Water seeps into storage compartments under seats

[Otisville]

Greetings, I own a 2005 Sweetwater 20 foot. It was kept on lift under a canopy and stored indoors until this summer when I put it in a slip on the Mississippi. I keep it covered with a custom playpen cover.

It has older style seats with wooden storage compartments. The wood is still solid. Covered by carpeting. I noticed that when it rains, water sometimes seeps on to the deck under doors and gets under the the seats causing items stored to get wet. And it takes time to dry out.

Any ideas on how to keep water from seeping between carpeted deck and storage compartment? Or do I just have to put up with it? Can I seal it?

[guy48065]

I notice that newer plastic seat bases boast drainage channels molded in the bottom to help the deck dry out faster. For wood on carpet I think you're stuck with the problem.
I prop my seats up with a piece of foam noodle to let air circulate inside the bases. Seems to help and the musty smell is now gone.

[JLester273]

You could try to cut away the carpet inside and silicon it. But IMO it would probably just be a lot of work and really wouldn't fix much.

You could put a bottom in each base a couple inches off the floor and then add some ventilation holes through the sides under that so it doesn't stay wet. Then the interior of your storage won't get wet at least. Again this seems like a lot of work and may not really solve much.

Mine were musty smelling when I got it. I sprayed mildew remover and left it open to dry. But it never fully fixed it. I'm redoing it soon so I haven't worried about it.

[mrlouis]

I am very surprised that a 2005 still has wooden seat bases ? have you owned the boat from new ? curious that they may have been replaced as most toon mfg's went with the roto cast fiberglass base's early 2000- and up ?

[Otisville]

[quote="mrlouis"]I am very surprised that a 2005 still has wooden seat bases ? have you owned the boat from new ? curious that they may have been replaced as most toon mfg's went with the roto cast fiberglass base's early 2000- and up ?[/quote]

It is original. It was a family pontoon kept at a cabin that we sold. It was always out of the water and under a canopy so leakage into the box was never an issue.

[Otisville]

[quote="JLester273"]You could try to cut away the carpet inside and silicon it. But IMO it would probably just be a lot of work and really wouldn't fix much.

You could put a bottom in each base a couple inches off the floor and then add some ventilation holes through the sides under that so it doesn't stay wet. Then the interior of your storage won't get wet at least. Again this seems like a lot of work and may not really solve much.

Mine were musty smelling when I got it. I sprayed mildew remover and left it open to dry. But it never fully fixed it. I'm redoing it soon so I haven't worried about it.[/quote]

I'm moving forward with a removable, false bottom using pegboard sitting on 1x2 cedar. I may take the second step and apply silicon.

[JLester273]

pegboard isn't a bad idea. Except it may suck up moisture too unless it is plastic. Keeping it up off the floor (and all your stuff) may help a bunch. You may also think about raising the whole seat off the floor. While that may sound counter-productive It will let air circulate under the box helping it dry. Just thinking like 1/4 inch or something.

I just had an idea. Why wouldn't a small 12v fan (or 120v if you can hook it into power) installed into the side to pull air through not work. wouldn't be to hard of a wire up. A little air flow might be just the trick to help pull that moisture out of there. If they are 12v you could rig them all to a switch you turned on when you got the motor running while on the lake. Like a computer case fan 12v version. They make them in all sizes and I think they are pretty cheap.