Bilge Water

I am in the process of evaluating a '94 30+. She appears to be in great shape both inside and out, but I did see about 1 1/2" of water in the bilge. I expect to find the source of the water through the survey.

I pumped the bilge on Sunday and I'm going to see it again on Thursday, and will be curious to see if there is water again.

I have heard that boats often have some water in the bilge. Is this the case? Any thoughts or insight is appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help in this wonderful process.

Peter S

That much water in the bilge can easily just be rainwater down the mast (assuming the mast is up?). Pump the bilge dry (maybe with a hand pump to get the last bit of water) and then check the stuffing box for leaks. If the stuffing box isn't leaking, and it doesn't rain, then the level in the bilge should not rise. If it does, then I would suspect a leaking hull deck joint as the cause, though a leaking water tank or plumbing is also possible.

Peter, are you sure they built the E30+ as late as 1994? But if so, I am guessing that it is deck stepped mast, like my 1984 E30+, in which case it won't be water running down the mast (other keel stepped Ericsons do have water running down the mast).

If the boat is in salt water, I would do a taste test to see if the bilge water tastes salty or like fresh water. If salty, I would suspect the keel/hull joint, stuffing box adjustment, leaking sea cock or thru hull or rudder post as possibilities; if fresh, leaking water tank, holding tank, deck/hull joint (less likely given how they are built), anchor locker (the sealant may be old, so rain water could run down below the v-berth into the bilge.

Frank

It is a '84 not '94 - and I have fat fingers.

I am gonig ot have the boat hauled out to look over the bottom.

Another question came up in my research of the bigle water.

Is the '84 30+ keel encapsulated or is there an seem between the keel and hull? I had heard it was encapsulated but have heard otherwise as well.

Thanks
Peter S

Tracking down where the water comes from could take a while. The 30+ was, I believe, one of the first Ericsons to employ the Tri-Axial Force Grid in its construction. (As I recall the 30+ only has a partial TAFG.) This reinforcing system under the floor can trap water in its various compartments. You can pump out water in the bilge access areas and then, after sailing heeled over or in rough water, the water will migrate from where it is trapped through limber holes and appear in the bilge access areas again.

My bilge had a lot of water in it. I thought it was from a leaking pedro hose on the stuffing box, but after that was fixed there was still a lot of water. I eventually discovered that water could get in through the port lazarette seat/lid. The lip at the back of the opening is not high enough to prevent water from getting over it when washing the boat or in a heavy rain. The water just went down the inside of the hull and into the bilge. I have tried some rubber weather stripping but it is hard to keep it in place for any length of time. Need to work on some sort of permanent gasket for that lid.

Of course, any of the other suggested sources of water could also be possibilities...

My '85 does not have an encapsulated keel.

My boat is a later ('87) E26 and I'm not sure if your boat has the same arrangement, but if your transom drains lead to plastic thru-hulls above the waterline on the transom, they are probably cracked on the lower inside where sun constantly shines into them. Basically, every drop of rain that collects in the cockpit ends up in the bilge! The origional fittings were not UV resistant and over time are subject to UV degradation. It took me a couple of seasons to figure this out! You can replace them with brass, but Maralon is UV resistant and much less expensive.

As noted in an earlier thread here I changed out all the original transom thru hulls to SS. The original plastic ones had some cracks and were letting water in from rain and following seas.
Bronze or Forespar "marelon" is just as good; do not ever use brass.
A couple of other 80's Ericson's in our moorage have changed out all the original ones, also.
On an '84 model it's really past time for replacing the original bilge hoses too. If the prior owner was keeping up on his preventative maintenance schedule this has been done.... but don't hold your breath.

Loren

Loren, what are the bilge hoses you mentioned? Are they the hoses that lead from the cockpit scuppers to the through-hull fitting? I believe I have leaks in that area as well. By the way, happy birthday.

John

jengels said:

Loren, what are the bilge hoses you mentioned? Are they the hoses that lead from the cockpit scuppers to the through-hull fitting? I believe I have leaks in that area as well. By the way, happy birthday.
John

Click to expand...

Thanks John!
In consideration of my arteries, I celebrated with a one-scoop ice cream cone!

IMHO, most of our 80's era boats have drain hoses at or beyond their natural life span. I am not the only owner to find cracks or breaks in the hoses connecting the cockpit drains to the thruhulls and also cracks in the original plastic thruhulls as well.
I replaced most of mine with SS, and a nearby E-32-3 and an E-38 replaced theirs with bronze. It's all good, as the saying goes.

It's a also good idea to install new bilge pump hose while you are (un)comfortably-ensconced in your lazaret, wrenching and cursing...


http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?t=7890

Loren

Marlon?

Loren,
I'm not the least bit keen on Marlon fittings. My '80 I-31 had a pair of Marlon thru-hull valves servicing the cockpit scupper drains, probably factory installed. Once I'd cut in a cockpit floor hatch and actually had access to this pair of valves I attempted to exercise them. The first one I tried with very nominal force on the valve handle, the handle shaft sheared right off in my hand.
Only thing I could think of at the time was, had there been a situation where ship and crews' safety relied on the function of that valve?????? I happened to be on the hard at the time fortunately.
They were removed immediately and replaced with a pair of real bronze Spartan 1-1/2" seacocks.

Huh?

Greg Ross said:

Loren,
I'm not the least bit keen on Marlon fittings. My '80 I-31 had a pair of Marlon thru-hull valves servicing the cockpit scupper drains, probably factory installed. Once I'd cut in a cockpit floor hatch and actually had access to this pair of valves I attempted to exercise them. The first one I tried with very nominal force on the valve handle, the handle shaft sheared right off in my hand.
Only thing I could think of at the time was, had there been a situation where ship and crews' safety relied on the function of that valve?????? I happened to be on the hard at the time fortunately.
They were removed immediately and replaced with a pair of real bronze Spartan 1-1/2" seacocks.

Click to expand...

Greg,
Those early RC Marine/Forespar valves were redesigned and superceeded a decade ago or more. Valve materials are certainly a never ending topic for discussion, but not applicable to this thread....
the above-water thru hulls did not come from the factory with valves and I added none to mine. I'm not aware of any other owners adding valves to their above-water thru hulls, either. (Not arguing against doing so, though -- "belt n suspenders" for hull openings is always an acceptable idea for boating safety.)

Loren

Glad I stumbled across this thread! I've been wrestling with bilge water problems for a bit now. Earlier this year I chiseled out the sealant on the chain locker and just did a temp job on that cause I have a bunch of moisture right in the bow of the V-Berth, that seems to be mostly fixed (soon as dries up, good old Vancouver, I'll properly fix that) but still after the loads of rain we've been having I'm still collecting massive amounts of water.

I never thought to check the cockpit drain hoses at the stern there! I'm going to go back down and do that first thing tomorrow. After washing the boat down today I noticed a bit of water is getting in through the cockpit locker as well, there used to be some weather stripping mashed in there but I pulled that out. Guess I'll need to re-evaluate that too. I like the look of those stainless steel outlooks, adds a little flash to the back Nice job Loren!

me too

I have been battling this problem for a long long time. When I resealed the anchor locker I also discovered that the drain hose from the locker to the bow was split and cracked in many spots. Worth checking for yet another sauce of water intrusion. Great suggestions for other causes.