in loose. Bofore I put the bars back in I wrapped a bunch of tape around the bar where it comes through the deck. Then wrapped some wax paper in the same area. What this does is gives you some room to play when you epoxy the hole back shut. Before you epoxy you have to make sure there are no leaks around the bar of steel. I filled the hole completely up with fiberglass cloth and thickened epoxy. I filled the hole over the course of a few days to make sure things were drying well. Also you need to scuff the surface of the epoxy between coats. I left it about 1/16 inch shy and filled the rest with gel coat. Last step was to remove the bars and clean off all the tape and wax paper. Then reseat the hardware with 101 the way you do for any other hardware. By taking the extra time to do it this way you will never get any water into the core of the boat even if your seal around the hardware gave out. We have not had any problems since. Hope that helps.