Fresh water leak

[Nigel52]

Quicksilver 905 weekend just put back in the water after the winter. Noticed after filling up with water I am getting fresh water in the bilges. Artificial knee not helping crawling round the boat so looking for someone local to track and fix the problem. Boat based at Cobbs Quay, Poole. Any recommendations on someone I can contact.

 

[dpb]

Could be rain water? Boat now at different angle to what it was when out of water so any rain water just finding its way through?
Assuming not a huge amount, clear water away and note what circumstances lead to it coming back.
As for paying someone, just be aware that you can spend a lot of time tracing water ingress from sources that are not immediatley obvious.

 

[Nigel52]

Could be rain water? Boat now at different angle to what it was when out of water so any rain water just finding its way through?
Assuming not a huge amount, clear water away and note what circumstances lead to it coming back.
As for paying someone, just be aware that you can spend a lot of time tracing water ingress from sources that are not immediatley obvious.

Not rain water as drove the boat back from its winter ashore storage to normal marina berth a distance of about 5 miles and bilges were dry. Only when we refilled did the bilges fill up enough to set both aft and fwd bilge pumps working. Appreciate cost of getting someone to investigate and I will try myself as I have always done my own maintenance in the past on my various yachts but after knee replacement I am not as flexible to crawl into small spaces anymore. Wife also has her leg plated so difficult for her. With all our yachts i could lift all the floorboards and access everything; not so easy on a modern motor boat. Given the amount of water and how quickly I'm hoping it will be fairly obvious and then an easy fix. Sods law says it won't be like that.

 

[Martxer]

Cockpit shower possibly?

I had the shower head split on mf895

 

[Nigel52]

Cockpit shower possibly?

I had the shower head split on mf895

Interesting, I will check this afternoon.

 

[lusitano]

Some food colouring in the f/w tank often makes a leak easier to trace

 

[Nigel52]

Some food colouring in the f/w tank often makes a leak easier to trace

. Good idea, need to think about that.

 

[Nigel52]

. Good idea, need to think about that.

Christopher



leaking without being pressurised. Went down again today and fwd bilge and engine bilge have filled up again. Emptied 4 large buckets from fwd bilge and 2 from aft engine bilge. No obvious leakage around inlet fill up hose and water tank. Just ordered wooden plugs to block up flow holes between front bilge and centre area and rear bilge going backwards. If the leak is between front bilge by the front cabin and aft engine bilge does anyone know how I can access the piping between the two?

 

[Nigel52]

Day 5 of the Quicksilver 905 WE fresh water leak saga: By blocking the various drain holes I have determined it is definitely not the water tank or main water pump or anywhere in the aft of the boat.
Someone mentioned that the boiler drains into the bilges but you will see from the photo mine vents overboard.

Again someone also mentioned that one could get into the bilges from the centre cabin – this is no longer possible as the only access hatch is in the side of the locker near the boiler and that only provides access to the shower drain.

I have opened the inspection hatch in the heads cupboard under the sink but cant really see anything as access is very difficult – I have run my hand up and down the pipes and they don’t seem wet. I don’t see how to remove the sink shower faucet.

However, I did not know I had a shower sump pump and every 10 minutes or so I get a pump surge from that area. This is even when the water pump is turned off behind the galley. Don’t know whether this is linked. Also how does one turn on the shower sump pump as I cannot find a switch for it.

I went to isolate the pumps electrically but cannot find a fuse panel for each of the electrics – is this normal?

Also heated the boiler up to see if when the water was hot it leaked but made no difference. There is a very tiny droplets of water under the boiler relief valve but I honestly don’t think that is anything.

Having now removed about 6-8 buckets of water the inflow is very little and I have filled the water tank up about 30%.

Highly unlikely but does the anchor locker drain into the forward bilge?

 

[Nigel52]

I had a light bulb moment during the night that maybe I somehow have caused the problem. When I drained my water tank before the winter and opened the taps I drained into the galley sink and heads sink. Well these drain into the grey water tank. When I refilled and flushed the fresh water tank a week ago I again drained into the sinks. This must have filled the grey water tank and maybe it vented into the bilges? Nothing about this in the manuals and what I always did on my previous yachts where all sinks drained overboard.

I guess to empty and flush the water tank one has to use the deck shower overboard, crazy solution and not in the manual. Will go to the boat this morning to see how full the grey tank is.

 

[Nigel52]

Today day 6 the bilges are dry. Repressurised the water system and ran all the taps and seems dry. I'm still convinced there is a link between when I flushed the fresh water tank through by draining it into the galley sink which in turn goes to the grey water tank. Maybe there was a bakflow somehow; do not really know.

 

[B42]

When we returned our bat after being on the hard for some work over he cold period, we had exactly the same problem. Traced it to a plastic elbow joint under the heads sink. Its near the hull and in a cupboard so not benefitting from insulation or the frost-stat heaters - had a small split in it an when the water pump put pressure into the system it was leaking. New joint - solved.

 

[Nigel52]

When we returned our bat after being on the hard for some work over he cold period, we had exactly the same problem. Traced it to a plastic elbow joint under the heads sink. Its near the hull and in a cupboard so not benefitting from insulation or the frost-stat heaters - had a small split in it an when the water pump put pressure into the system it was leaking. New joint - solved.

Thank you, certainly something to think about. I think with the help of the dealer I have sorted the issue. I had forgotten that when one drains the galley sink it goes straight into the grey water tank. When I emptied the remains of the water tank at the start of winter into the sink all I was doing was empting it from fresh water tank to grey water tank. At the start of this season I filled and flushed the fresh water again flushing down the galley sink straight into the grey water tank. I understand if this fills up it drains to the lowest point on the boat which is the shower sump pump hence why I had tracked down to the main volume of water being by the fwd bilge pump near the heads door. Also the shower sump pump would recycle every 10 minutes or so. After 6 days of drying out the bilges and removing circa 10 buckets of water it looks like the problem has resoved. In my investigation I did find the two deck drains that drain through two right angle fittings under the rear deck are leaking around the hose joint. I have yet to fix this but it is very slight. HAving been used to draining my water tank into the heads and galley sinks on my yacht I was surprised that these drain into a grey water tank on my QS 905WE. It would be nice if I could drain sink water straight over the side. (Not for black water)