Potential for water infiltration

[DanaDCole]

The sides of my companionway hood are made of 1" nominal timber, i.e., they are 3/4" thick. A problem I have with the manual is that I never know whether the lumber dimensions as stated are nominal or actual--it seems to be one way one time and another the next. In this case though, 1" lumber is called for but I'm pretty sure it is actually supposed to be 3/4" thick because otherwise the companionway hatch slides would not fit into the grooves on the hood sides.

To the point: When I drilled the holes for the hood screws, I centered them at 3/8". Made sense at the time, but then I cut the grooves for the hatch slides and they are 3/8" deep. So the screws are exposed. And their holes. (The hatch slides were also catching on the screws a bit, but I tapered the ends and fixed that problem.)

So, rainwater is going to flow over and down the sides of the hatch, onto the slides, and on into the grooves and the holes, where they will infiltrate the wood. Has anyone else had this problem? What did you do about it?

One possible solution is to back the screws out and use a chip brush to get some unthickened epoxy flowing in there, then put the screws back in. That ought to seal the wood. One problem with that is that there are two screws I could not get out. One of the screws would not budge and I ended up shaving off the sides of the slot--the other one simply broke off. I can try to get as much epoxy around them as I can and hope it seals. Another problem is that the excess epoxy may cause the hatch slides to stick, but since I will use unthickened epoxy it should be OK.

Any thoughts or ideas about this will be greatly appreciated.

[chaertl]

Hi Dana,

I ran into the same issue but switched to shorter screws and sealed the holes with epoxy like you're thinking. Haven't had any infiltration problems but the slide slots do get a lot of wear from the hatch sliding on them. The slides and cover are really good at collecting dirt which leads to the problem. I'd almost recommend a second coat of epoxy after the holes are filled with some graphite in it. The slide slots are actually pretty loose fitting so there should be room for it.


Chris

[DanaDCole]

Thanks, I was thinking about shorter screws, but the wood is only about 1/4" thick under the groove so about the only thing the screws would be for is appearance inside the cabin. Actually they're not needed at all if the hood is glued properly--the only reason I used them was to make sure the alignment was correct during installation. It might have been better, in hindsight, to use temporary screws with pads.

I may go ahead and put the shorter screws in so the epoxy will flow into the hole better, and the screws will stop it from flowing out the bottom. Too bad about the two screws I could not remove. Also, I like your idea about an additional coat of epoxy with graphite--I might try it except I don't have any left. Glad for the heads up though, I'll keep an eye on that area.