Last weekend I was hosing all the crud and bird crap off Circe while Marie was sitting in the dinette making a phone call and she noticed a couple of drops of water run down from the port aft chain plate mount. We took a look at the top of the chain plate and saw that the caulking on it looked a bit rough.
A quick look at the other five plates confirmed they were all in similar shape....new caulking was needed.
As we didn't have a lot of time and no spare cotter pins we decided to try doing the caulking without disconnecting the shrouds. It was a bit tight digging out the old caulk with just the cover plates lifted, as there wasn't a lot of room, but by making a right angle pick from an old screwdriver we got it done.
Electrical tape holding up the turnbuckle covers.
We also used a bit of electrical tape to hold each cover plate up against its clevis while we were working.
We used 3M 4000 which we have found to be a good compromise sealer for deck hardware that will be removed periodically. It has a bit more strength than other polysulphide sealants but it doesn't cure up solid.
We had three attempts at cutting the nozzle before getting the right size bead without needing bionic fingers to squeeze the caulk out!
A wipe over with bit of acetone to clean up and things look a lot better. More importantly, no more leaks!
No comments:
Post a Comment