Fixed leaky hatch and sidelight this weekend.

[Skuza]

While sleeping on the boat over the weekend I discoverd some water running down the side panel in the V-berth. Not alot but enough to get ya wondering. Well after figuring out (ripping a couple screws out) how the trim panel comes off I found out it was the sidelight where the wire passes thru the deck. I cleaned up the excess silicone and put some fresh around there and the two screw holes that hold the base down.
Saturday night I was sleeping and around 4am I feel a drip on my arm which makes me jump up and start feeling the cieling. Well there wasn't any substantial wetness but a little on the retractable sunshade. Monday I got around to fixing that and it was a breeze. Just pulled all the phillips screws out and the whole hatch comes right out. I seen a dirty little stain at the aft port corner of the framing where it looks like the water was gettin in. Luckily the stain looks fairly new and the surrounding deck looked good and dry. I layed a bead of silicone around there and snugged the screws back up. I am wondering though if I should have removed the black foam type gasket that was flattened out and stuck to the hatch frame. It was paper thin but now I'm wondering if this is gonna mess with the silicone sealing to the frame? Any thoughts?
Moral of the story-If you have an older boat don't be afraid to take stuff apart and re caulk it as preventative maintenance. These two things turned out to be easy! :thumbsup:

 

[boatmailster]

sea ray got really cheap last few years and they use foam seal what comes with hatch (from taylor). that gasket sometimes leaks on brand new boats. the best way is remove old foam seal, remove old glue and use silicone to seal hatch. There could be a little difficult to make it looking good in area where hinge is, but can be done.