PLUMBING PROJECTS 1. Keeping the Bilge Dry I like a dry bilge, for several obvious reasons. One of them is to prevent corrosion, an other to avoid mold. It also helps to detect any leaks, of fresh or sea water, quickly (you just have to briefly lift the inspection floorboard in the galley and take a glance down into the bilge). In normal conditions water should not be entering at more than 3 locations: sea water through the stuffing boxes of the propeller and rudder shafts and rain water through the mast. But in addition to these causes, it is not unusual for unexpected leaks in various locations of the yacht (for instance we have 19 water pumps aboard! - not counting those in the diesel engine).
The system is not yet perfect, next time I pull out the mast I will install the drain below the mast instead of on the side (on a garden hose type fitting) to make sure that all water is drained. A similar arrangement is planned for the area around the propeller shaft, to collect the drips from both shafts. I installed the mast step drain a couple of years ago when I discovered that there was serious corrosion. I had to pull out the whole mast step for repair, and it was one of the worst jobs I have ever undertaken - I will never do that again! |
There's probably no easy way to stop rain from entering through the mast. Fortunately it is fresh water so, if you keep the area below the floorboards ventilated, there should be little damage. In the tropics with several rains a day it would be too much trouble to constantly mop out the water.
One year when we pulled out the mast for the replacing of all the wires in the rigging I was able to inspect the port side of the mast step. As you can see on the photo above (right), some areas had corroded quite badly, and I decided to have the whole thing pulled out and repaired.
The lower end of the mast is now fitted with a drain that directs rainwater to a bottle in the bilge (easy to monitor), see previous story. There is also an arrangement for venting the area below the floor boards through the mast. During our major renovation in 2011-12 we also painted the whole maststep with a two component epoxy paint.
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