Leaking at rail mounts?

[bcboater]

I am getting a small amount (shot glass) of water in the forward under berth storage and the dinette under seat storage.  I'm suspicious of the railing mounts.  Has anyone ever re-bedded those, and how did you get to the bolts ( I assume it is a bolted connection)?

[Iggy]

You want to use butyl. Its a type of chalking that does not dry up. 

[Hatem]

20 hours ago, bcboater said:

I am getting a small amount (shot glass) of water in the forward under berth storage and the dinette under seat storage.  I'm suspicious of the railing mounts.  Has anyone ever re-bedded those, and how did you get to the bolts ( I assume it is a bolted connection)?

The problem with those is they do bolt them to SS plates under the floor cap edge at the factory prior to dropping it and attaching it to the lower hull .  Once they fill in all the interior on cabin boats like yours, it becomes very difficult to get to them and the cloer the railing attachments are to the bow, the tougher it is to get to them.

Essentially you have to dismantle whatever sides you have to access the edge of the cap to get to them.  I would try to remove whatever is on the sides (cabinet, panels, seat backs etc.) right where the leak is first and see if you can access them.

I had to get in to mine (and it's a bowrider so it is a bit easier) to tighten the bow eye plate and check a popup cleat and I used a breaker bar, which is probably what you will end up needing to reach them unless they happen to be right there once you remove the paneling.

When I got inside my helm storage to look into that area, I could see one of the pop-up cleat's bolts and docking light and couldn't imagine what a nightmare it would be to reach those bolts if I had to.  But you can see the top cap to bottom hull connection and that's where your railing posts connections would be as well.

The believe the breaker bar I used to get in there was a 16" with a swivel head.  It made it barely possible but without it, it would've been impossible to get to it.

And if you are actually able to get to the culprit and loosen the bolts, it wont be easy to just pull it up to get any sealant under it because that stuff is very rigid and there isn't much flex in all that connected SS railings to push the post flange up and clean the old sealant underneath and put new stuff.  You'll have to loosen a couple more posts, at least one on each side of the bad one and lift them all together a little bit, unless there is a way to disconnect the railings at the post?  And I would use 5200 on those for sure.

[cyclops2]

I would buy a small tube of  sealant that is RATED FOR SUNLIGHT exposure. Usually about 4 to 6" long. With fine tips on them. Clean the support & hull next to it. Run a TINY CLEAR bead around to seal it.

[soldier4402]

Had this problem on my fountain.  I would assume most boats are the same in that its a bolted connection, and you will have to access from inside the cabin, which may mean removing panels, cabinets etc.  I took my rails off and used a good silicone caulk for marine/outdoors, don't use anything adhesive because if you ever have to do it again.  But here are some tips

1.  Before ripping everything apart, get access to the bolts underneath, inspect for water intrusion you should be able to see signs, if not have somebody spray the railing with a hose and watch, you should find it.

2.  If you don't find a leak and want to do it anyways its going to take two people, as my rails didn't drop straight in, it took somebody from above holding them into place to get the bolts through to get a nut on there.

[cyclops2]

Do you people with loose handrails use the handrails to support docking fenders ?  During rough weather the floats get jammed against the dock While the boat heaves around. My docking areas have horizontal boards with spaces between them. The float gets bulged into the gaps & would pull down on any handrail being used as a cleat.

[bcboater]

Thanks Hatem.