Leaking ports and companionway door TC255

[NoCats]

Nothing like four inches of rain after a week of accumulated snow and ice while the boat sits on stands in a boatyard to help you find every place your boat leaks.

The fish boxes on the TC255s are well documented elsewhere. Both boxes were full to the brim when I opened them yesterday.

Is there a history of leaks associated with the companionway door? Granted, the boat is on stands and may not be absolutely leveled, but when I pulled back the carpet it was wet all the way up to the forward cabin.

The more concerning issue are the ports in the forward cabin. The carpet liner under the bottom of both ports is soaked and there were puddles of water on the berth. Fortunately, we had taken all of the cushions out of the boat while we are cleaning it up after bringing it up from CA. The ports don't really seem to dog very tightly. Any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks,
J.M.
2019 TC255 No Cats
Whidbey Island, WA

[thataway]

Unfortunately the door is not really water tight even though it is gasketed. You really always want to have the boat with bow slightly up, so the water will drain out of the cockpit.

The small port windows--we never had any issues with these, but it is easy for the to be dirt to collect on the gaskets, and if not dogged well down, can leak. Also if the gasket has deteriorated , they can leak. I would check the gasket material--see if it is smooth or material embedded. You can consider cleaning and then applying a small amount of clear silicone grease on the gasket material. You should be able to get a seal then. Tighten the dogs slowly and watch the silicone grease to see it distribute evenly on the window.

[gulfcoast john]

J.M.

Agree the aft door is not totally rain/water proof. When cruising, you’ll likely have the bimini up, which helps to protect it from driving rain.

Ours is the only TC255 I’ve ever seen that doesn’t have the berth portholes. They were a PITA in the Regal 2665 (trailer boat #12); Bob’s advice is spot on. Those Bomars had a mechanism to dog down tighter, but it was not ‘intuitively obvious.’

Also agree to keep the bow a bit up. The official Ford towing guide says to keep the front of a towed load slightly down from level. This is wrong with a TC255 because an amazing amount of heavy water can slosh forward in a thunderstorm and have no way out since the only drains are far aft. Since the aft sponson drain plugs are also ¾ “ to an inch above the sponson floor, I bet one could be carting around 1,000 pounds (150 gallons) of bilge water when following Ford’s advice here. Your emergency stopping distance will suffer.

Disconnect the fishbox drain hose from each fishbox macerator pump inlet, let them lay in the bilge, and the fishboxes will drain into the bilge and the water will be automatically pumped out by the bilge pump float switches when activated. This is easily reversed by a new owner, nothing permanent. A one-beer job.

Best,

John

[smckean (Tosca)]

Before you assume the worst, was there any water left in the fresh water system?

Last winter I did not provide sufficient heat to the interior of the boat during several days of hard freeze. A hard-to-see break occurred in the tubing/fittings which drained the fresh water tank. I had 4" of standing water on the cabin sole completely fore and aft when I finally went down to see how the boat was doing.

As you well know, we just finished another period of hard freeze up here in the PNW.

[NoCats]

Yeah, the cold weather had me a bit freaked out with regards to winterizing. When they tried to lift the boat off of the truck on the 29th the slings on the travel lift were so frozen they had to get some hot water so they could connect them together. I put a heater inside to run that whole week and left all the doors and interior hatches opened. Kind of a colder than normal winter this year.

I've read several posts about letting the fish boxes drain into the bilge. Since the boat will be kept in a slip most of the time I worry that if the power goes out and the water keeps coming in I'm going to find my boat at the end of a dock line running down into the water.

I'll work on those ports with the advice given. I wish ours had been produced without them as well. Re-bedding ports, re-gasketing are all such fun projects for the return of those little ports.

Such is boat life.

Thanks,
J.M.