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Has anyone seen brown seepage up through the gelcoat?
I have a 1982 17' Montauk and have been getting some kind of brown discoloration of the gelcoat deck near the center console. I scrubbed it forever and got most of it out. A few days later it was back. Any ideas what this is? Is it some kind of resin making its way through? Any advice on what to do about it?
I have the same hull and have had the same problem in two areas; appearing up and horizontally from the teak strips exterior and longitudinal to the console at the deck, and up from small stress cracks on the stern deck around the battery box ( I have a cranking battery in the stern and a deep cycle in the console). In both cases battery acid had perculated from the cells due to an engine overcharge situation, to the bottom of the boxes that were screwed into the console floor and in the case of the stern battery; into a piece of starboard which was 5200'ed and screwed to the deck. In both the console and the stern, the acid made it's way through the box anchoring screws ( never properly sealed) and started to deteriorate the foam directly below the deck in the stern, and flowed along the console floor onto and under the mahogany console stringers, unfortunately resulting in a soft spot below the stern battery. I took up the starboard, poured acetone into the screw holes in the deck to dry them out the best I could, replaced and sealed the starboard, replaced and sealed the stainless anchoring screws and on top of the washers rendering the box(es) water and acid tight, New batteries and had the engine serviced.
Fortunately the staining around the console appeared to have been the reaction of the acid on the mahogany stringer itself, eating the wood away between it and the deck, but yes the stain was tough. Before I discovered the battery situation while washing down, brown rivers would flow down the deck from the console under hose pressure. I removed the screws exterior of the console at the teak strips, looosened the hex bolts hoding down the mahogany console stringers, removed the stringers, flushed them, let dry, applied 'Git-Rot' with a brush to the underside of the stringers (not really sure if that did anything, but psychologically, what the hell) resealed the stringers and bolts with 5200 and that was the end of it there. On hot days, the seepage perculates up through the tiny 1/4 inch stress cracks in the stern area. Not much I can do there, but I use 'Sno-Bowl' toilet cleaner on my deck and it makes short work of the stains in both areas.
Do you store a battery in your console? It would be too much a coincidence if you fell to the same scenerio there as I, but you may have a rotting condition under your mahogany stringers due to a bad 'stringer-to-deck' seal.
Doug
Edited by Ambush on 06/21/09 - 6:29 PM
Doug
Only in a Whaler!
I find the same seepage on one side of the interior of my Outrage 22. Sometime in the boats life, the inside of the starboard gunwhale eceived a lot sun weathering, as indicated by small weathering cracks in the gelcoat. The only time the seepage occurs, is if the boat receives sun and hot weather at the same time directly on the base of the starboard side gunwhale.
The seepage is a kind of an oily, greasy, almost tar-like substance. If I wipe it up as soon as I first note the appearance, it wipes up easily. If it sits on the gelcoat a while, it's a little harder to get up.
Our classic Whalers are old boats. I treat stuff like this as I would a flaw in fine leather- don't sweat it, live with it.
