How do you tell if your mast leaks?

Jeff,

What year is your Hobie 20?

Mine is a 1995, and this season I had quite a bit of trouble with it leaking. I say this season, because up here in Minnesota lakes do a cruel thing--they eventually freeze!

There's a couple of different ways you could use to determine if your mast is leaking or not. Usually you start to become suspicious when you have an unusual amount of difficulty righting your boat. I had an instance where I capsized my boat, and had to summon the help of some motor boaters. By the time I asked for help, we had been trying unsucessfully to right the boat for about half an hour. I told them to go pick up the mast, and they couldn't even lift it. A bad sign, indeed!

We drifted to a beach, and got the boat righted on land. I had a hole in the base of the mast where I had previously mounted a cleat, and the darn mast must have peed for about 20 minutes! Needless to say it was full of water. So...to make my point, if your mast pees, it probably leaks.

Another you might notice, is that when you disassemble the boat to trailer it, you hear water sloshing around. Keep in mind that at the end of a thirty foot pole, it doesn't take much water to make righting a real pain!

As for detecting WHERE the leak is, most people do it one of two ways. Either you have to submurge the mast, and look for bubbles, or you have to find a way to blow air in and look for bubbles.

My mast turned out to have one very major source of leakage in the comptip. The previous owner had mounted a spinnaker tang on the comptip in not one, but two places. The silicone on the rivets had worn off, and it leaked like a sieve. Rather than resealing the rivets, I decided to drill them out, and patch the holes with fiberglass and epoxy. Hindsight being 20/20, I would have just plugged the holes with 3M 5200 black sealent. Hobie Cat recommended a product to me called Sikaflex, but I was unable to locate it locally.

Many people expend a great deal of time looking for specific leaks in their masts. I took a slightly different theory, after deciding it was a pain to look for leaks. My theory is that anywhere there's rivets, it's either leaking now, or it's going to leak at some point. So once I was convinced that I had drained the water out of the mast, I armed myself with a good caulk gun, and the black 3M 5200 sealent. 3M 5200 is very permanent!! Be forewarned!!!

I talked to Tom Haberman, builder of the Supercat, and he says it's the only thing he uses to seal a mast, and is relatively permanent. It is removeable, he says, but will take a ton of elbow grease to remove.

Anyway, I sealed every rivet from top to bottom, and also did a bead around the comptip joint, and the mast head. In addition, I did a bead around the tang, and any other places where a plate is riveted on. I had one opportunity to capsize (and turtle--a long story) the boat after that, and it didn't leak a drop!

Sorry to have rambled on here, but it's 12:30am, and I really should be in bed! Let me know if you need clarifications.

Fair winds,

Tim Johnson

Hobie 20 #541

Bald Eagle Yacht Club, Fleet 52

White Bear Lake, MN

Jefft

The easiest way to find out if your mast leaks.

Before you rig drop the mast in the water hold it under and look for bubbles.

Phill

To respond to your question in the first paragraph.. I just bought the boat used. It's a '96 model. Thank you for responding. Sounds like I'm going to get some 3M 5200 and do some testing for leaks by 'bubble watching' this weekend. Thanks.

-JeffT

H20 - Orlando, FL

If you hold the Head,(top) in the water, and there's a hole in the middle or bottom somewhere also to let the air out, it won't bubble, and will still fill up, even faster actually.

Just something to think about, cause no bubbles doesn't necessarily mean no leaks.

I'll propose this as I did to the guy with the leaky H16 - purposely fill the mast (while it's horizontal) with water from a garden hose (drill out a rivet or something). then watch for the water to drain out at another location.

[color]Jake

[color]Nacra 5.2 (2112)

[color]Hobie 18 (???)

I'm still a fan of the

assume it leaks

camp. Therefore I say just seal the darn thing up, as long as you know there isn't water sloshing around at the moment.

Masts, especially ones with comptips, fall into one of two categories:

1) They leak now.

2) They're going to leak eventually.

Which category do you fall into?

Fair winds,

Tim Johnson

Hobie 20 #541

Bald Eagle Yacht Club, Fleet 52

White Bear Lake, MN

Todd,

The idea is to completely submerge the mast.

When I have ever suspected a leak this has worked.

If you chose to hold one end out of the water maybe

you can stop this method from producing results.

I don't take the risk. I drop it in the lake and put my foot on it.

I have a 14 with a leaky mast.

I test my mast by first removing the mast rotator arm. I plug the hole on one side of the mast with tape, then have an assistant pressurize the mast through the remaining hole with a reversed shop vac. While air is being blown into the mast, I apply a solution of dish soap and water to all fittings and areas of possible leaks. Soapy bubbles will appear at any leaks. (I also use this method to test my hulls. Be careful with the hulls not to over-pressurize, though.)

Cheers,

Kevin Rose

N6.0na #215

kevin@paddleways.com