This holes are actually drains (or drain gutters) that apparently were built in by design. Here a photos of the port and starboard drains. Because our nonsuches are down in the bow as opposed to the intended level these drains are not working well, add to that the the seahood blocks these drains, as a result the water pools under the seahood and looks for a place to drain, any unbeded screw can become that drain. Today we removed the seahood, the sliding hatch and starts redesigning this drainage. I will post more photos tomorrow, but here are two photos f the drains, why the port drain is bigger than the starboard drain I can only wonder. We hope to fix this by cutting scuppers in the seahood at each of these drain locations
You are correct. It is under the trailing edge of the hatch hood. I suspect that the gap is a manufacturing defect that did not create a problem until our boats started to age and various sealants began to dry out. l will be working on a fix today. These cabin leaks have got to go!
Okay, continuing the discussion. The main problem is that the boats sits bow down and that is compounded by the hatch rails also not being level. I would like to see some photos of other Nonsuch hatch rails with a level attached. Here is what White O’morn has.
I have also attached a photo of one of the scuppers that we cut into the seahood to allow trapped water to drain. The seahood was screwed down tight to the deck and there was no way for trapped water to get out other than seeping into the screw holes. The scuppers are located at the drain gutters that are molded into the deck. I will let you know if this idea works.
I will put a level on my hatch as soon as I am in the water. Today I over-drilled the screw holes in the deck for the cover and filled them with thickened epoxy. On the port side there was significantly more balsa powder in the cabin top than on the starboard side. I note that my boat does have a slight list to port.
The teak frame on the hatch also had some questionable screw holes that have now been filled. I hope to finish reassembly by Wednesday.
It is hard to believe, but I think the boat was designed to have that slight list to port judging by the size difference in the two drain “gutters”. The port gutter is significantly larger than the starboard gutter. Why else would that be?
The gutters on my 82 NS26C are the same size. I have modified my hood by following your example of shallow notch at the point of the gutter. I have also made a small notch at the bow end of the hood on both to serve as a drain in the likelihood that the boats do sit bow down by a bit. While the fiberglass stationary portion of the hatch was off I drilled out the holes made by the screws that held the hood in place with an oversized drill, then redrilled the holes using a properly sized drill. Whilst I was fiddling with the hatch I filled the screw holes in the polycarbonate sliding section of the hatch with epoxy to tighten up the holes a bit and treated the teak on the hatch with tongue oil. This project took more time than I thought it would, but if it cures the leaks in the cabin top it was time well spent.
I really like my Nonsuch, but bringing it up to snuff may just be the death of me.
Tim, how did the hatch garage scupper idea work against hatch leaks. I have developed one, and find the reasoning of water accumulation due to the “bow down” syndrome appealing. I plan to follow your advice.
The “scuppers” seem to be working just fine, I put one on each side aft by the “gutter” and a smaller one each side forward to remedy the bow down situation. We are switching over to electric drive right now and I will be correcting the bow down problem by moving 500# of batteries further aft than the old Westerbeke.
