Sailboat renovation

Renovation of leaking sliding hatch

June 9, 2019 /

We have had trouble earlier with our leaking sliding hatch , which we started to repair a couple of weeks ago, read more about part one HERE. When the linseed oil we added had hardened 14 days later we started to varnish it.

Adding first layer of varnish on the sliding hatch.
After the first layer of varnish. In total we added 8 layers on the hatch.

After we had added 8 layers of varnish we glued the Isiteek, which is fake teak made out of plastic, back on the hatch and then it was time to start with repairing the leakages.

First up, add tape to protect the sliding hatch.
We used butyl tape to fix the leakages. It is very sticky and thick so hopefully it will keep the water out.
Adding the butyl tape between the windows on the sliding hatch, where we had leakage problems.
A closer look at the butyl tape.
After that we added the outer window in position and started adding sealant around the window and between the varnished wood and the Isiteek.
The sealant around the window.
The butyl tape made the outer window slightly higher than the rest of the hatch. But this might actually be a good thing since by having it higher water won’t gather on the window and the risk of leakages might be less.
Just as a reminder, this is the hatch before starting the renovation.
… and after 🙂

In parallel to working with the leaking sliding hatch we have also started working with the door to the cabin. We currently have a provisional one but the previous owner had started to make a new one and we are just continuing that work, but more about the door later. We have also worked quite a lot with the plastic repairs in the cockpit, and today we thought we could finally paint it but had some drawbacks… will add a blog post about that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

Now lets just hope that this leaking sliding hatch won’t cause any more trouble and is finished for good, we don’t need more work right now. We will update if the sliding hatch is sealed when we have had time to test it.

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