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Like many, I noticed an inordinate amount of water leaking down through the rear rear hatch area due to the poorly designed deck and scuppers. Leaking was especially noticeable when I wash downed the boat after her maiden voyage with my wife. Water pools near the so-called scuppers and does not drain overboard unless there's a substantial amount of water near them. The rest of the water pools in both areas, eventually seeping down through the rear hatch into the bilge area - over batteries and other electrical components. Since I'm a freediver, it's not uncommon to get the deck very wet through the day. I realize sealing the deck 100% may not be possible, but somewhere in the 90% should be possible. Crappy design! Whaler should come out with aftermarket seals to eliminate the problem and/or scupper modification kits for owners stuck with the older models. The upper deck piece above the main hatch was sealed well by the previous owner because he installed a bait tank on it.
I took Jollyrog's advice and resealed/replaced the poorly sealed rear deck plates and motor-well access hatch. That will help, but it appears the only real solution after resealing the hatch with some home depot stuff is to install smaller deck drains (that drain into the motor-well) in the lower most portion of the indentation in front of the vertically mounted factory scuppers.
Like others, I also had leaking through the poorly installed ports. I removed the inside plates and screws, applied silicone to the gap between the window and boat, other areas - seems to have worked.
Windshield wipers leaking - that's another project!
Geeze! I guess they were so caught up on making a boat full of foam that they forgot about other details that make a quality boat!
Yes, she rides great and has new 300 Verados...But I have a bucket list of projects, mostly weather proofing, that should not be an issue with a so-called well made boat...
I know its frustrating but she is 10 years old and seals, etc will need to be replaced. I have to replace my starboard side fish box seal this winter as if there is a torrential and sustainable downpour - it will fill up - I can tell that bad weather moved through the area just by looking at whether the boat is slightly listing :) I think a new seal (the large black one around the entire bilge OPENING) should solve your problem. I’m not referring to the seal on the underside of the hatch itself. This seal is more vulnerable to tears, rips and crimping – especially in the back/hinge area of the hatch (where the scuppers are) Yes there is always some water around the two scuppers “indents” behind the hatch. I have never had a problem with the bilge hatch/seal – any and all water came from the circular hatches or the rectangular hatch in the motor well.
Thanks Jollyrog...The large seal around on the deck opening of the main hatch is white on mine - and pretty thick. It appears in good condition, except for one area in that corner scupper area which I just dried, cleaned, and reattached. After closer inspection today, I noticed that most of the water congregating is near the starboard scupper, however, because of the congregation it seeps back into the rear starboard main hatch and downward. I got up underneath that scupper and noticed that when I pulled down tightly on the starboard scupper hose, water flowed downward as intended. That caused me to abandoned the one so-called fix (drilling installing a lateral thru-hull to the motor-well, etc.). I'm now going to use a couple of thick zip ties rounded over the hose and screw them down into an inner wall to tension the scupper hose downward. Installing a small lateral thru-hull into the motor-well may get rid of some water, but isn't low enough to fix the standing water problem in that area like mentioned in other posts. Further, I assessed and tightened all my hatch levers as all were loose and had not been adjusted in a long time. Seals won't work if the doors are not tensioned correctly. I tightened mine so that you have to stand on top of the area and use your body weight & effort to release them.
Questioned. Is there a better large hatch seal folks use other than the factory one? Also, the inner seal on the main hatch lid was wide, but darn near flat. I removed it and attached a white Home Depot Frost King sealed that was at least 2.5 times thicker. It allowed me to tension the hatch handles to what appears to be an acceptable level.
Myself and two others are running 60 miles to jump & stab Bluefin - I know real quick if my fixes helped!!!
Good luck with the Bluefin…
Can you post a pic of the hatch opening seal upon your return? I don’t recall ever seeing white seals/weather stripping for hatches (at least on Conquest models) – which makes me think that the current one is not factory and has been replaced – and may be the/a issue.
It has been my experience that the (foam-like) weather stripping seals available at home improvement stores don’t do to well in marine/saltwater environments for too long (start to deteriorate). The seal on the hatch for the bilge and fish boxes are very flat with small grooves in order to make flush contact with the gel coated rim of the opening.
One final suggestion – before drilling zip ties down, see if you can loosen the hose from the scupper and twist it to get a more desirable pitch/run. If that doesn’t work, I would suggest trying self-adhesive zip tie anchor mounts (before drilling)
Will do regarding the pic when I get back to the boat...Trip went well except that we did not get into the BF. Got plenty of Yellowtail though. Had a power steering leak from the reservoir under the hatch. Actually it came from a large black nut type fixed to one of the compression hoses. I tightened it, which made it worse, then when I backed off it stopped leaking. Didn't leak on the 55 mile return trip...Don't know if it's a o-ring or what that was reseated when I messed with it. It also might have leaked from being overfilled from the seller...Not sure, but not leaking now.
