Leaking amas

Tips and posts general maintenance.
Chipper
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Leaking amas

Post by Chipper »

I find that both amas accumulate fresh water when it rains. I am pretty sure it gets in as water runs off the cabin top and lands on the top of the retracted amas. The large inspection hatch is my candidate, since the gasket material is not well attached, but has anyone found a source of replacement hatches that does not require modification of the cutout opening, my hatches have absolutely no identification on them. Not a brand name, nor a model or serial name or number.
Chipper
ggreen
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Re: Leaking amas

Post by ggreen »

I have the same problem with mine Hull 311. My hatches are Bomar. I get water in all the sections of the amas (front, middle and aft). I'm not sure whether the water is seeping into the front and rear or whether there is a problem with the main hatch and/or front and rear inspection ports. I bought some Armstrong ports for the front and rear inspection ports but made a fixture because I will need to rout out the hull so they can fit. I have yet to find hatch for the middle that can fit properly in the rough opening of the existing hatch. I saw that on the Telstar that Tony built for himself he has an aluminum hatch instead of the plastic one on our boats. I have attached a photo. I am still unsure where the water is coming from and wish the company (Performance Crusing) could shed some light on the situation.

gary g.
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Bill
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Re: Leaking amas

Post by Bill »

Same leaks on hull #357. Re-bedded hatches and inspection ports this spring, replacing screws with small bolts, after finding sealant had come unstuck from hull and/or fittings. Still leaks, maybe not as quickly. The hatches seem the biggest problem, as they are set in a depression that holds water. Wish I had an answer. In winter, when under tarp, I remove the inspection plates and put wire mesh over the holes, to allow amas to thoroughly dry out, without letting mice in. I also took the starboard c channel trim strip off and epoxied the deck/hull joint in some places where it looked compromised. Strip has to be warm in the sun to fit back on, by the way.
ggreen
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Re: Leaking amas

Post by ggreen »

I believe I finally solved the leaking ama problem on my Telstar 311. Today I will finish up my replacement program and post pictures of what I did.

gary g.
ggreen
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Re: Leaking amas

Post by ggreen »

I finally decided to address the ports and hatches on the amas after addressing everything else that could be the culprit with water in the amas. I bought Armstrong ports and hatches and did some modifications the existing openings by making some fixtures to accommodate the new sizes. Fort the ports, I removed them from the boat and modified the inside of the apron to accommodate the Armstrong port thereby not having to fill screw holes. For the hatch I made an exact size template of the existing hatch and apron and routed out the inside to accommodate the new Armstrong hatch. I also located all the screw holes from the existing hatch and included them on my template. I used 5200 to attach all the parts and the existing screw hole locations. For the hatch apron I screw from underneath so there would be no screws showing from the top. I will say that when I started to remove the ports and hatches that a number of the screws were overturning and some of the screws for the hatches did not even attach to the fiberglass hull. It looks like someone used a chainsaw to make these openings instead of good craft skills. Terrible workmanship.

In any event I have included some pictures.

gary g.
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ggreen
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Re: Leaking amas

Post by ggreen »

Here are pictures of the finished product. By the way we had some real hard rainstorms and I am happy to say that all sections on both my amas had absolutely no water.

gary g.
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ggreen
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Re: Leaking amas

Post by ggreen »

One more picture of the installed apron for the hatch.

gary g.
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ggreen
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Re: Leaking amas

Post by ggreen »

That didn't work. Here's another shot.
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agprice22
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Re: Leaking amas

Post by agprice22 »

As a new owner performing a restoration of my T2, I found water in the Amas. It was not tannic water from the lake on which the boat sat. It was rainwater. I have no additional hatches on the amas other than 14x21 deck access hatches, so I decided to remove the hatches and refit them. I also had significant cracking in the gelcoat around the hatches. Upon removal, I found the fiberglass layup in the rain gutter for the hatches was 1/8" at most. It was cracked and very flexible.
I reinforced the raingutters and filled and faired the gutters to deck level. My new Bomar hatches sit at deck height. Thus, no water should sit around them and leak into the seal.

I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks,
Andrew
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Cruissser
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Poor mans fix

Post by Cruissser »

Just thought I would update this post with my fixes that work fairly well.

I had water in my amas and was told that this was an issue even by the original owner. With the limited storage on the boat and planning to live aboard for weeks at a time I was very eager to correct this and take advantage of the storage they offer.

First I worked on the amas themselves. I was afraid to take off the bumper covering the top and bottom seam of the ama because it was quite hard and I never did find a good source for a new one. Instead I caulked all the way around the top and bottom of the bumper with 3M UV 2000. We then took it to a lake on a calm day and discovered there was very slight seapage in the starboard ama....only a couple teaspoons of water. The culprit was some damage that was not properly repaired which we ground out and re fiber glassed.

I then started working on the original hatches. The latches were worn out and not sealing properly. I installed new o rings and ground the lower part of the latch down to increase the tension. This did give me limited success.

I could not find replacement seals for the inspection covers, so I went to my trusty hydraulics shop and bought O rings for the job. $5 of o rings versus $100 for new inspection covers gave me the incentive to give it a try and it worked perfectly. Never any water in the forward or aft compartments after that. Not even a drop!!

The actual seal around the hatch seemed just fine, so off to sea we went! About 4 hours on heavy seas I was getting a bit concerned about the way the boat was performing, so I heaved to and found the ama on the lea side was almost completely full of water! The other side was bone dry. We pumped it all out and off we went again.

When we got to a hardware store we bought SS screws and drilled and screwed down the four corners of both hatches. This has proved to be a great solution, but not a 100% fix. After sailing a full day we only had a cup or so of water in the middle compartment, and I believe this could be fixed with another screw on both sides in the middle of the hatches longest side.

I eventually will buy a new hatch as I believe that would be the cure all, but in the meantime unscrewing 6 screws with my cordless drill only adds about 30 seconds to the process of opening the hatch and gives me a nice tight seal and peace of mind.

Hope this helps or at least gives you a few ideas.
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