Centerboard Hosing Crack

[peterferguson99]

I have a 71' Pearson, 35ft, centerboard. At the end of last
season the centerboard housing started leaking at the rear,
starboard-side through a small crack. The leak seemed minor at first
but after a week on the dock there was a very full bilge. We jammed 5200
in there to hold us over before it was hauled. Now we are trying to
figure out what it could be.

We are going to hoist her up and drop the board to inspect but not sure
what we'll find. It's obviously wear and tear but do you have any idea
where we should start? Cable? Joint? housing crack? We are in Port
Washington NY now. If all else fails do you know anyone around there we
could call on?

[Erin]

Did you ever get your leak sorted out? Where exactly in the housing did the leak appear? I discovered what I thought was a leak from a "crack" in one area of my centerboard trunk (port side rear, just above where the deep bilge begins, next to the shiv box). Turns out the water oozing from that area was coming from the sumps around the centerboard pin further forward - the water runs from the sumps through the fiberglass in what appears to be a channel (by design?? Perhaps...) and then drains down into the bilge. I confirmed this by pouring a couple of gallons of water into both of the sumps and watching it come ooze out the aft side, by the shiv box.

When I bought the boat, the auto bilge pump didn't seem to go off all that often. The ooze of water from the area I thought was cracked or delaminating seemed pretty slow. After I knocked all the barnacles loose from the trunk and during the sail around the tip of Florida towards home, the bilge pump started going off with increasing frequency. By the time I got home, it was going off about every 10 minutes. Slow enough for the bilge pump to keep up, but really just not cool.

I had leaks in several places that affected this flow of water, and attempted to fix them all when hauled...
1. At the joint between the pipe and the shiv box that the cable runs through. Fix? Re-seal joint with pipe dope or teflon... or both, depending on your school of thought. Didn't confirm or deny leak at the other end of the pipe, but accidentally unscrewed it too, so re-sealed it as well.
2. Possible leak from around the shiv box (glass was pulling away from the metal of the box). Fix? grind glass down just a bit to clean it up, stuff the delam part with epoxy, lay a couple layers of glass around it over top. This was recommended to me by a boat builder who is now a professional surveyor.
3. Confirmed leak from centerboard pin nipples. Fix? Re-seal threads with pipe dope.
4. Confirmed leak from unused through-hulls in the forepeak (my boat came with 3 transducers for depth sounders... the two through hull sounders were leaking, but not in use). I believe this water ran back and helped fill the centerboard pin sumps. Fix? Knock them out and glass them over.
5. Confirmed leak from rudder post. No, this didn't contribute to the leak that appeared to be coming from the centerboard, but it did add to the bilge filling up. Fix? Grind around the base of the post a bit to clean it up, and clean out under it any that is possible, and glass over the base plate. Again, this fix was recommended to me by the boat builder surveyor.
6. Found a couple cracked areas inside the centerboard trunk near the bottom. Don't know if they were a source of water, there was really no way to check that but I ground them down and glassed over them anyway. Didn't find any cracks or suspicious areas towards the top.

7. Confirmed leak from around/through the glass that holds the brass plates with the pin nipples in the boat. Sadly, this was not discovered until the boat was back in the water. Temporary fix until the next time I haul? Jam some underwater curing epoxy (the kind you use in pools or on car radiators) down around the plate to slow or stop the flow of water.

I think that covers it... hope that maybe helps you. Or someone else.