Boat Penetrations

[C-Dude]

Unfortunately, the person that I bought my boat from did not install the wires penetrating the boat in a manner that satisfies me. So, now I need to fix it. The radar and GPS wires penetrate the ceiling of the boat behind the anchor light and are secured by.......silicone blobs! In addition, the VHF antenna penetrates the side of the boat adjacent to the drivers seat and the penetration is sealed with.......you guessed it, blobs and globs of silicone. Can any of you recommend a cleaner, neater penetration sealant or hardware item, it would be much appreciated. I have seen several items, however would appreciate some input from anyone who has used a product that they have been satisfied with.

thanks,

Ben

 

[Bluecrab]

For the VHF cable (assume it was the cable, not the antenna), I've used a feed through fitting with a rubber grommet that works well.

You can seal sides of the hole with sealant, mount the fitting, and tighten down the grommet once the cable is through, giving a water-tight seal. Clams are another way to finish off the through-hull.

My radar's mounted on a power-tower, so the cabling goes inside the tower, through the cabin roof, and is finished inside with a clam.

 

[Anonymous]

Blue crabs recommendations are good advice. I have the exact fitting he is showing you and it mounts securely, seals well and my only complaint would be that it is not as flat to the roof as i would like. I also have one clam shell and this is much cleaner, can be installed with out having to feed the cable all the way through and lays flatter on the roof. It is however sealed with those blobs. These are for my VHF and GPS.
For the Radar I built a short radar mount and all wires go down through the center. When I get around to redoing all of this I will re mount the GPS & VHF to an appendage on the radar mount and ALL wires will go down through the center. Live and learn, last year I was a new guy!
Mike

 

[thataway]

I use the cable fittings as pictured above for VHF cables, where I put the PL 259 fittings on the end. For those which have larger fittings, (such as a GPS which uses NMEA 2000 plugs), I use the Blue Seas Cable Clams. These have a plastic base, with a hard rubber tapered plug between the upper plastic piece. The installer drills a hole the size of the cable in the center, and cuts a slit with a razor blade. The hole in the deck or cabin house is the minimum size for the fittings (epoxy coat the sides of the hole for a cored deck)--the wire is led into the center of the rubber plug's hole and then the upper plastic fitting is tightened, sealing the fitting. You don't need large amounts of silicone--and should not use this for putting antennas thru a roof. When you replace the antenna cable (and probably the antenna), drill out the balsa core, and seal the edges with epoxy. Most likely there has not been much detiorration of the core, since this is end grain balsa.

 

[Sea Wolf]

Here's a trick to avoid putting holes in the roof you can use, when possible.

Instead of coming down directly through the roof, mount the antenna or item fairly far forward on the roof (or brow), then come down through the brow, where any leak would just drip on the windshield below, and then lead the wire back to another hole between the top of the windshield and the corner with the brow.

Both holes will have to be sealed up as above, but the hole at the corner of the brow and the fiberglass just above the windshield only gets water during very rough weather and boat washing, and not during ordinary rain. Additionally, it's a hole in a vertical wall, not in a horizontal one, and less prone to leak problems.

Not my original idea, but one with some merit when you can use it. :hug :idea :hug2

Joe.

 

[Chester]

Sea Wolf, good common sense tip, thanks.
Now, I hope this isn't too off topic. What are good ways to fill unused holes and penetrations? I'll have some below the waterline after an upcoming project.
I used the search feature but didn't find anything definitive.

 

[1TUBERIDER]

Hi C-dude

I love my rack that goes across the top on the back of the cabin. I have mounted on it radar, gps, vhf and am fm antennas. Les mounted the rack on my angler, so it is available and made out of stainless. The rack has channels to route the wiring and the wiring enters the cabin in the rear corner. I route wires down to below gunnel and then run them forward. Other than the corners the wiring is not visible. This is my favorite way to deal with antenna. My 2 cents.

Sea ya 1tuberider

 

[Sea Wolf]

Sea Wolf, good common sense tip, thanks.
Now, I hope this isn't too off topic. What are good ways to fill unused holes and penetrations? I'll have some below the waterline after an upcoming project.
I used the search feature but didn't find anything definitive.

Bob Austin (Thataway) will be able to give you a more professional answer on this, but here's what I would do:*

Make sure the holes are cleaned out well. Any exposed balsa core must be removed with the nail in the drill trick with the nail head bent over into a "cleaner-outer" or similar working tool.

You may or may not be able to get to the inside of the hull. If you can, it can be roughed up and taken down to expose the resin, then covered over with a few or several layers of glass cloth and polyester resin. This is the strongest and best way to do it, but smaller holes may not need the extra glass, and you may not have access to the inside, of course.

Next, all the void must be replaced with polyester or epoxy filler.

I'd use Marinetex and simply try to match the hull color with a universal fiberglass tinting kit, finding the color match through testing initially.

If the hole is larger and you can't fill the backside with layers of fiberglass first, I'd then first start out the hole repair by using a suitably tough and strong metal or fiberglass flat piece (a piece of sail batten would be great) inserted into the hole and epoxied into place to backstop the fill.

Then I'd fill the hole level, keeping in mind that the filler can shrink and a second application may be required to get the fill level. Once it hardens, it can be carefully sanded down, polished, and waxed. Marinetex is tough stuff, unless the hole is large or stressed, it should be adequate to just fill the hole with it, especially considering the plug will be expanded outward around the hole to fill the space left by the balsa core.

However, if the hole(s) are somewhere the appearance is of paramount importance or the gel coat cannot be matched by tinting, the hole must be filled shallow to allow for the addition of gel coat to match the original.

The C-Dory factory offers small bottles of gel coat to match their colors. I'm not sure how far back in time they go with this, some earlier boat colors may not be available.

There is also a company that offers gel coat repair kits to match a wide variety of boats, models, and years: LINK Click on Gel Coat Products, then C-Dory.

The procedure for doing the gel coat repair should be available here on our site: LINK

* There are sometimes polyester to epoxy bonding issues involved here, but I've never experienced them with Marinetex to polyester resin hull combnations.

Joe.

 

[lloyds]

I tried the factory for the gelcoat repair kits but they send you to spectrum color. They are the ones that manufacture and sell the kits. The factory spin is that they don't have a permit to ship that stuff. The kits for the paste are expensive. I bought the white and the cabernet and it was about $40, but there is enough there to do quite a bit of patching. Pretty easy to use. Spectrum is the supplier of kits for OEM type repairs for a lot of the major boat manufacturers.

 

[Jazzmanic]

Thanks Joe for the nice, clear explanation on patching holes. I may have to patch a hole on the roof in the near future and I'll be following your advice.

Peter

 

[Sea Wolf]

Thanks Joe for the nice, clear explanation on patching holes. I may have to patch a hole on the roof in the near future and I'll be following your advice.

Peter

Peter-

You're welcome!

I forgot to mention that matching the interior paint after the patch has to be done, unless it doesn't show under a cabinet, etc.

The more recent solid (I believe) interior paints shouldn't be too much of a problem to find a suitable match for by taking a paint chip to a paint dealer from the area to be sanded down and glassed over, or by color sample matching. Off white isn't usually a problem, anyway.

The older boats had a "Zolatone" paint that presents a splattered appearance that hides fiberglass lay-up irregularities very well, but is hard to match exactly, or at all, although the Zolatone company says it's "easy"!

http://www.zolatoneaim.com/inter_1.html

One example, but the colors and patterns are endless! Some of the more exotic splatter patterns are no longer available, probably because of enviornmental regulations on atmospheric hydrocarbon emissions.

You can get a paint to match the base color, but matching the exact splatter pattern, even if you have the original paint, is tough.

And you can't buy a reasonable amount of Zolatone, and would have to have a pressure-pot spray gun or a small Wagner airless sprayer to even try.

Depending on the pattern, it might be possible to match the base color of the Zolatone, then overspray it with paint of the contrasting color, or even use a suitably colored paint pen to draw the splatter pattern if it's big spots or splatters.

Sometimes it's just easier to find a suitable fitting, decal, or ???? to cover up the area with.

Tough Match!

 

[Chester]

Joe, thanks. Marine-Tex sounds like a quick and permanent way to plug screw holes.