Dart 15 Forums

John Keyte wrote:

Whilst sprinting at Grafham yesterday, I perfected the art of capsizing at the leeward mark. Within seconds the mast rapidly fills with water, resulting with inverted boat !! Great especially when the mast also gets stuck in the mud !
Apart from not capsizing in the first place, is there anything to prevent the mast from filling with water ??
2nd point, Port hull also had a significant volume of water in it, is there a breath hole in the hulls, or have I got another problem ??
John

Bob Carter replied:

Ho Ho. I wondered where you got to.

On the mast it depends where it leaked. If it was in the joint section most of us have filled up the hollow bit with builders foam. It is about ?10 per aerosol can from builders merchants. You have to do it vertical with the lower section of the mast upright. You can do it out of an upstairs window but be sure that you drape something down the side of the house to stop the overflow sticking to the brickwork.

There is a breather on the front beam sockets of the hulls. Most boats leak a bit when capsized but I suspect most gets in round the hatch covers.

Cheers

Bob

Keith in Hong Kong replied:

I'd agree with Bob.

Mine leaks tons through the hatch covers, due to imperfections in the moulding not allowing the (crummy design)hatch O ring to seat no the hull. You then rely upon the female hatch ring to be sealed against the hull, which mine never were, as proven when the rivets holding it in failed and when I took it off there was no sign of 'goo' underneath. so it's not the cover its the hull part.

Rip 'em off, goo 'em up, and stick 'em back again.

Worked with mine.....now I can keep my sarnies dry (my boat doesn't have the center hatches, just the aft ones, and the leeward one gets drowned pretty regularly)

Tim Dieu de Bellefontaine replied:

the mast filling with water can be a problem through the joint, this can be resealed, but the laser centre will seel you a new ali middle joint which I understand is much better. Re filling with water, the only breather hole is in the rear beam box, if it is blocked this can cause the hole to pant and fill with water, but not much gets in through it. More lileky culprits are the sealing under the hatch covers, (silicone sealer and rivet gun I am afraid) or around the deck joins, but this is unusual in a 15. IMIYTK that some people think a slightly water filled hull helps in a chop