Where are those pesky leaks?!?

Yesterday, in an attempt to reduce water ingress, I removed the mast step and rebedded it on Sikaflex and also removed the connectors that are screwed onto the coachroof.  The antenna connenctor just needed rebedding and was screwed back down,  the masthead light connector looked like it had been forgotten about when the mast was lower and had been ripped out, snapping the wires.  I cut them back to resolder but they had black oxidation all the way down. I will have to replace the wiring back to the panel.

 This morning, Oh boy.. it was wet.  Not being one to shy away from these things I went out to do some more on Ciao Bella, hoping to see a significant dercrease in the amount of water accumulated.  No such luck,  the bilges were swimming; The majority of the water had come in through the hole for the mast head connector, as I hadn't covered it and a lot had also seemed to have come over the washboards.... A rethink on design is required here.

I mopped up and set about making the floor rib and repairing the rotten kickboard.  I used the dremel to cut away the old wood and cut a piece of 9mm ply to fit. I glued this in place with Gripfill and will glass in place another day.  The rib is 12mm and was quickly in place.  I bonded it in place with Sikaflex and then started laying on a layer of GRP.

Early afternoon and the Sun came out so I ventured outside.  The solar panel was already attached to the front hatch but I wanted Dome head bolts so not to cut my feet when walking barefoot around the boat. I also fitted the cable gland,  This was going to be a swish Index marine 90 degree jobby but as it still is not available I fitted a standard cable gland.  Due to the thickness of the deck I had to epoxy the gland in but it seems to do the job. 

The bases for the pullpit seemed to be letting water through so I turned my attention to these.  I enlisted the help of No1 son as I couldn't reach the nuts and screw head on my own.  Once removed the story was clear to see.  Although the GRP looked good while it was clamped under the Pullpit base, once undone the top layer on one of them just fell apart.  It GRP on all of them had started to degrade.

  I overdrilled the mounting holes, this revealed a sandwiched sheet of wood which was sodden. It was all starting to make sense, this is most likely where the dripping tea comes from :~). As it was getting cold and dark I mixed up some thick GRP resin and filled in the holes.  I will attack this properly another day but hopefully this should stop water coming through.