Swan 43 water intrusion
Hello all,

I am new to the forum. I was sent a listing for a Swan 43 from a friend who had been a boat broker up until recently. The boat needs a lot of work!

During my initial inspection, I noticed water stains throughout the boat, many being located at deck-fitting locations. The damage was enough to ruin the port berth cushions completely as well as others to a lesser extent.

Having never had a boat with a teak deck, I am concerned that the water may be coming from the deck and may need to be replaced. However, I doubt this is the case since I believe the deck is solid glass.

The teak deck in in disrepair and needs re-caulking and a complete sanding. However, it appears that approximately 3/4 inch of wood is still left.

I hope you may provide some insight into this question.

Chris

Dear Chris
It appears that the deck leaks under the fittings, and this is likely to be caused by improperly done caulking of the bolt holes. Also the screw holes drilled when installing the teak deck can leak. An original teak deck would not have survived 40 years, and the reported thickness also suggests that it is a later installation.
It is suggested that you check if the teak deck is properly attached to the substrate, this is done by walking on it while it is wet. Water squeezing out from the seams indicates it is loose, and needs to be rebedded.

I would be interested to hear whether the deck indeed is single skin, early hull numbers can have this instead of sandwich.

The leaking bolt and screw holes need to be filled with mastic. For the bolts the recommendation is to chamfer the bolt hole upper edges, so a bead of mastic is formed at deck level. To prevent the mastic under the fittings from being squeezed out completely when the bolts are tightened is suggested that small spacers are put in below the fittings, they could be made of cured mastic.

Kind regards
Lars

Dear Chris It appears that the deck leaks under the fittings, and this is likely to be caused by improperly done caulking of the bolt holes. Also the screw holes drilled when installing the teak deck can leak. An original teak deck would not have survived 40 years, and the reported thickness also suggests that it is a later installation. It is suggested that you check if the teak deck is properly attached to the substrate, this is done by walking on it while it is wet. Water squeezing out from the seams indicates it is loose, and needs to be rebedded. I would be interested to hear whether the deck indeed is single skin, early hull numbers can have this instead of sandwich. The leaking bolt and screw holes need to be filled with mastic. For the bolts the recommendation is to chamfer the bolt hole upper edges, so a bead of mastic is formed at deck level. To prevent the mastic under the fittings from being squeezed out completely when the bolts are tightened is suggested that small spacers are put in below the fittings, they could be made of cured mastic. Kind regards Lars

Hi Lars,

Thank you for your informative reply. I do not know the Hull number (and will find this out) but I did notice what appears to be glassed in stringers running along the underside of the deck. I observed this in one location, did not thoroughly inspect to see that this was consistent throughout boat, on the starboard side near the chainplates.

Do you know exactly when Nautor switched to a cored deck? This is a 1969 boat, according to owner. Or which hull number. I am much more concerned with a cored deck and the water intrusion that with a solid glass deck. The current owner says that all leaks come from deck fittings - this may be true. It's curious though that he has made significant investment two years ago into systems and allowed a minor maintenance problem; i.e., re-bedding the deck fittings, to ruin the cushions and cause a mold problem. In contrast to this, the current owner appears to be an upstanding guy - I am a pretty good judge of character and he seems like a great guy who is honest.

Since I don'd have my original note, I cannot remember if I mentioned the level of work necessary to repair the deck. I have attached three pics to help better describe what I am trying to evaluate.
Thanks,
Chris