Glastron Cuddy Cabin Carpet Wet

[GlastronGS219]

Hello, we have a 2008 Glastron GS219 (as you can tell by my sign in name I guess!) and went out on our maiden voyage yesterday. The cuddy cabin stayed nice and dry even throughout a bumpy stormy ride on the way home, but when we got home that night after a 45 minute drive, the cabin floor was under water.

Any suggestions on how to keep this from happening in the future? What do you think happened?

Does the cabin area have a drain?

We shop vac'd the carpet, but does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the carpet dry? It is still squishy and it is cold-ish and damp here so it's not evaporating.

Also, we bought the letter and number stickers for the boat, but 1/2 of them washed off during the storm... any hints on how to get them to stick?

Thanks for your help!

***update: it wasn't the porta potty leaking as we first thought. The water came from somewhere else. It also seemed to have gotten wetter over night, after we shop vac'd it, so it seems that water is still seeping in from somewhere. Any ideas???

 

[F14CRAZY]

Re: Glastron Cuddy Cabin Carpet Wet

Be sure the hull where you stick the stickers is CLEAN, treat it with some rubbing alcohol.

And at what temperature did you put the stickers on at? Try heating up the hull with a hair dryer or heat gun a little bit, apply the decals, and rub them in. While this is pretty common I realized it when I noticed that duct tape is complete worthless in winter but STICKS like no other in 80f+ weather

 

[GlastronGS219]

Re: Glastron Cuddy Cabin Carpet Wet

Thanks for the tip about the lettering. I will try both ideas and I bet they will work! The hull was clean as it was brand new, but that doesn't mean it wasn't dusty. The weather was a little on the cool side and humid, so the temperature idea makes sense to me. Thanks!

 

[GlastronGS219]

Re: Glastron Cuddy Cabin Carpet Wet

The wet carpet got worse again over night so I shop vac'd it again and set up a portable heater to help it dry. It looks like the water is coming in at two different points.

1) Dripping down the interior carpeted wall at the very tip of the bow along the anchor box. I went up top to look in the anchor box and it seems the drain is clogged, as it had about 4 inches of water in it. How do I unclog this. This still doesn't make sense as to why there is water in the cabin. Shouldn't things be sealed up in that area well? Would water be leaking in around the edges of the anchor box? It looks well sealed. I am so confused.

2) Dripping down the interior carpeted wall from the level of the boat floor. There are no cracks or seals along this area in the boat, it is molded plastic.

Where would the water be coming from?

Another question:

There is a storage area in the center of the boat floor. This is carpeted inside of all things. There is a small drilled hole through each end, do these lead to drains? How do I keep the carpet from getting musty?

This seems like really poor design!

 

[The Great Escape II]

Re: Glastron Cuddy Cabin Carpet Wet

Take it to the dealer and have them find and fix it.

 

[GlastronGS219]

Re: Glastron Cuddy Cabin Carpet Wet

Yes of course that would be the nicest thing to be able to do, but the closest dealer is over 4 hours away and our truck got 12 MPG on the trip home. I guess that is what we get for buying a boat out of state. I just thought I would try and ask here first. It won't hurt! Since we are new boat owners, I wanted to make sure that if we made the trek back to the dealer, that it wasn't just some silly plug or something to embarrass us.

 

[mthieme]

Re: Glastron Cuddy Cabin Carpet Wet

You said you were in a storm.
Is the bilge pump working?
Did you remove the plug when you pulled her out?

Since the hull is new, if you have to clean it get the letters to stick, you have the wrong (brand of) letters.
I have stuck on many letters/numbers/decals on 30+ y.o. boats and have done nothing more than wipe the area with a dry rag. Lettering has lasted decades in all instances.

 

[Windykid]

Re: Glastron Cuddy Cabin Carpet Wet

I'm for the bilge idea. Is the auto bilge working. The cuddy should have a drain leading to the bilge area. If the bilge is full the water can run both ways. Remember when its stored on the trailer to raise the front end to help draining and remove plug.

 

[GlastronGS219]

Re: Glastron Cuddy Cabin Carpet Wet

I am learning a lot, so thanks for being patient with me.

The anchor box was full of water because the drain was clogged, I cleared that and I think it fixed part of the wet carpet problem.

As for the rest, I think I know what is happening. The boat is parked on our driveway and even though it looks properly positioned and is as high as we can get it using the crank, when I use a level on it it is only slightly tipped towards the stern. This is probably why water is seeping towards the bow.

Even if water from the bilge area was coming forward instead of back, I would expect it would come from the drain area, but it isn't. It is coming from the middle of the stairs and the top of the recessed area where the porta potty sits. So strange.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Windykid]

Re: Glastron Cuddy Cabin Carpet Wet

I would take it to the dealer before too much time has passed.

 

[GlastronGS219]

Re: Glastron Cuddy Cabin Carpet Wet

Windykid- I forgot to answer your questions. Yes the bilge is working, but we relied on the auto bilge and should have ran the bilge manually before we pulled the boat out of the water.

When we left the water we didn't have a wrench with us and the plug was too tight for us to remove. So we drove home (45 mins) with the plug still in. Not a good idea! Water probably splashed towards the bow with every start and stop. Then we parked in on our slanted driveway with the bow lowest.

We have now added a tool kit to the boat.:redface:

I guess we've figured out what was going on! I think there is more user error here than anything. As we were towing it today, quite a bit of water was draining. I think if we would have left it in our driveway, that water would now be in the cabin. Now it is parked at a great angle for draining and we will be checking it again soon to see if it is still damp.

 

[bumperwave]

Re: Glastron Cuddy Cabin Carpet Wet

Tool kits do come in handy...

 

[Windykid]

Re: Glastron Cuddy Cabin Carpet Wet

Glasstron, Glad you got it figured out. We all learn some how.

 

[GlastronGS219]

Re: Glastron Cuddy Cabin Carpet Wet

bumperwave- we had taken the boat out on the water on the way home from purchasing it so we had only the essentials to make the boat coast guard approved. (We stopped at West Marine on the way.) Now we know how important a tool kit is!