Water leak in Fly Bridge

by Pat Sud
(Southern Md.)

SOS!! I’m trying to help one of my customers waterproof his Sunbrella Helm cover . It leaks rain water into the cabin below.
It appears to leak around 1” SS stanchions & Bimini top frame made out of 1 inch stainless steel tubing. I am patterning it hoping a cone shaped boot around the tubing and Velcro fflap will solve the problem. I’d appreciate any advice you might have.

Pat


Yes that might help, but cabin leaks in my opinion should be solved correctly and your responsibility ends with your doing all things possible to build a boat cover that doesn’t leak, but water has a way of finding it’s way around and through things.
Personally, I would pull the bimini deck hinges up and bed them again, maybe this time with butyl tape. This is something that you can do for him and falls within your scope of work.
Then once that was done, I would indeed build a boot with velcro and a tie around the legs. Make sure the boot has sticky tape in the seam where it joins the main cover, this little step can help a lot and you can even bind the inside edge where the boot meets the cover.

If this boat is sitting in the sun I would consider a waterproof instead of breathable cover made out of polyester which will be cooler. Cooler means less sweating on the inside of the cover and less water runoff on the inside. Make sure he understands if you switch to polyester that there is shorter warranty, but the tradeoff can payout with cooler temperatures inside. From there, close every opening you can and feel good about doing all you could have possibly done. Your customer needs to do his due diligence and bed all fittings again. A pain, but normal old boat maintenance.

Then if you have done all that you can do, you have done your part.
I hope all works out for you and your customer. Best of luck on your build.

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