Sorry for the long delay in posting, Its been a combination of the weather in Virginia (which has sucked) plus my iPhone Camera has been out of commission and I rarely ever remember to bring Jeans good camera with me.

I found out a couple of things from the rainy spring. Firstly my hatches leak more than ever and secondly the hull/deck joint which is supposed to be glassed on the inside of the Seawind II was not glassed completely.

When we bought her she had silicone caulk along the top edge of the rub rail, it looked as though the applicator had deposited a tubefull in his hand and smeared it on in about two minutes. Needless to say this was peeling off pretty badly and I was picking at it casually secure in the knowledge that everywhere I had checked the joint had been glassed so no leaks!

During my fall fishing/sailing trip I had noticed a bit of a leak here when it inevitably rained on us, but I put it down to the rigging moving and resolved to fix it this spring. So imagine my surprise when I found my gally storage cabinet full of water when I finally had a dry weekend to work on the boat.

The problem was that the hull/deck joint was never glassed up in there as it was tough to get to compounded with the fact that that area is the lowest point of the rub rail. The rain simply channeled down the rail and into the locker.

The first order of business was to scrape out all of the silicone, which was pretty easy, then I sprayed bleach into the joint and let it dry to kill any mould/mildew. after a rigorous scrub I hosed the seams and let them dry in the sun.

Before I set to caulking I used a small spray bottle to liberally douse the joint with mineral spirits to wick out any remaining moisture and set to taping up the hull and rub rail so the line would be neat and professional looking.

My first thought was to use 3m 4200 however due to the large quantity of caulk needed for the job and the high price of the product I started to look at alternatives.

Anything with silicone in it was out of the question but looking around my local hardware store I found this:

I decided to give it a shot as a test of whether high end household product would hold up as well as a proven marine product over the course of the next couple of years. Obviously this is not an endorsement, but at $6.99 a tube verses $14.99 why not give it a try?

The caulk went on well but be aware that its spirit based not water based so clean up can be tricky if you are not paying attention.

After a month I can tell you the leak has ceased, but its too early to tell how the product will hold up over the course time.

Next up the hatches.