Bilge water soaking into hull?

I have a 1999 Mainship 350/390 currently on the hard in the yard. Prior to New Years, some coolant drained into the bilge. The bilge was very clean up to this point.

After an attempt to wet vac the bilge some liquid remained. More than I would have liked. I was concerned about this but read it's not a bad idea to have coolant in there because that would mean at least it wouldn't freeze throughout the winter.

A little while later, I notice the bilge didn't have the same amount of liquid. There is a drain plug in the swim step that was removed prior to hauling, but I didn't think it was possible for the engine bilge to drain into the swim step.

So my question is, where could that liquid have gone? Is it possible that this has leeched into the fiberglas in the hull? Is the hull of the mainship cored or solid?

Many questions, but my main concern is soaking water in the hull. Thank you in advance.

Alex

Probably evaporated during periods of low humidity.

Lepke said:

Probably evaporated during periods of low humidity.

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+1

could have gone down a screw hole into the keel. I found that out when I went to replace a bilge pump and up sprang little gusher when I took the mounting screw out.

I'm thinking from the responses that I shouldn't worry too much. These are the things I think about.

Coolant doesn't evaporate. It went somewhere, did not soak into the Fiberglas but found a place to hide like the swimgrid or a hollow keel. Is there a plug in your keel near the stern? Did you try removing it?

I'm going to take a look this weekend. I'm hoping there's a plug somewhere.

Does coolant evaporate? ... A little bit.

Your coolant is based on either ethylene glycol (automotive) or propylene glycol (marine coolant). It is also >50% water. The water portion will evaporate slowly, but because water has an affinity for glycol, the evaporation rate is lower than that of pure water.

As a wild guess I'd say you might get at a 10% loss of total volume over a couple months, but too many variables to be accurate.

Auscan, true, but to me evaporation means it will disappear into the air and if you've ever had a coolant bath, like I have, your clothes will never dry.

Besides, it the water mixed in the coolant that evaporates, not the coolant. 8^)