Mainship Trawler

[Capt Carl]

Looking at a 2005 mainship 34 trawler. Lightly used, 350 hrs on yanmar 370. I am concerned about a puddle of water in the cockpit, starboard side at the base of the steps to bridge. Appears that there is a low spot in the deck. Checked under the deck in engine room entrance. No visible structural damage or cracks. Seller suggests putting in a drain under deck to the scuppers to cure the problem. Seems like an easy fix but maybe not the cure. Anyone familiar with this as a problem in this model?

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[AusCan]

A low spot could be due to a rotten core which is water saturated. I'd suggest using a moisture meter and/or soft hammer to check the integrity of the cockpit sole.
Recoring is a fairly big job.

 

[DavidM]

As noted above a low spot in that area could be an indication of core failure. My 34T did not have a low spot there but did have one on the flybridge in front of the helm seat since new. No real way to drain it other than a squeegee. No one else has complained about low spots so yours may be a one off or it may be wet core.

Check for moisture as suggested above and if ok, then squeegee it like I did. If you won't be aboard for a long period then it might make sense to put a drain in as suggested.

David

 

[Bacchus]

Carl
Welcome aboard TF. Lots of happy & knowledgeable MS owners here.

AusCan beat me to it. I would be concerned if the root cause is a "soft spot" in the coring. In general Id say soft cores are repairable but can get involved and be costly... so much depends on extent and whether seller in willing to have it repaired of allow $ to have it repaired properly if it is soft.

 

[Comodave]

If you are not experienced in using a moisture meter then a phenolic hammer is easy to use and pretty accurate. It won’t hurt the gel coat if you don’t go crazy. Tap around and you will get a sharp ring in areas where the core is good. In wet areas it will be more of a dull thud sound. Do a bit of experimentation and you will have a fairly good sense of what is good and bad pretty quickly. Good luck.

 

[Seevee]

Overall, I'd bet that this is not a major problem but a few areas to check:


I believe the following is correct:
Under the stairs there's a storage area. Above that in the side of the stairs there's a shower. If the shower leaks, it can drip down into the storage area and ooze out under the stairs. And if water from a rain coming down the stairs goes into the storage area... same thing.


Some folks have put a deflector above the door which helps. One can also seal the area around the bottom of the storage and stair area. But that would simply keep the water in the storage area from leaking out, so need to address the above.


There is a drain in the corners of the cockpit that drain below the deck and exit under the swim platform, which occasionally clog and need to be freed up.


And, there could be a leak from the bedding of the upper railing on the fly bridge that will leak water thru the nida core upper deck and leak out on the side of the upper deck on down on the cockpit floor. But never seen that or heard of that problem on that boat.



To my knowledge, there is no wood on the upper decks of the Mainship. The upper deck is Nida core and the lower deck is solid.

 

[LongJohn]

My 34T has a 'low spot' exactly where you describe in the cockpit. TPO installed a drain to the OEM scupper. Not perfect, but works fine.