Pinhole leaks in the anchor locker
August 15, 2010Who thinks about the anchor locker? I didn’t for years until we wanted to anchor in the harbor and watch the air show. The big anchor chain was a rusted mass at the bottom. So begins the anchor locker project.
After clearing out the rust the bottom epoxy looked pretty thin. Sure don’t want leaks in the v-berth so smearing with siliconized latex seemed to do the job for about a year and then…
A bit of water in the bulkhead between the anchor locker and v-berth.
Fixing the anchor locker correctly involves fiberglass reinforcing and epoxy
- that’s not going to stick to the siliconized latex so the first step is getting that out of the bottom. Head first down into the locker with a putty knife to scrape and peal that stuff out.
Now the pros can do the job right. Filling the anchor locker with water, Gary said “it’s not leaking” – unbelievable! Ultimately he found and sealed the pinhole leaks, then painted the whole thing with thickened gelcoat. No more leaks and looks pretty too.