Anybody had this problem?
I have a 1983 MkI. It has a water leak that has rotted the piece of wood at the vberth. The water then leaks down under the vberth mattresses. The previous owner(s) knew it was there as they has tried applying silicone to stop the leak. All tha did is rot the wood.
I put 5" of water in the anchor locker and no water came out. So, I think it has to be something on the deck (cleats?). But when I started to see the nuts on the bolts of the cleats and things around the anchor locker on the deck I found that most of them are hidden behind the anchor locker liner.
I had that problem. The water leaked from the leaky seals of the windlass. Have someone spray the windlass with a hose while you watch below. Take the cover at v berth off so that the windlass is visible. If you locate the leak, then cover the windlass with canvas to stop the leak until seals are replaced.
Sail La Vie 1999 Catalina 36 MKII, M35B-17031, Coyote Point, San Mateo, CA
About Sail La Vie
I have an '84 MK1 and had the same problem. The wood at the base was rotted when I purchased the boat. The anchor locker seemed to drain properly and I couldn't figure out where the water was coming from.
I "fixed" it by putting a 4" band of fiberglass/epoxy across the bottom and sealing the dry rotted wood and seams around it. It no longer leaks and get's the mattress wet but I'm sure the other side of the wood still gets wet.
I have the same problem with my 1984 C-36 MkI, #253. Previous owner had covered the bottom of the thin panel with epoxy to protect the wood (which had evidence of rot) and I can see the mating surfaces of the hull don't line up and have a lot of what appears to be hard poly glue slopped in the area... I haven't been able to identify where water enters that area but will try some of the tips provided in other replies. One thing I did do that has preserved the v-berth cushions from moisture is to raise them by 1" with this sheet product I picked up from Defender (works, recommended): https://defender.com/en_us/hypervent-condensation-prevention-matting
I had this exact same issue when I purchased my boat (1986mkI, don't recall the hull number). I too filled up the anchor locker with 5 - 6" of water in an attempt to see if had anything to do with water in the locker... no lu
ck, not a drop. Of course the leaking continued... not much, but enough along the bottom of the mattress to drive me nuts!
turns out it was from the anchor locker, just not due to standing water (which is what both you and I were attempting when we filled the locker with water) - turns out that the cause of my leak was a small delamination on the strip of glass they taped between that bulkhead and the hull from the locker side (where they could leave it In a very unfinished state), somewhere high up along that joint (I could never pinpoint where exactly, but that was the source as I had sprayed water along that entire joint from top to bottom while I had someone in the v berth watching for leaks... sure enough it started to drip. This would be very similar to heavy rains that make their way under the locker hatch, the drip along that joint on its way to the bottom of the locker and out the drain hole.
how did I fix it? Well I needed to know where that corner was from within the locker (not obvious at all), so I drilled a hole from within the v berth into the locker to locate that corner. At which point I noticed that there was a void within the glass tabbing making up that joint. So I took out the old die grinder and opened up that joint from within the locker to fully expose the void and follow it up under the piece of glass they installed at time of build. Once that was all opened up, I mixed up a batch of resin with some of the high strength filler to make a paste, then proceeded to fill in the gap, and feather the paste along the bulkhead/hull joint from the hole I made all the way up and past the end of my grinding job (I also filled in the hole I had made).
bone dry since I did this repair.
Not at all difficult, but it is somewhat awkward as I found myself essentially "upside down" while grinding in the locker... it is deceptively deep!
unfortunately I didn't take any fotos :(. But if there is anything I can do to better explain, please let me know!
as a final touch, I noticed that any chain that was left in contact with the bottom of the locker would rust as the locker itself never completely drained, hence leaving water in contact with any anchor chain. I solved this problem by cutting a piece of raised plastic (I had some of those 1'x1' plastic floor pieces that had standoffs along the bottom and holes all over the surface) and putting it on the floor of the locker so that any standing water left after draining would not make contact with any chain I had laying down there.