Hi Steve, I presume that you have located your leak and that it is at the aft end of the centerboard trunk / cockpit molding joint, which is where I found my leak to be.
I localized the leak by pressurizing the cabin of the boat using my shop vac. I made styrofoam hatch boards and sealed the edges with duct tape. The vacuum hose (in the blow mode) was inserted into a hole in the styrofoam. Then I let the vac run for a few minutes to build up pressure inside the boat, before painting the inside of the C/B area with a detergent solution. The result was that the leak area was blowing bubbles. Voila, that's the exact spot! You are correct about it being "difficult" to reach. The first thing you have to remove is the teak board that is over the C/B drain slot to give you more access to the area. That is easily done: just drill out the teak plugs, then with the screw holes clear, put in a long Philips No 2 screwdriver and remove the screws holding the teak board in place. Now with a bit more access room, you can probably look at, but can't reach the aft corner. The only way to get access is to cut out a portion of the aft end of the C/B slot. Then you have working space! Save the piece / pieces. You'll want to epoxy them back in place when you are finished repairing the leak. At that point I used a DREMEL grinder to open up the leaking joint area; and then mixed up an epoxy/filler mixture (WEST products) and forced the mixture into the opened slot. I also made sure that I covered the adjacent areas as well. With the leak area repaired, I then gave it another pressure test with the shop vac; painting the repaired area with detergent suds; and this time there were no more bubbles. Then you just epoxy your cut out pieces back in place: replace the teak board; put in new teak plugs; and refinish the teak plug surfaces. I just used a toothpick and spread a bit of epoxy over the surface. My boat has been bone dry ever since; the way it should be! Connie M15 #400 LEPPO ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/. _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
