See 5 ways of using butyl tape to keep water out of your boat through leaking deck hardware, ports, hatches and all the other places that water seems to find the path into your boat.
This is our simple and effective way to bed deck hardware and ports on Sailing Vessel DreamChaser as well.
Bedding Port Lights
Using Butyl Tape to re-bed the port lights is the best way to keep the water out of your boat. In short, the crew of Windtraveler came to the same conclusion that most have, and that is that Silicone Sucks and short of certain port material, should almost never be used on a boat. See how they used Butyl Tape from Compass Marine to bed the ports with step by step photos.
Windtraveler.net – Butyl Tape Blog Post
Bedding Deck Hardware
On Dreamchaser, we also use Butyl tape for all of our re-bedding tasks. In this blog post, we detail out the process on the Anchor Chain covers on the Bow.
Not all Material is created equal
Dani and Tate try out some Butyl tape from an RV store & a cheap Amazon bargain but after some time realize that not all tape is created equal. They sadly find themselves repeating their efforts, but we can all learn from what they found, read the details at the link below.
Sundowner Sails Again – Not all Butyl is created equal
Don Casey weighs in on his thoughts
Boat US had Don Casey provide a comparison of different sealant solutions for different tasks. Don also agrees with Butyl Tape but provides good advice related to not using it where it will be in contact with chemical
Boat US and Don Casey Review Boat Sealant Solutions
Compass Marine provides detailed steps for Butyl Use
See how we use Butyl Tape on S/V Dream chaser here at the following link