DF95 - leaks!

[SimonCornes]

Having just acquired a new DF95 and being about to start putting it together I gather there are some issues with water getting in? Can you tell me where this is and what the standard fixes are to stop the problem please?

Thank you

[Mike Ure]

Take  all of the deck eyelets and hooks out and reset them in some silicon sealant.

Remove the keel box.  Put silicon sealant in the deck joint area (mask the deck first), put sealant around the join in the keel box before refitting.   Put the keel sticker onto the hull    (All of this stops water getting trapped  in the sealed keel area.)

Rub down the hatch seal tape after applying, especially at the corners.

Put some vaseline around the rudder, switch, and sheet entry points in the cockpit.

Should not get more than a few drops  even in nose diving , chinese gybing conditions.

Where the few drops come from, I have no idea.

Mike Ure  

 

[SimonCornes]

6 hours ago, Mike Ure said:

Take  all of the deck eyelets and hooks out and reset them in some silicon sealant.

Remove the keel box.  Put silicon sealant in the deck joint area (mask the deck first), put sealant around the join in the keel box before refitting.   Put the keel sticker onto the hull    (All of this stops water getting trapped  in the sealed keel area.)

Rub down the hatch seal tape after applying, especially at the corners.

Put some vaseline around the rudder, switch, and sheet entry points in the cockpit.

Should not get more than a few drops  even in nose diving , chinese gybing conditions.

Where the few drops come from, I have no idea.

Mike Ure  

 

Thanks Mike,

How easy is it to get eyebolts, rings and hooks out? Do they just unscrew? As for the keel box, I’ve not removed one before so is it just a case of unscrewing the black deck plate? I don’t want to break anything!!

Simon

[Peter Baldwin]

Simon

In my experience, out of the box, the DF95 does not leak.  However, as Mike has suggested above, you can remove deck eyes and then refit using sealant or epoxy in the hole first.  I sailed mine for more than 3 years before getting water through the second jib tie down eye when put under heavy load with C and D rig conditions (15+ knots).  Eyes can be removed easily and then refitted.  Some boats do leak in the seal between the keel box and hull, although this doesn't get in the hull, just in the sealed central compartment.  Placing the clear plastic keelbox patch on the bottom should resolve most of these problems.  Otherwise there are some small screws holding the two halves of the keelbox together accessed through recesses on the top to take it apart. 

I would however suggest you try the boat in top end A rig conditions and see if it leaks before doing too much remdial work first.  Just ensure that you are carfeul in sealing down the hatch cover with no wrinkles in tape or patch material as this will soon be tested when you sail in windy weather.

A small amount of water can still get inside through the winch line, but I would normally only expect a few drops at the most after each race.

[SimonCornes]

Thanks for that Peter, I will suck it and see then. I don’t have one of those clear seals to put on the hull around the fin so I might use tape temporarily and then order a proper seal when I’m buying more rigs.

[Colin Helliwell]

Only had my 95 for 15 months (local club sailing), but never had any leak problems. I do recently have one of the newly-permitted patches around the fin box on the hull - easy to do and maybe reduces a miniscule amount of drag too lol.

I'd be nervous of diving into removing/sealing/re-fitting the deck eyes etc, for fear of cross-threading or similar aggro. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" - see how your boat fares first...?

 

Edited March 5, 2024 by Colin Helliwell

[SimonCornes]

5 hours ago, Colin Helliwell said:

Only had my 95 for 15 months (local club sailing), but never had any leak problems. I do recently have one of the newly-permitted patches around the fin box on the hull - easy to do and maybe reduces a miniscule amount of drag too lol.

I'd be nervous of diving into removing/sealing/re-fitting the deck eyes etc, for fear of cross-threading or similar aggro. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" - see how your boat fares first...?

 

Hi Colin,

That is very wise advice, thank you.

I spoke to Mike Weston at RC Yachts today and his initial suggestion was to see if it leaked. Bearing in mind that this is an essentially untouched hull then he suggested I could try the bath test, ie shove the boat into a bath full of water, now first, and see if any water got in through the deck eyes and then deal with that. He said that the deck is thicker around the eyes than the DF65 and so the eyes can be carefully removed and as long as there is a complete, 360 degree, rotation when fitting and the eyes are as low into the deck as they can go then everything should be sufficiently solid. Finally, if I was really concerned about fin box leaks he said that, for some reason known only to Joysway, they fitted rubber ‘O’ rings/gaskets to the fin box, top and bottom, but didn’t to the 95. He suggested a silicon sealant be applied top and bottom after first removing the box. There’s a video on You Tube about removing the fin box in a 65 and it’s essentially the same method with the 95. First you remove the mast fitting which reveals one or two screws below. There are two more screws further back. You unscrew all of these a bit then gently tap the end of the screwdriver with a hammer whilst supporting the hull - you don’t want to damage the hull. I think you may have to tap each screw and then unscrew each screw a bit more and repeat with the hammer until the two halves of the fin box separate. You then remove both, apply silicone sealant to the flange of both halves and also to where the two halves join - be careful here because if the silicone oozes into the fin box you won’t get your fin in or out! Then refit both box halves and secure with screws but don’t over tighten. 
Pretty useful advice I thought but I’ll still try the boat as it comes I think but keep a good lookout for water and if I see any signs then I’ll whip the fin box out and seal that. No need to remove the rudder post apparently so I won’t touch that.

[SimonCornes]

So I whipped the fin box out today - easy, only held in by 3 screws and nothing else so no need for hammering! Interesting to see the hull without the box fitted as I’m pretty sure there’s a white trunk which is attached to the hull and deck and joined half way between the two and I suspect this may be waterproof so that any water getting past the fin box won’t actually go into the hull proper. Even so I’ve used sone Fernox leak sealer top and bottom and also where the two halves join and that was straight forward. I also removed the 4 deck eyes and hook from the foredeck and dipped those in the leak sealer before refitting. I haven’t touched the bridle rings. But that took about 40 minutes and £6 and I’m much happier that this should be a dry boat - the way I like ‘em!!

[Ian Nethercleft]

I've just been through the process of removing and silicon sealing the fin box on my new DF95 only to find it had been silicon sealed during manufacture! I go along with Colin's "If it ain't broke..." philosophy.

Edited November 29, 2024 by Ian Nethercleft

[SimonCornes]

Interesting Ian. Despite doing the fin box sealing and also applying a hull patch I still ended up with a bit of water inboard but that was probably via the sheet or rudder pushrod boot. What I did discover 6 or 7 months after putting the boat on the water was that the mast step slider nut and bolt had seized solid! The only thing I could do was to remove everything - not easy with that silicon - and replace the entire box (not expensive) so my tip is to regularly remove and grease the thread of the cap screw that fixes the slider.