Bilge passages connected forward and aft

[fishingproblem]

Water in the forward bilge had me a little worried in my new to me 27 until upon closer inspection I discovered that the main engine bilge has a passage to the center bilge under the helm and then into the forward cabin bilge. I like the idea of redundancy with the pump in the forward bilge however the water from the engine area is a tad foul and having it under the deck in the cabin seems non kosher.

If I filled in the passages would that be of any safety concern? I would like to use the box under the helm area for storage, fresh water tank or fish box and keep the cabin air separated from the engine bilge.

If I filled in the passages would that be of any safety concern? Convenience issues?

David

[Capt Chuck]

Never owned a 27' but I would assume having separate bilge areas would cause more problems by eliminating now good ventilation.
I would leave the fore to aft flow as is & just add some sweet smelling cleaner ever so often. This stuff works great.
BTW: Just don't leave
bait or dirty diapers in there !!

[SeacraftErik]

I’d have to agree with chuck here.

How fast is the shaft packing dripping? Since the boat was delivered and out of the water for longer than a few days the packing could have dried up and shrunk a little causing it to drip more than usual.