Some leaks seem impossible to find!

It seems talking to fellow Sadler owners, that we all suffer from fresh water leaks!

When we bought Elektra, she always had damp under the floor at the bottom of the companion way steps, wasn’t really worth trying to find out where it wad coming from, because it wasn’t a lot. But when Elektra got pulled out for the winter 2022-23 for a major refit, l made the mistake of asking the boat yard to pressure wash her decks as well as her bottom which they normally did.

From then on we had a major leak, we would get a gallon of water from under the floor every time it rained. My first attempt to stop it happening was to remove the port window above the cooker and reseal it. That wasn’t the problem as we still had the leak! I removed and resealed the garage above the companion way hatch, no difference! I removed and resealed all the sprayhood fittings, no difference. Last year while in Plymouth getting the electronics sorted found that the sprayhood strap loops, the screws were so long they went right though the GRP and so got shorter screws and resealed, this seemed to help quite a bit but still didn’t solve the leak. I had another go at resealing the D brackets on the sidedecks but no difference. There was another D bracket way aft nearly touching the pushpit foot, so l resealed it and that almost solved the leak? I wasn’t sure why because it was so far aft that would of thought any water would have gone into the cockpit locker.

Will today l resealed the pushpit foot, fingers crossed l hope l have solved the leak now? I will let you know if we ever get any more rain?

I am glad to say, l had finished the resealing job before it got to hot. And l could go below to get out of the heat. I opened up the for hatch for additional ventilation which bought the temperature down to 25C in the cabin, it was over 30C outside! On the good side the evening are very warm, so l have been sitting outside during the evenings until dark, something we thought we would be able to do when we started cruising in 2006 but never found the evenings warm enough to stay in the cockpit until now.