Water in bilge

I have water getting in my bilge and can't find the source. All hose's are good. All thru hulls look good. Everything is dry except the main center bilge.
I drained fresh water tanks, pumped out holding tanks so it has to be a leak someplace. I had a diver clean the bottom and check for any sign of damage but he said all looked good.
I guess the next move is to haul it out and take a look.
Any idea's?

Do you have any conduct that lead to your bilge from anywhere else? I had some water in bilge that was puzzling me, found out it was a small leak from my water heater that was going all the way along a conduct to my ER. 1 drop every 10 seconds, at the end of the day it is 1 gallon in the bilge.

You may use some dye in the water to find out. Like a bit of red in your fresh water, a bit of green in your cooling water etc. When you see a color in your bilge you will know the source.

L.

When you find the general area that you think the water is coming into, you can line it with paper towels and see where it gets them wet. Once they have been wet even if they dry out before you check them they will still show where they were wet.

Salt or fresh?

This ^. Salt or fresh. Eliminate either outside origin or inside origin. Has it been raining where you keep your boat? Might check an entry source from decks, window frames, etc.

Comodave said:

When you find the general area that you think the water is coming into, you can line it with paper towels and see where it gets them wet. Once they have been wet even if they dry out before you check them they will still show where they were wet.

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I can see it seeping in the bottom of the bilge. Center low spot of the bilge. It will have 1" in about an hour. The pump takes care of it but it's now starting to smell damp and muskey. It looks like it's coming from a crack in fiberglass.

Giggitoni said:

This ^. Salt or fresh. Eliminate either outside origin or inside origin. Has it been raining where you keep your boat? Might check an entry source from decks, window frames, etc.

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No rain. It appears to be salt water.

Lou_tribal said:

Do you have any conduct that lead to your bilge from anywhere else? I had some water in bilge that was puzzling me, found out it was a small leak from my water heater that was going all the way along a conduct to my ER. 1 drop every 10 seconds, at the end of the day it is 1 gallon in the bilge.

You may use some dye in the water to find out. Like a bit of red in your fresh water, a bit of green in your cooling water etc. When you see a color in your bilge you will know the source.

L.

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Everything looks dry. All hose's and connections look good and dry.

Where does most A/C drain?

Assuming it's salt water (about 9 pound per gallon for salt -vs- 8.3 pounds per gallon for fresh), do you have stuffing boxes on your drive shafts or drippless? Typical stuffing boxes will drop slowly by design.

Can you seperate your bilge into multiple area using something like plumbers putty to make temporary dams so you can narrow down where the water is coming in from?

Hopefully your A/Cs drain into a sump and get discharged overboard. If they drain into the bilge and it is humid they could be the source of your water.

Giggitoni said:

Assuming it's salt water (about 9 pound per gallon for salt -vs- 8.3 pounds per gallon for fresh), do you have stuffing boxes on your drive shafts or drippless? Typical stuffing boxes will drop slowly by design.

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Drippless and they are new and look great.

Comodave said:

Hopefully your A/Cs drain into a sump and get discharged overboard. If they drain into the bilge and it is humid they could be the source of your water.

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I can't find a sump for them. Also haven't traced them to see if they do dump into the bilge someplace.
I did have the a/c off all day but water still came in. I will chase that down in the morning to see where it goes.

fishpcb said:

I can't find a sump for them. Also haven't traced them to see if they do dump into the bilge someplace.
I did have the a/c off all day but water still came in. I will chase that down in the morning to see where it goes.

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Being in Florida it's hot and humid. I'm sure the a/c units pull a lot of moister out of the air.

In cold water the copper salt water supply line to my watermaker condenses moisture and drips. Could it be condensation from somewhere?

Lepke said:

In cold water the copper salt water supply line to my watermaker condenses moisture and drips. Could it be condensation from somewhere?

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I don't have a watermaker but it could be from a/c.
Checking the a/c to find out.

Hi,


have you watched the hot water tank pressure valve.


I always leak water from this water heather tank. when I start driving on the engine and I have not remember to level the pressure in the system or shut off the pump. When the engine warms up it raises the heat of the water in the charger and at the same time the pressure that opens the pressure valve and drains water into the bilge. 1-2 dl Every time the time warms up my cummins

I am assuming you have a keel. If the water coming in smells bad then it may be seeping in from there. Some of the far eastern built hulls have the keel sump glassed over so water could be getting in there then oozing through the glass covering over the sump. It collects a bad odor on its way through.

Water could also be leaking in somewhere you have not found yet. It could be entering a stringer at one end of the boat and coming out at the other.

I checked a boat for an owner who had water in his forward lower cabin bilge. It turned out to be a leaking shower valve near the transom!

fishpcb said:

I can see it seeping in the bottom of the bilge. Center low spot of the bilge. It will have 1" in about an hour. The pump takes care of it but it's now starting to smell damp and muskey. It looks like it's coming from a crack in fiberglass.

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bglad said:

I am assuming you have a keel. If the water coming in smells bad then it may be seeping in from there. Some of the far eastern built hulls have the keel sump glassed over so water could be getting in there then oozing through the glass covering over the sump. It collects a bad odor on its way through.

Water could also be leaking in somewhere you have not found yet. It could be entering a stringer at one end of the boat and coming out at the other.

I checked a boat for an owner who had water in his forward lower cabin bilge. It turned out to be a leaking shower valve near the transom!

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It is a bad odor. I changed to head hoses thinking that was the source of smell. That was not the source of smell. I do have a keel and think that may be where the problem is coming from.

I have had mystery water in the bilge in the past. Fortunately all is dry now, but here are sources that I have had to address in the past:

1) Cutlass bearing housing needed resealing
2) Adjust/replace stuffing box
3) Rubber seal for transmission coolant pipe needed replacing
4) Impeller housing
5) Raw water pump for diesel

I decided to haul it out today. Heading to marina in a few to check it out. May do the bottom while it's out.

I had a Trojan F32 that had a hollow keel. Over the years water had leaked into the keel through the thin fiberglass covering the hollow area. I had a bad odor in the boat. I finally drilled a hole in the covering fiberglass. It then smelled worse than a black water tank. I removed the covering glass and cleaned out the hollow keel area, smell was gone. It smelled like rotting onions and was really really bsd. Good luck.

Comodave said:

I had a Trojan F32 that had a hollow keel. Over the years water had leaked into the keel through the thin fiberglass covering the hollow area. I had a bad odor in the boat. I finally drilled a hole in the covering fiberglass. It then smelled worse than a black water tank. I removed the covering glass and cleaned out the hollow keel area, smell was gone. It smelled like rotting onions and was really really bsd. Good luck.

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Thats the smell I have now. Wife said fix it or sell it but she can't take the smell.

Sooooooo

fishpcb said:

Thats the smell I have now. Wife said fix it or sell it but she can't take the smell.

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How much are you asking for the boat?

I don't know if Presidents have hollow keels or not. Something to check out.

Gordon J said:

How much are you asking for the boat?

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I was joking about selling. I would like a bigger boat but would need around $75k out of mine to make it happen. I've spent a lot on money on the boat this month. All new Garmin GPS chart plotter, Garmin radar and Garmin auto pilot. New Enclosures plus a lot of other work.

Good advice to open up the hollow keel, if you suspect or know you have one. Easy to cut a suitable sized hole and install a deck access port, like the Beckson Ports. Ingress could be practically anywhere: poor layup of the cover to damage from grounding. Despairing of actually finding and curing the leak, the access port would make coping with the dirty, smelly water easy.

I did that for the in-keel water tank on our LeComte North East 38; much easier than removing the huge cover, made for easy cleaning and removal of water for the winter. The LeComte had concealed hollow places elsewhere in the keel; I found the water and vacuumed it out; sealed the maststep bolts and no further trouble. Interestingly, the LeComte also had poor layup at the trailing edge of the hollow keel; discovered when it was weeping while on the hard.

We've owned four boats that had a characteristic and unpleasant smell. We have cured the problem on each one: fix the problem, dry it out, clean it out, keep it dry.

Had a similar problem. Followed a rust trail on the engine. The engine has a very slow drip leak. Had it repaired. Touched up the engine rust stains to determine if/when leak returned.

I will have it on the hard this week. Maybe I will see some kind of sign or damage.