Why would I be taking on water?

[Hooper]

I know this may be very difficult to answer, but the knowledge on this board is impressive to say the least, so I am sure someone can point me in the right direction.

My 23 is in good shape, it has a solid transom, a nice hull that is free of blistering and yet I seem to be taking onn small amounts of water into my bilge as she sits at the dock. I notice when I step on board and my weigh shifts the boat, my pump licks on and sometimes will run for as much as thirty seconds.

I thought last season that it was my fault, leaving ball valves open to the baitwell which then spilled over into the bilge. But I haven't opened the valve this season and don't intend to as the live well is useless.

I don't think that water is penetrating the Bomar deck hatch in the transom splash well, as that appears to be dry (it's not under water as she sits). I have my forward fish hold plugged and still I am getting water in the bilge. Based on the history of SeaCrafts at dockside, I am concerned [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] . Does anyone have any ideas on where I may start to look to solve this issue?

And further, how do you guys feel about closing scuppers and draining all water into the bilge?

-Hooper

[Mark]

I had a similar problem with my 18'. Eventually I discovered that the water was coming in a raw water pick-up thru-hull that was supposedly closed. After glassing that site closed I never had mysterious water to deal with again.

[JohnB]

Hooper,
On a pure statistical guess, I would say it is from the splah well hatch cover. Most SeaCrafts leak there after a short period of time. Take a tube of cheap silicone, and seal it completly. After that, if you are still getting water, try turning all the seacocks off, and see if that stops it. Anotherr option is that rain/splash water from the top deck is coming in around one of the hatches. The last possibility is that it is leaking around a thru-hull water intake, or a transducer???.

[Dave Hirshberg]

Just a thought,
If your boat has the thru hull brass sleeves in the cockpit sole or forward well they might be loose and leaking. Easy enough to fix with new sleeves but hard to detect because its almost impossible to see if they are leaking between the bottom of the boat into the inner part of the hull. IF they are origional I'd knock them out and replace. Some elimate them totally and glass over the holes, its your preference.

[John R]

Don't know how practical this is but one way we used to test for water leaks on cars is to spay a very foamy glass cleaner around any potential leak and subject it to compressed air from the other side. Any aire coming out would disrupt the foam... Obviously the boat would need to be out of the water for many checks...

[Standing Room Only]

If you have a drain fitting for the bow compartment right at the waterline, that fitting can leak. It is a bronze threaded tube (thru-hull) that is snugged up against the inner liner of the bow compartment/fish box, and then the outer mushroom is tight against the hull at waterline. If that is not secured really well (5200, etc), the working of the hull (and yes, in a sea there will be some flexing) may cause a gap to build in over the years that you don't see when the boat is at rest. In part, this is made worse because the inner liner and hull will flex at different rates due to thickness - and that fact that outer hull is being slapped directly. So -- when replacing -- snug well, but not too tight to overstrain the inner liner. And seal well with 5200. My 18' had a leak and took me a while to track it down also.

[ May 09, 2003, 01:42 AM: Message edited by: Standing Room Only ]