Small trickle

I installed a new bilge pump in my bilge today and after I removed the screws from the bilge screen, water was coming out of the hole from where tge screw was. The water is really smelly and kind of yellowish. Its not urine. Could there be water under the fiberglass in the keel? Please any help is greatly appreciated.
Cheers.

Uh oh. That's not good. I did the same thing last season, new bilge pump. No water out of the screw hole (half inch long stainless sheet metal screw) but it always makes me uncomfortable to drill or drive screws into my hull, especially below the waterline. This doesn't help much I know, doesn't answer your question, but I'd think that's not a good sign. How much liquid we talking about? Drops, trickle, big puddle?

Nope its not good. But hopefully it just a void spaced filled over time.

Screwed right through the hull?


Welcome

No its not through the hull. It in the center of the keel. I can only put a wire in about a half inch and when i do that, black stuff comes out. Looks like antiseize.

Its a small trickle coming up through the screw hole.

It is probably water trapped in the keel. It can stink worse than a black water holding tank. The keel may be filled with something like concrete with the water filling any voids. Had a Trojan that had a hollow keel that filled with water. Stank badly. Cut it open so it would not trap water but it was not filled with anything. If you can only poke in a short distance it is probably filled or mostly filled. Good luck draining it. I tried flushing mine, but it never stopped smelling until I opened it up and cleaned it out thoroughly.

I am hoping that is it. Next year when im on the hard i will cut it open and investigate further. For now i will make sure my bilge pump is in good working order.

WESTERLY has a hollow keel, partially filled with some sort of foam. Water got in some years ago through a leaking skeg bolt. When it was discovered, the boat was on the hard and the easiest way to drain the keel was to drill a 1-1/2" hole inside the boat under the shaft about 2' forward of the shaft seal, and two holes in the bottom of the keel (water also drained from the skeg bolt hole).

The boat was up for several months and the keel was able to dry out. Glassed the keel holes, and placed a well bedded deck fill fitting in the bilge hole. Re-bedded the skeg bolt, and haven't had an issue for 12 years. When up for annual underwater maintenance, I open up the fill to check for water (I can see right to the bottom of the keel).

Sounds like you have the dark stinky stuff, so you'll need to get aggressive about cleaning/draining it out as best you can. But you need to find out what's in the keel first and whether just making holes and letting it drain is a good solution.

I found the same issue in my Albin. The keel on mine was filled with cement so I had to drill/tap a pipe plug in the bottom of the keel. After 3 winters on the hard it finally stop dripping out.
I ground out the offending screw holes and filled them. Then mounted the bilge pump without screws. Several ways to accomplish that.

Comodave said:

It is probably water trapped in the keel.

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Or worse, water passing thru a leak in the keel into the bilge.

I have a screw in my bilge for a pump and it will pop out some 3" when I remove the screw.

We just did a full bottom paint and seen no signs of damage that would allow water in. Inless its coming in from the cutlass bearing area.

Put the screw back in with some caulk and don’t worry about it till the next haul out. Just monitor it. It’s a boat.

In fiberglass boats I usually epoxy studs to the hull so I'm not putting holes in the hull.

Yes i may do that from now on.

I’ve experienced the same issue. Drilled a 1/4” hole in the bottom of the keel and let it drain. Then installed a watertight inspection cover in the false floor over the keel so I can monitor for any water intrusion. If I get any water in the keel now, I can just drop a hose through the inspection hole and pump it out. My keel is foam filled. Good luck.

Where did you install the drain plug.

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I didn’t. Just filled the 1/4” hole I drilled with epoxy after all the water drained out.

Oh ok

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Larry M said:

Put the screw back in with some caulk and don’t worry about it till the next haul out. Just monitor it. It’s a boat.

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This is the best advice. I have a similarly constructed model, and found that just via osmosis presumably, some water had penetrated a small way into the top of the keel area, but the keel is so thick, there is no way you have a screw hole communicating with the outside. You were unaware of this fluid there before, as no doubt was the PO. So just screw a new strainer base back in and forget about it. Trying to get the fluid out, what ever it is , is in my view, just not worth it. Even if, as some others have described, it is some water ingress from the bilge into a keel cavity partly filled with some form of ballast. Whatever they used as ballast is not going to be affected, so what's the point of trying to dry it out? Just think of it as extra ballast.

I do agree with you for sure. Im not going to tear the bilge up to solve it. I will let whatever flow out and get rid of some of the water. Then epoxy over it when it stops at some point.

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A more interesting question is was the boat ever stored ashore up north with a keel full of water , for a hard winter?

senangsekali said:

I do agree with you for sure. Im not going to tear the bilge up to solve it. I will let whatever flow out and get rid of some of the water. Then epoxy over it when it stops at some point.

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I'd be inclined to leave it unplugged. If there is water between layers of glass or coring, unless this area is under water sometimes I would let it dry out. If you do want to seal it, BoatLife will cure underwater and you can put that on anytime.