Everyone has experienced a leaking hatch at one time or another on a sailboat and with the summer rains we have in Florida this is a handy maintenance tip for you.
A handy method to test the seal of a hatch gasket is to test by chalking the knife edge all the way around the hatch and then close and latch it.
Photo by Walkabout Wolf
Open the hatch and check the gasket. If the seal is good it should show an unbroken chalk line all the way around. And if not? Then you may have to do one or more of the following:
- Check the edge that the gasket comes up against. Is it straight and square to the gasket? Look for knife edges that are bent, concaved, convexed, or wavy. If any of these are an issue then there is no way that a good gasket could get a water tight seal on those edges.
- To fix misaligned edges you may have to file, hammer, or force the bent edges into alignment. Other less obvious repairs may need to be made by adjusting hinges and/or latches, rebedding the hatch or replacing the whole unit.
Using the chalk test on your gaskets seasonally is good preventive maintenance. Where can you get chalk? From your kid's art supplies, department stores or your friend that's a teacher.
