Leaking windows
are inconvenient because they let the water that is supposed to
remain on the outside into places it shouldn't be. Oh, its aggravating
enough that you might have to try to sleep on a wet mattress, but
that's hardly the least of your problems when you have a leaky boat.
The real kicker is when those leaks cause a lot of damage, as they
are wont to do, that cost you a whole lot of money to repair, and
even more money when you go to sell the boat if you don't.
I just saw a good example of that this morning
when I surveyed a 10 year old Chris Craft that had about $5,000
worth of interior damage because of just plain lousy design of the
windows that caused leaks that couldn't be fixed. This after the
survey of a 47 foot Albin trawler last week that had an all wood
paneled interior that had about $8,000 worth of water damage, preceded
by a 29 foot Formula with an interior that was completely ruined
by window leaks, for which the cost to repair would have been well
over $10,000. And a week before that I did a 42' sailboat with leaking
chain plates that rotted out the bulkheads that they were attached
to, causing damage worth at least $15,000. So right there in just
two weeks were three boats with water damage estimated at over $38,000,
and that does not include the cost of repairing the leaky windows
and design defects.
 |
Leaking windows of this Albin 47 resulted in rotted
paneling throughout this yacht. Its not easy to capture water
damage on film, but this shot pretty well tells the story.
The interior of this boat is completely ruined and the cost
to repair so high that it will never be properly repaired
because the condition destroyed the value of the boat. |
To make matters worse, all three of my clients
walked away from these boats because the problems were a lot more
than they wanted to buy into, leaving the current owners holding
the bag for a big loss. Of course, the tendency for the sellers
and brokers is to shoot the messenger (me), so I got to tell you
folks, dealing with the state of the U.S. boat building industry
sometimes gets downright depressing. It reminds me a lot of the
U.S. auto industry in early 1973 just before the Arab oil embargo
and the opening of America's doors to the Japanese auto industry.
Were it not for the fact that Detroit was turning out a lot of junk
cars, the Japs could never have taken over the way they did.
|
| Here's the reason why the interior of the Albin
was ruined. The window consists of nothing more than a piece
of glass sandwiched between two pieces of wood. To make matters
worse, the builder used a sealant that dried hard and brittle
which can be seen falling out at point of the black arrow.
|
The state of the U.S. boat building is much the
same. It is more concerned about market share than the production
of a decent quality product. I wouldn't get depressed if the products
I was critiquing were something that made me proud to be an American.
Frankly, I find most off what I see to be embarrassingly inferior.
But . . . this is an essay on leaky windows, and why you should
pay attention to what you're buying, so I will try to avoid any
more divergences.
Leaky windows are a serious problem not only because
of the costly damage they cause, but also because all too often
the source of the problem are design errors which are costly to
correct, if they can be corrected at all. Leaky windows are a serious
problem because it is such a widespread problem, occurring in top
of the line as well as bottom of the line boats. Leaky windows are
a problem because if you buy a boat that has them, and the problem
cannot be corrected, you are going to take a big bath come time
to sell your boat.
Pay attention to window leaks because the nature
of the problem is likely to be rooted in a serious design error.
The correction of window leaks is rarely, repeat, rarely just a
matter of caulking. On nearly half the boats I survey I find caulking
smeared around the window frames, one of the first signs that all
is not well. So why do so many boats have this problem? It's because
designers have the idea that it is okay to hold up the cabin top
and flying bridge with nothing but the window frames. Unfortunately,
that is not okay because the window frames are not strong enough
to hold up the deck, cabin top or flying bridge. So when you take
the boat out to sea, the whole structure rocks and works and twists
and opens up all the seams allowing our number one enemy (water)
inside the boat.
To put it another way, essentially what you have
is a structure like a fold-up card table on wobbly legs. You can
caulk the frames, pull them out and recaulk them, pull out the glass
and rebed it, but every time you take the boat out, the window frames
are again stressed, all the joints break open and the leaking starts
all over again.
|
| Chris Craft 320. This is what I mean by a house
top and flying bridge that is only supported by window frames.
Except for the aft bulkhead, the only thing that holds up
the bridge with seating for eight people, are the window frames.
In this boat, even the galley and head cabinets were rotted
from the profuse leakage. |
|
The problem with window
problems is that they are hard to diagnose. These photos
are the outside views of the Chris Craft interior shown
above.
ABOVE : it doesn't look like much
is wrong with the window frames until you realize that they
are BENT! as can be seen at arrows where the frames are
away from the house side.
LOWER: These are not your ordinary
stress cracks but cracks caused in the 'glass house sides
because there is so much stress on the window frames. The
extremely small screws used to fasten them didn't help much
either, all of which just boils down to shoddy design and
construction. |
Thousands upon thousands of boats are built this
way, and the photos I've included here barely scratch the surface
of illustrating how bad the problem can be. Motor yachts and flybridge
cruisers frequently have nothing but the window frames holding up
whatever structure is above them. The problem tends to be more pronounced
in midsized flybridge cruisers where there is a lot of weight resting
on the window frames, especially those boats with glass front windshields.
The problem tends not to exist on those fly bridge cruisers or sport
fishermen that do not have front windshields because now the fiberglass
front section becomes a stronger structure that resists lateral
movement.
|
| Here's 27' SeaRay with an 8' long window in the
side of the deck. This situation is worse that a house top
held up by window frames because the deck gets walked on,
even jumped on. Most express cruisers have windows like this
and nearly all of them leak. Why is it that they've been building
this way for years without recognising the problem? Perhaps,
just like the Detroit executives, they're waiting for the
GAIGIN (Japanese for foreigners) to come along and steal their
market before they wake up and smell the .... what, mushrooms
inside? Watch out, guys! Yamaha is coming, Yamaha is coming.
So is Mitsubishi and maybe even Toyoda. Taipei is already
here but those folks don't know marketing. Nihon wa wakarimasne!
|
Leaky windows are also common place in the express
cruiser which has no superstructure, where instead long, low windows
are set into the side of the foredeck. The above photo shows a Sea
Ray with an 8' long window which essentially holds up the fore deck.
Lacking any bulkheads or frames beneath, all you have to do is jump
down onto the foredeck from a high dock and you will bend and open
up the joints in the window frame, and then the leaking starts.
On this particular boat, the owner had caulked the sliding windows
permanently shut and attached plastic coffer dams under the windows
in an effort to keep the water out. Needless to say, it didn't help
much. Beware of cruisers with long windows that hold the deck up.
Another problem are boats with fixed windows are
not properly installed, or installed without proper frames such
as the Albin trawler shown nearby. Here we have large windows that
are merely sandwiched between two wood frames. But its not just
the wood that's the problem; the frames could just as well be fiberglass,
plastic or aluminum. The manner of the design would fail in any
case (because the windows are too large, (2) because the builder
used the wrong kind of caulking - it dried out cracked and shrunk,
(3) the design was entirely wrong and would leak in any case.
Yet another design faux pas results from improperly
designed side decks. As illustration #1_ shows, if the side deck
is not properly supported, it will sag, and when it sags the house
sides sag with it. At that point you can see that if the house sides
sag . . . well, what are the window frames attached to? Of course,
the sagging house sides. What happens is that every time the hull
slams down off a wave, the whole deck/superstructure flutters so
that no amount of caulking or well designed window frames can prevent
the kind of distortions that open up seams and cause leaking.
|
| Cross section view of a typical cruiser showing
the forces that act on the boats window frames. If the side
decks don't have adequate support from the underside, the
side decks will flex and open up seams. Hitting against pilings
applies force from another direction that breaks window seals
open. If the only thing holding up the flybridge are the window
frames, this illustration should make it pretty clear why
it will be impossible to prevent leakage. |
The bottom line to this story of leaking windows
is that leaking windows cannot be prevented, and cannot be repaired,
unless the overall structure is properly designed. That includes
not just the house structure and window frames but the decks as
well. If the side decks are cantilevered inboard without adequate
support underneath, then the side decks are going to flex, once
again tearing everything open.
Yet another design faux pas is on a motor boat
where there is no house side structure. In other words, the windows
span the entire area between deck and house top. What's wrong with
this? Well, once again there is inadequate structure to which to
attach the frames; the frames are nearly attached to the deck. If
the deck sags in the least bit - say just 1/8" - then it should
be pretty obvious that that there's no way to keep the working seams
sealed.
For sail boats the problems can be just as bad.
My favorites are the port holes that trap water, so that when you
open the ports, you and everything under it gets a bath. But that's
the least of the problem. Inward can't ports trap water that usually
results in constant leakage because sooner or later the caulking
or gaskets are going to go bad and ruin all that nice paneling around
them. Or the vinyl or fabric or carpet or whatever.
Sail boat designers like to save money by not using
any window frames at all, just caulk the old glass or Plexiglas
right onto the cabin trunk and presto, instant el cheapo window.
Not to worry because it probably won't start leaking 'till the warranty
expires, after which its the owner's unsolvable problem. Especially
if, as with our motor boats, the deck is weak and flexing, resulting
in seals that won't seal no matter what you do. This is even more
prevalent with deck hatches because the decks are more likely to
flex than the house sides. That's why we find so many vee berth
mattresses that are all water stained and rotted out on the bottom.
And it explains, too, why chain plates that go through the deck
are impossible to seal. Apparently its Poseidon's Law that you can't
seal anything that moves.
| I saved the following photos for last because they're
in color and will probably take forever to download. This
is the 26 Formula mentioned earlier. It has the same long
windows supporting the deck as the SeaRay above, but the water
damage is so extensive it shows up on film. Notice the badly
stained upholstered panels or valences above and below the
window. Even the hatch (above right) leaked so much that it
rotted the furring strips for the headliner which is falling
down. Kinda like the headliners in GM cars. Nice work, folks.
The interior on this 8 year old boat was completely destroyed
by leaks. Walking on the deck of this boat was like walking
on a mattress. Ah, well, its only money. About $70K worth.
Never mind that it financially ruined the owner. Why should
the good folks at Thunderbird Industries care? |
 |
I guess I lied here, because I said I wouldn't
diverge from the subject. Yet the subject is precisely the point
that unless boaters demand a better product, they're not going to
get it. Unless, of course, unless the Japs or the Koreans see an
opening here. In the meantime, there aren't any Mercedes or Accuras
or Lexiis (is that plural of Lexus?) out there for you to choose
from. So unless you don't mind throwing your hard earned dollars
down the drain, look closely before you leap. The problem of leaky
windows is more than merely skin deep. Its usually a sign of a boat
that is not well engineered - if it has any engineering at all.
When the U.S. finally looses its boat building
industry(and we are loosing it), like the auto industry, the loss
will be well deserved. Caveat Emptor.
 |
Here's the coup de gras that prompted me to write
this article with more than a touch of disdain. What you're
looking at here is a TWO PART, INWARD OPENING DOOR on our
lovely 26 Formula. That's right, inward opening. What kind
of ignoramus does it take to put an inward opening door on
a boat? What kind of fool doesn't know that such a door can't
possible keep the water out? If this is the way they do the
things that you can see, imagine what the hidden parts are
like! If they can't design a door, how's the hull? In a word,
BAD. |
Related Article: How
to Repair Window Leaks
|
Windows,
Windows, Those Leaky, Leaking Windows
