Water in Bilge when on the dry

[RKlemm]

I have a 86, 32-2 where I get excessive water in the bilge when on dry dock over the winter. Yesterday I drained about 5 gallons. Over the course of the winter, I'll do this a couple times if it's not frozen. Can that much water come down the mast? I don't usually cover it. But that's not out of the question to solve this mystery.

 

[Loren Beach]

Our Kenyon double spreader rig is almost the same as yours and in stormy weather the inside of the spar can deliver a couple of quarts of clear rain water (in a week) into our bilge, courtesy of the interior of the spar. What with so many openings (masthead fittings, spreader roots, halyard exit plates...) there are a plethora of places for water to enter the spar interior.

I keep our bilge mostly dry by weekly visits to clean out the bilges. While a deck stepped spar can, in theory, keep a bilge dryer, I do like the stronger and lighter rig system inherent to a thru-stepped mast.

Make sure your bilge pumping scheme can get most water out; then it's up to you to dry it out with a vac or a turkey baster....
This takes constant attention, like most 'relationships' in our lives.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

Our keel-stepped E35-3 is up on stands over the winter, with a canvas cover. There is some gap where the two panels lace together midships, but otherwise it has good coverage. Even with the canvas up, we'll easily have a couple gallons in the bilge after a robust storm. I figure most of that has to be coming down the mast.

 

[bsangs]

While my boat is still in the water for winter, it is shrink-wrapped and when I visit, I generally need to vacuum out the bilge following rain because of the fresh water that enters through the mast.

 

[Bolo]

My mast was just stepped after having it reconditioned and all of the standing rigging replaced. I own a 32-3 but I also always had a lot of water draining into the mast/shower bilge when it rained. Sometimes it would sound like the downspout on my house. After the mast was stepped last week I had a chance to talk to the rigger who did the work when he was cleaning up a few odds and ends on my rigging. We talked about the water draining down the mast and he said that he plugged a lot of holes in the mast so that the amount of water entering the mast should be reduced but will never be eliminated. To keep the water in the bilges down to a minimum I replaced the (rotary) Rule bilge pumps with Jabsco diaphragm pumps. In the bilge I have a hose coming off the strainer, a necessity with diaphragm pumps, that goes down to the bottom of the bilge and is cut at a shallow angle so that when the pump runs it can suck most all of the water out and there is no return of water through the hose when the pump shuts off like a Rule pump allows. During the winter months, on the hard or in the water like this winter, I keep a bit of antifreeze in the bilge to dilute any water that might get in and try to freeze.

 

[Chschaus]

Last year I had the same problem, turned out the cockpit drain hose had a crack in it. All the rain and melting snow was filling the bildge.

 

[Chschaus]

Water in bilge while on jack stands

Looking for any suggestions: I pulled the boat at the end of the season left the house battery on 1 to run the pump if a little water did get in. Went down in early December to get the last of the stuff I take off the boat and check on where the yard put the boat and if they covered where the...

ericsonyachts.org

 

[Prairie Schooner]

Last year I had the same problem, turned out the cockpit drain hose had a crack in it. All the rain and melting snow was filling the bildge.

Hi Chris,
Thanks to your posts I dug into our scupper hoses and they were shot. I replaced them all. With the canvas cover on, our cockpit stays dry as a bone. We're still getting water in the bilge. Have you done anything to stop rain coming down the mast?
Jeff

 

[Chschaus]

I get some during the season but we pull the mast in the winter while on the hard. I shrink wrapped this year so I could get some work done, it stays remarkably warm and with a small heater I am able to get some work done. haven't had any leaks to deal with.