New Mooring

[Peter T]

Ah, thanks Geoff. From your photos, I can sort mine out. It's very strange that mine has neither holes or gutters, but it will get something before I finish with it. Cheers

[Peter T]

Hi all, just checked out my lack of drain holes each side of my front hatch. I have a thickened section each side where the drain holes should be but there is definitely no drain holes there. I reckon in manufacture, they may have been drilled through the fibreglass from the inside. To do this now, I reckon I would have to drill through the lip around the inside to get the angle of the hole correct so that the drill would exit at the correct point. I am re posting Ian's photo here and I would love for someone who has the same setup to take a photo from the inside of the bottom corner showing the drain hole on the inside of the hatch opening corner with the hatch open so i can see how it was done. Thanks in advance.

[Geoff]

Hey Peter,

couple of pics attached. The hole on the inside is right down in the apex. So you won't be able to drill from in the gutter.

I think you have to either drill from outside, or from inside the boat through the inner lip, then plug that hole after.

I will be interested to see your applied engineering.

[Peter T]

Hi Geoff. Thank you so much. You have solved two problems for me in the one go. I will be able to drill through the inner gutter and through to where it needs to go. I think it impossible to do it from the outside unless it might be possible if I used a flexible cable with a chuck one end and the other in the drill. That way I might be able to get the angle of the hole shallow enough. But if I drill through from the inside, I can then fill the hole in the inner lip. I have some polyester filler that has fibreglass mixed in it, ideal for that purpose.
Also, mine just has a flat strip of rubber in the bottom of the Chanel that the lip of the hatch sits against. Your photo has also shown me how to correctly seal the hatch.
I have had a very busy day re fitting the hatch. It was way out of alignment so off it came. Filled all the mounting holes with said fibreglass filler. The hinges I had were terrible and they had been changed a couple of previous times and all the old holes had been filled with silastic. All that removed, drilled out all hinge holes in the cabin roof and filled them with epoxy. Then modified the hinges to something like they ought to be and set the hatch up held in place with multiple paddle pop sticks then re drilled hinge holes and fitted the hatch properly. It's amazing what things some people will do to their boats.. also I have had to do heaps of repairs to the cabin roof as well as the mast step but I will put up a separate post re that. See photo below

Also Geoff, I hate to tell you this mate, but in those two photos you have shown me, notice the cracks in the gel coat just near the non skid area. Well, to me, that looks a lot like you may have a soft core problem in that area as I did in the cabin roof. What I did with that was to cover the area with masking tape, put a stop on a small drill ( only big enough to get the tip of the syringe in ) and drill through the outer skin in a 50 mm square pattern and inject epoxy in there in each hole. I used slow set hardner to give enough working time. If it comes out the nearest hole to where the syringe is, then it's hollow in there. If that's the case, then It need stabilising and it can be done like I have explained or cut the top layer out, replace the core and then glass the outer back in there. It's far easier to inject it and set epoxy is a super strong core material.
Cheers

[Geoff]

Neat job mate. And I feel vindicated, I reckoned if I was going to do it that's how I would go. If you came in from the outside the slightest misalignment would end up being ugly when you exited in the gutter.

[Peter T]

Spot on mate. Also, if I can get a starting hole through there, then I could drill it out a bit larger and use epoxy glue and fit a small aluminium tube in there. That way there would be no way that water could get into the fibres of the fibreglass.
Cheers

[Watto]

This article is turning technical.

I don’t have drain holes at all.

The hatch is fully fibreglass? No wood?

[Ozzie]

Spritzig has no drain holes as at no 143 I guess they had stopped doing it. I can see the value but I think the sealing if the hatch is far more important. My foam seal in the hatch needs replacement. My wife was cleaning the fore deck last trip with buckets of water and it came pouring in which would be the case in heavy seas I guess. The drains really only get rid of residual nuisance water. In my case rocking on the mooring seems to drain this area effectively as I’ve not been aware of water laying in the groove when I’ve opened the hatch over the years . My centre latch setup has reinforced glass that effectively divides the bottom drain into two separate areas so it does not built up much.

[Geoff]

Hi Luke,

Fathom is #82, does it have the molded gutters instead, which the early numbers did? I can't remember at what sail number the molding change occurred.

It will be interesting to see if any other late type hatches have the same issue as Peter's boat, as in no drain holes.

[Geoff]

I cross posted - was typing my reply while Ozzie put his in. That's a better response. So it seems the first ones of the later type had weep holes but then they did away with them?

Peter might not need to do anything then?