Bilge keeps filling with water

[Joe Benedict]

Sorry - jumping in late here. I had/have the same annoying leak which has had a few sources. The larger leak would only "appear" when there were a lot of people in the boat or on a fairly rough day. The source was the "T" fitting for 2 of the cockpit drains. The "T" is lightly over the water line so it does not leak all the time. Check out the plumbing specs on this site for the E27 - it isn't part of the E29 stuff. You can see one of the "T's" through the port side cockpit hatch - some difficulty. The second source is cracks in the void section of the sump in the rear part of the keel - got most of them last year but must have missed one - don't store the boat on metal or with all of the weight on the aft part of the keel. For peice of mind I put an automatic pump in the sump access at the ladder - just slung off a simple frame and routed allong side the manual pump to it's own discharge - with a loop.

 

[taz4]

water in the bilge

First of all thanks to everyone for your help.

Im going to wait on the stuffing box but that will be my first port of call once the boat is on the dry. That is hopefully going to be early next week ie monday. From there on in I will definitely be adding the automatic bilge. On saturday Ive got a 5hr cruise to take the boat to dry dock so that will give me a whole day to find any other leaks.

This is my first sailboat and Im somewhat hoping its just the stuffing box. From what all you guys have told me it sounds the must likely culprit as it filled up more after motoring for a couple of hours.

Again thanks everyone

Ill keep you posted

Taz