Recaulking Taylor Made hatch

My hatch is leaking. Not sure if its the rubber seal or if I need to recaulk it to the deck.
Is it a major project to recaulk? Any tricks? type of caulk to use? Any thing special to do or watch out for?

Thanks for your help!

Daily, you've asked a question in such away that it can't be answered directly.

Simply put, you have to either know what your problem is to fix it or fix all possible problems irrespective of their actually being the cause. The presumption l;eft to us is that we are talking about a "DECK HATCH."

Try this so you'll know.

Get your boat in to a level position if trailered. With a hose on a slow, non splashing stream, work your way around the hatch frame flooding it and any screw heads with the slow stream. Below decks have a mate watche for leaks. Note: you do not want to get the water so high as to wet the gasket yet. If the leak appears and the gasket hasn't been involved, then your hatch needs to be rebedded. If after say 15-20 minutes of this trail no leak appears, dog down the hatch and begin flooding up under the hatch rim to flood the gasket work around the gasket from low point to high while the mate watches for leaks. Make any spots where leats are first noted. If the gasket is failing, perhaps the hatch can be adjusted to dog down more tightly. If not a new gasket would be in order.

If no leak is found by the exercise, then try a full pressure water stream aimed at the gasket from say back 8 to 10 feet. You want to simulate wind driven water while underway, or from strong storm winds. Some gaskets when old will work fine when unchallenged, but will give way easily under pressure. If this water test concerns you then you can try a "clamping test on the gasket, using two layer sof aluminium foil foled into a strip.

Place a few of these foil strips around the hatch with a tail hanging inside the cabin. Dog down the hantch and then one by one pull horizontally "slowly" away from the gasket. Don't pull down. If the foil slips easily out of the gasket seat ... the gasket is not weather proof and either needs tightening or replaced.

I really doubt it will be the problem, but if you find you need to rebed the hatch frame, this will be a all day job to R & R without but damaging anything. These frames are often set in 3M 5200 caulk (call SR CS fro details) which is considered "permanent" and will require alot of cajoiling to remove the hatch. It is such a hard task, I'd recommend just scrafing out the old caulk from the frame/deck joint and recaulk the joint from the deck.

If its the gasket you can order these direct from Taylor.

Asureyez said:

Daily, you've asked a question in such away that it can't be answered directly.

Click to expand...

Your not the only one that has told me that! I hear it from my wife all the time or at least she gives me that look like, what the heck are you talking about!

I should have worded the question a little better. Thanks for your timely reply. a long and detailed one at that! The "deck hatch" leaks from the high side (closest to the windshield). I had cleaned and put a conditioner on the rubber gasket, but I have not tested it yet. There is no visable signs of caulk around the hatch/deck surface so thats why I assumed that the leak was comming from there. I was hoping that I did not have to pull off the hatch for reasons you listed above. I will check for leaks using the methods you have mentioned, with any luck I will have the problem taken care of in no time. I did not realize I could buy the rubber gasket if need be.

Thanks again!

daileyinterest said:

My hatch is leaking. Not sure if its the rubber seal or if I need to recaulk it to the deck.
Is it a major project to recaulk? Any tricks? type of caulk to use? Any thing special to do or watch out for?

Thanks for your help!

Click to expand...

remove hatch (you may have to remove trim inside cabin)
remove foam seal
clean out glue from deck and hatch
apply silicone or caulk on hatch and around opening
reinstall hatch and clean excess of silicone
you should be done in about 1.5-2 hrs if this is your first time

Speaking of inside cabin trim...that was one of my other concerns. It appears that the hatch frame on the inside overlaps the cabin trim and I was wondering if the hatch frame is a two piece unit. I dont see a joint line where the outer and inner would split apart. I orginally was assuming that the frame was a one piece that droped in from the top. Am I correct?

It would be nice if there is only a foam seal between the hatch mounting flange and the deck surface. That makes for a easier job. Iam not affraid to tackel the job but I dont want any surprises either.

The more I think about this leak, Iam starting to think the water is comming from the seal between the gasket (attached to the glass frame) and the mounting flange, since the interior trim in the cabin is not wet.


Thanks again!

daileyinterest said:

Speaking of inside cabin trim...that was one of my other concerns. It appears that the hatch frame on the inside overlaps the cabin trim and I was wondering if the hatch frame is a two piece unit. I dont see a joint line where the outer and inner would split apart. I orginally was assuming that the frame was a one piece that droped in from the top. Am I correct?

It would be nice if there is only a foam seal between the hatch mounting flange and the deck surface. That makes for a easier job. Iam not affraid to tackel the job but I dont want any surprises either.

The more I think about this leak, Iam starting to think the water is comming from the seal between the gasket (attached to the glass frame) and the mounting flange, since the interior trim in the cabin is not wet.


Thanks again!

Click to expand...

foam seal is ALWAYS a problem!
if you have original one - replace it before you got water damage to your bed.
inside trim is for clean look only and is not permanent part of the hatch - sometimes is possible to remove hatch without removing inside aluminum trim.
once you remove hatch you be very surprise how big is opening for the hatch and that mounting screws are not pre-drilled from factory and are not sealed! (sea ray doing very sh..y job there)
sometimes there is a leak around mushroom cap for handle/locks (just tighten up screw to fix that or replace o-ring if hatch is few years old)

I just fixed a leaky hatch on ours this summer. I was sleeping one night in a steady rain when I woke up to a cool drop on me. The next day I opened the hatch and decided to try rebedding. I pulled out the screws that hold the frame in from the top and gently pryed up on the hatch housing. It came out pretty easy. There is a black foam gasket that is sandwiched between the frame and the deck. I could see in the aft port corner the dirty stain from water seeping in. Luckily this didn't cause any deck de-lam problems since I found it apparently early. A side note to this is the leak was actually dripping from the front-most port corner inside the cabin. The water was seeping in and running down the interior trim and finally dripping out in the opposite corner. Lesson here is the leak doesn't always come from directly above. I used 3m silicone to rebed the hatch frame. I did leave what was left of the foam on the hatch frame and I know that may have been a bad idea so clean yours off first. I know some say to use 5200 but that stuff is like a glue and IF I ever have to pull the hatch again I do not want gelcoat coming off with it! After the rebed I have had no problems. Then again I have not slept on it while it rained all night either.

It looks like I will rebed the hatch reguardless of where the leak is from. Iam pretty sure the foam seal is original. Right now the sun shade catches most of the water, then when I open it without thinking the water drips all over the bed.

Thanks again everyone!

The seal on my deck hatch was not installed properly at the factory - more of a cosmetic issue since it did not leak. My dealer removed the foam seal and used 3M 5200 caulk in its place. They indicated that it is very difficult to replace the seal and that they prefer to use the caulk.

Buckeye Boater said:

They indicated that it is very difficult to replace the seal and that they prefer to use the caulk.

Click to expand...

That is one BS what your dealer told you.
It is so easy replace foam gasket that is why sea ray is doing it, but it is only last 1-2 years and start leaking (many times earlier than that).
SR using double stick foam gasket because they don't have to deal with nice finish of caulk bead (area by hinge is very difficult to finish)

Follow up....

The foam seal was bad. I removed what was left of the seal and rebedded the hatch with a generious amount of Boat-life sealent. Case closed! Thanks all for your help!