Grrr ...........Water Leak. Sherlock vs Reichenbach Falls

[oldgit]

A small amount of water is accumulating in the deepest darkess bit of the bilges without rhyme nor reason.
It is fresh and no not the black water holding tank.
No obvious ??? relation to external rainfall via deck/ flybridge drains or over filling freshwater tanks.
Not nearly enough to be simply condensation inside hull or perhaps even condensation from fridges.
Sherlock OG was thinking about some non deadly/ non toxic coloured dye to pour into various orifices on the boat and see if it emerges eventually in the bilges.
Thought about food dyes, also some fluorescent dyes around on Ebay but not sure what light source you need to make it fluoress ?
Well past the Talc or paper towel stages now and far more interested it whats going on than actually having to doing any graft solving the problem which suspect lurks deelp within the bowels of the boat.

 

[Boathook]

Took me about 3 years to find where some fresh water was getting in on my boat. Eventually traced it to a hull / deck joint. Why it didn't make the first locker wet rather than the second I will never know.

 

[B27]

I have slight rain leak.
I'm just re-sealing everything until it goes away, then re-sealing everything else.

A mate's boat, we think water was travelling along the nav light cable to the middle of the boat.

 

[jwilson]

If you have a calorifier a very common source of fresh water leaks is the pressure release valve.

 

[justanothersailboat]

It is astonishing how water can creep through a boat undetected and only show up in the strangest, most annoying places.

You need an UV light (like an UV LED) for fluorescents, don't you? seems excessive vs. a bit of food colouring... cool though

 

[mrangry]

I am currently working on a boat we sailed up to the Clyde from Cowes and noticed during the journey that water was entering the vee berth on stbd side. I assumed there was a leaking deck fitting and have spent ages with a hose trying to replicate this leak with no success. These issues can be very frustrating and have now decided that a sea trial will be the next thing to try with someone inside trying to track it

 

[srm]

Many years ago I used a yellow/green Fluorescein dye to track the plume of a power station outfall into the sea. It is not toxic and is used in internal medicine so should be safe in your boat. It does not need UV light or any special equipment to enable you to see it. The form I used was a powder that was dissolved in water. Sorry, but I can not direct you to a supplier now.

 

[justanothersailboat]

Oh that stuff! yes that would work... it is very strong though isn't it? in terms of colour per gram?

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Many years ago I used a yellow/green Fluorescein dye to track the plume of a power station outfall into the sea. It is not toxic and is used in internal medicine so should be safe in your boat. It does not need UV light or any special equipment to enable you to see it. The form I used was a powder that was dissolved in water. Sorry, but I can not direct you to a supplier now.

It is routinely used by opticians for inspecting the fit of contact lenses, too.

Oh that stuff! yes that would work... it is very strong though isn't it? in terms of colour per gram?

Indeed. It is also a very "fast" dye; I used it for certain chemical procedures when I was doing A-level, and my fingers were stained yellow until the skin wore away! It is routinely used to investigate the path underground water is taking - a tiny amount introduced at the suspected source will show up miles away.

 

[justanothersailboat]

So - impressive stuff, but possibly a bit strong for leak tracing on a boat. Also, once your bilges are that colour, they're staying that way. Which might be fun I suppose

 

[Boater Sam]

The most insipid leak I had was on the outlet of the fresh water tank before the pump.
The steel stub had rusted away.

 

[srm]

So - impressive stuff, but possibly a bit strong for leak tracing on a boat. Also, once your bilges are that colour, they're staying that way. Which might be fun I suppose

Trace leak and paint bilge in one easy step?.

 

[justanothersailboat]

:-D You might be onto something there!

I painted my bilges white and mostly this is great in terms of preventing dark corners, being easy to see it's clean, and making me be really disciplined about preventing any drips etc... all good... I would recommend it to anyone... but any drop of diesel is a drop of diesel dye and seems to mark it forever. And the only more staining substances than diesel dye are fluorescein and turmeric.

 

[jwilson]

This year shortly before launch I fixed the known freshwater leak from the calorifier piping and left the boat overnight with water pressure pump still on. In the morning there was a LOT of water in the bilge. Took most of 2 days to finally trace and fix the second leak, which was at the other end of the system from the calorifier. Over winter the heads shower valve body must have frozen and cracked, and water was leaking down from there behind various internal GRP mouldings.

 

[oldgit]

Well beyond caring if any dye stains the bilge