Last weekend an old friend called to get the latest news on the Mahdee project. He asked if Mahdee was water tight yet. These sorts of questions always get my blood pressure up as I think of all that needs to be done. I said that no she was not water tight. I was thinking about all that water that could end up in the bilge if it rained. And the water that would run off the deck and into the bilge through those hatch-less openings on the deck. And through the leaky section of the chart-house roof, and so on. I am pretty sure that my friend was thinking about holes in the bottom of the boat that let water up and into the bilge but I was totally focused on the other type of holes. I suspect that many boaters worry more about the top-side holes. After all, holes in the bottom are very rare and aren’t the type of event that usually sinks boats. Water from the cockpit or open hatches flooding the boat is a real world possibility and can do significant damage even if the boat is on the hard. So, I said something to my friend about needing to put together a priority list to get things like those hatches water tight. My friend may not be a boater, but he is sharp and he immediately picked up on the problem that those hatches could be if our bed were underneath–which it was.

So we put together a list titled project water tight which has little to do with the hull other than we needed to drill some holes in it for the deck drain hoses–not everything moves forward in lock-step. The three big problem areas included the cockpit. We had already put in a temporary drain, but we needed to remove it to put down the water tight elastomeric membrane on the cockpit sole. While the first coats of that water soluble membrane were drying, of course, we had our first rain in months–fortunately it stopped after only a few drops. Before the next thunderstorm rolls through, we wanted at least one functional drain. That was at the top of our Project Water Tight list, and we now have that drain.

Next on the prioritized list were the hatches. The word hatch was a little bit of an overstatement. At the time they were really just holes in the deck. The hatch bases were nicely refinished and varnished, but still sitting on the bench. The butterfly hatches, nicely varnished, were right next to the bases. The old lexan…well one piece some how got turned into a router base and the others are MIA. New glass has yet to be ordered. The forward two hatches were the biggest potential leak because they are not on the centerline of the boat and water can drain “down” the deck into these holes. With a team effort, Brenda and I got those two bedded and fastened. The center hatch turned out to be a much bigger problem. John, who framed that opening, insisted that the center hatch was different in size from the forward two. It turns out that is the same size and that a (rare for John!) measurement error probably caused the hatch opening to be too small. Today, I cut the opening larger. Fortunately the aft beam was oversize and only a partial beam so it was a simple decision to open the hatch opening by cutting out some of that beam. More work on finishing up that hatch tomorrow.

The deck of Mahdee is nice and water tight, but the chart house roof is the original and leaks like a sieve. Brenda had already covered the main part of the roof with plywood, elastomeric roofing layer, and canvas anti-skid. The lower forward section of the deck house needed the same treatment. We glued and fastened the plywood and are now ready to put on the elastomeric coating and canvas.

The scuttle opening needs to have the scuttle base bedded and fastened. That’s on the list for tomorrow. That will take care of most of the potential “big leaks” should it rain. The various deck drains still need thru-hulls, but there are now some other thru-hulls that have been given temporary duty as exit points for those drains. While much work remains to get the deck drains plumbed to their appropriate outlets and the cockpit painted, varnished, and sealed, by the end of the week we should be ready for rain. Then in a few weeks we will have the Project Water Tight redux to address the issues my friend was certainly thinking about when he asked his question.