LEAKY ENCLOSURE

[johnmurray]

Like many Albin owners, I have an all-around enclosure with windows. It is generally satisfactory, but the installer seemed unable to arrange a reasonably water tight seal at the points where the enclosure meets the gunwhale of the cockpit. When it rains, water runs down the side of the boat and flows into the cockpit (and drains out through the scuppers). The openings that cause the problems are shown in the three photos below. Has anyone come up with a way to improve such an arrangement?

[Chris & Dale]

John,
Last year we had a brand new enclosure installed and the canvas installer and I talked long about this very subject, and the bottom line is that you just can't get it "water tight". Like you, ours drains out the scuppers. Your gaps appear a little bigger than ours, and we actually have most of the canvas on top of or over the side of the gunnels, which helps. Probably the most annoying aspect is that the bolster gets saturated and takes a while to drain and dry. I will tell you that when we travelled from Southport to Charleston and back in January in the cold rain part of the way, the little bit of leakage, compared to how wet and cold we would have been, was of no consequence. The majority of 28 TE's I've seen don't have a full enclosure, so I guess we're in the comfortable minority. I'll take some pictures next time of some of the details and post them. Good Luck!

[Graeme K]

John,
Just spotted this post. Feel bad not sending details on what I did. Give us a few days to do a Post in Albin Maintenance.
At the moment I'm putting a new transmission output shaft seal in. With Spring just a few days off, it will be all systems go.

Graeme
2005 Albin 30FC

[rellwood]

John,
I assume that the leakage problem is on the starboard & port gunwhales, not at the stern. On our 2002 28TE a piece of starboard approx. 1x2 was fastened lengthwise at the interior edge of the gunwhale and a bead of caulk applied at the deck & 1x2. The dome fasteners are attached to the 1" part of the 1x2,...no leakage. I use a tool sold by Shurhold to fasten and remove the domes.

[rellwood]

My previous post may have been flawed and perhaps pics will help explain