49’ Hampton- Port Light Leak Repair and Water Damage Restoration
The Yacht- A 49’ Hampton Motoryacht
The Hampton Yacht Building Company began production in late 1996 with the goal of manufacturing fully equipped, high-quality luxury motor yachts for half the price of comparable U.S. built yachts– and the Hampton 490 is one of the gems in the company’s impressive line. The 490 is built from the mold of the 46 CHB Pilothouse, but with a redesigned hull and the addition of full-view, wraparound cockpit windows that provide for remarkable visibility and give it a sleek and modern aesthetic. The interior is also extraordinarily equipped and appointed, featuring rich wood joinery, Raytheon electronics, a spacious cockpit, classic good looks, and plenty of storage space.
Our motoryacht for this project was the “Oh Kay”, a beautiful 1999 Hampton 490 with a full beam master stateroom with ensuite head, and a forward island queen guest stateroom that offers ample living space for cruising. She is a veteran Great Loop cruiser and was a recent purchase for the new owners.
The Project- Repairing the Effects of Water Damage
The “Oh Kay” had a leaking port light that caused extensive water damage. This is a frequent problem on older boats, and it isn’t all that unusual on newer boats either. Port lights can begin to leak for a variety of reasons and small leaks are often hard to detect, though they’ll often grow worse over time and eventually make their presence known. However, by that time significant damage might be done that can diminish your boat’s value.
Even when leaks are discovered and located, boat owners will often try to address the problem by applying a marine adhesive as a patch. That may be fine as a temporary fix, but it doesn’t solve the underlying cause of the leak and so it can give the owner a false sense of assurance that the issue has been resolved. When a leak is discovered, it’s important to locate its source and learn its cause. Often a leaking port light can be easily corrected by a simple rebedding job.
Unfortunately, this leak had gone unchecked for an extended period of time. As you can see from the pictures, this caused severe rot damage to the port light structural blocking, deteriorated the top of a nearby bulkhead, and destroyed a large amount of interior veneer and trim.
This boat had a beautiful wood interior, so our first priority in this project was to protect the interior from our repair activities. First, we installed protective plastic and blankets throughout the vessel. This allowed floor-protected access from the dock to the forward stateroom.
Next, demo was performed carefully since many of the freshwater damaged pieces would need to be used as templates for new material. Once the leaking port light was repaired and the water-damaged pieces removed, we were able to craft replacement pieces in our shop, finish them to match the existing pieces, and then bring them to the vessel for installation.
This project was a great success and should serve the new owners well as they begin their own Great Loop adventure!
