Leaks, leaks everywhere

When we first bought this Commander 42, we knew for certain that the salon roof leaked. Later, we discovered that she leaked in the V-berth, the aft cabin, the aft head, the galley, and under the mast, the handholds on the salon roof, the helm windshield and side windows, the aft cabin escape hatch, and the stanchions for the hardtop and aft awning.

When it rained outside...it rained inside.

The forward hatch was easy. I bought the square gasket material that is allegedly identical to what Chris Craft used originally from a well-known Chris Craft parts supplier. It was $2/ft and didn’t fit--it was either too thick or not squishy enough. Unfortunately, the hatch could not be adjusted so that it would close properly with the "OE" stuff. So I went to Lowe’s and bought some 3/8” closed cell foam weatherstripping for $0.30/ft and it works perfectly. I used it before on my Connie, but wanted to give “the real stuff” a try. Never again…

With the V-berth dry, I focused on the low-hanging fruit in the salon. I removed and rebedded the mast and the handrails, using Sikaflex 591. I like the UV protection in 591, but the working time is entirely too short. Once I used up the tube, I switched back to 291 LOT, which is what I had used for years.

Upon removal of any hardware, dirt around the bolt holes that secure the item is a sure sign that you found a leak. In this pic, there's white gelcoat around the rear bolt hole in the cabintop. That means the sealant was there and doing its job. While there's all kinds of silicone and marine sealant spooged in the forward sections, none of it was actually doing any sealing. Rain brings dirt along as it flows with gravity. When the path of the rain takes it to the mast, dirt in the runoff collects under and over the failed sealant, leaving the characteristic spot of dirt.

Ditto for the handholds. This forward mounting base has clean, white sealant around the bolt hole and some completely unnecessary stuff spooged along the forward edge. It didn't leak.

Meanwhile, this one was obviously a leaker.

The helm windshield and side windows were a bit more involved.

The process began by removing the aft awning and hardtop, followed by the windshield frame.

And then back out to the anchorage to continue the work.

The boat sure looks different without the hardtop and awning. This is pretty much the way she was configured when she left the Chris Craft factory in 1968. I like the look, but the hardtop is more practical.

Removing the windshield was a three-man affair, but we got 'er done before nightfall.

And here again, you can see all the dirt collected in the spots where she was leaking. In fact, only two of the bolt holes s had clean gelcoat around them, indicating a good seal. All the rest leaked.

You can see some marine sealant along the leading edge that held on fairly well. But all it really did was create a trough in which rain water would collect and leak inside through the bolt holes and windshield wiper wire chase holes.

Tons of dirt here and it's not surprising: this point was by far the worst leak on the entire salon top.

Next, I removed the side windows and associated hardware. Starting with the large extruded aluminum square tubes that make up the main support for the windshield, you can see the sealant that somebody spooged into the seam between the aluminum and the fiberglass. Of course, it didn't actually seal out the water.

With the aluminum frames entirely removed, I discovered the dirty little secret that was hiding below and the path of the leaks along the windows in the salon and aft stateroom. The mahogany that was used to provide structure and something for the windshield support bolts to bite into had some areas of rot because of the leaks. This is why when you see a leak it's always best to go find it and repair it properly rather than just spooging something on the outside.

And again, accumulated dirt is the telltale of a leak.

After cleaning the wood, I applied Smith & Co's Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer until the wood wouldn't absorb anymore. CPES has very low viscosity and wicks extremely well along soft wood all the way until it hits solid wood again--and then it wicks along the fibers. After the CPES, I followed up in a few hours (while the CPES was still tacky) with US Composites thin epoxy using the 3:1 catalyst. Being a 100% solids epoxy, it is more viscous than CPES but still has good wicking ability. This process is called "cold molding," and it can be used to restore soft wood and to make formerly soft and even new wood water resistant due to the epoxy both coating the outside and reinforcing the fibers below the surface. Once the wood wouldn't take anymore epoxy, I mixed the remaining epoxy with mahogany sawdust to a peanut butter consistency and filled in the areas where rot had destroyed the wood.

The Chris Craft Commander 42 in Speedster configuration!

With the wood cold molded and all surfaces cleaned, dewaxed and dry, it was time to reinstall the windshield support. I generously applied Sikaflex 291 LOT as the sealant.

The next step was to install the windshield, hardtop, and aft awning, again using Sikaflex 291 LOT.

As long as I was in there, I decided to run some speaker wire.

From inside the salon, you can see the Sikaflex bedding compound pushed through with the wire bundles and some of the bolts when I tightened down all of the bolts along the base of the windshield.

In the aft stateroom, Sikaflex indicates a place where water formerly poured in via the aft deck awning screw holes.

With the salon and aft side window leaks resolved, I turned my attention to the aft hatch. At first I simply removed the hatch and rebedded it, thinking that perhaps the silicone sealant installed by a previous owner wasn't doing its job. When the leaks persisted, I removed the hatch again and looked closer. There are two copper tubes that drain the hatch channel of water that falls into it from the deck. The material sealing up the connection of the copper to the channel had given up, allowing water to entirely rot out the two layers of 3/4" marine plywood that support the hatch from below. After resealing the copper pipes to the channel, I scarfed in two pieces of 3/4" plywood to replace the sections that were destroyed, then rebedded the hatch using Sikaflex.

The two copper tubes where they pass through a deck frame before attaching to the back side of the hatch channel.

These are the scarfed joints, which I finished out with US Composites epoxy thickened to peanut butter consistency with mahogany sawdust. Paint will come later.

The aft hatch no longer leaks, which concludes the leak repairs for our 1968 Chris Craft Commander 42 for 2011.