How much bilge water and fuel leak is too much?

Lucas Gan said:
Thanks mates. Will try.

Here you reminded me one more question: where can I discharge the diesel water mixture? I keep all that 40+ L bilge mixture liquid in three containers on land. I will never discharge them to the river. Where can I discharge or recycle them to?
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try putting them in 20lt transparent plastic containers (like the ones you get the ready mixed antifreeze in for example)
Let the mix settle for a day, notice how much (or how little) the diesel is on top, get a pump with a longish pipe in the bottom of the tank and suck out and discard the water at the bottom. That should be nice and clear and IMHO could go back to the ground.
Get another can and pour the diesel (hopefully with only a little bit of water left in)
repeat until you empty your 3X40+ l containers and you hopefully end up with less than 20L of diesel.
Then up to you, could even add biocide and pour it back in your tanks once the leak is identified and fixed.

good luck

cheers

V.
 
All local authority waste disposal sites will have a storage tank to dispose of waste "oils" of all types.
Beg borrow or buy those suggested semi transparent 20L/25L plastic containers, some merely have a thin clear line in the plastic to check fluid levels.Although heavy you can move them around.
Buy a cheap Ebay 12V transfer pump @ £12.95 to remove fuel from tank into drums.
It can take a long time for the water and fuel to settle and seperate out.
It is not uncommon for mild steel fuel tanks to corrode or for stainless/alloy tank welded seams to fracture.Either due to age or cheap budget quality materials/fabrication.
This usually means major surgery to boat, frequently engines have to be moved at considerable expence to gain access.
Recently a forumite had a leaking steel fuel tank.Not a lot,just annoying smelly weep.
After removing all surrounding interior woodwork and cutting decent sized inspection hatch in top of the steel tank he gained enough access to locate and prepare for repair.
You might need to remove baffles if obstructing the damaged area.
Vital that the interior was 1001% pristine, several different techniques were repeatedly used to ensure that any sealant stayed stuck with no delaminating.
Proved successful to date.
 
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10 litres of water a month is about 9.95 litres too much.
It takes very little water to make a boat damp, smelly mouldy and losing value like Carillion shares.
 
lw395 said:
10 litres of water a month is about 9.95 litres too much.
It takes very little water to make a boat damp, smelly mouldy and losing value like Carillion shares.
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Easy to say but much more difficult to find the source. It could just as easily be a leaking handrail stanchion base or cable hole grommet as it could be a leaking sterngland. For example I had water standing in a bilge on my boat for 3 yrs before by accident tracing the source to a shower tray where the edge sealant had cracked
 
Deleted User said:
Easy to say but much more difficult to find the source. It could just as easily be a leaking handrail stanchion base or cable hole grommet as it could be a leaking sterngland. For example I had water standing in a bilge on my boat for 3 yrs before by accident tracing the source to a shower tray where the edge sealant had cracked
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I agree it is a terrible job, very often a long series of terrible jobs.
But it makes a huge difference when you succeed.
Probably depends on climate, but leaving a boat with water in it for one winter in Pompey leaves a smell in the upholstery that lasts a very long time.
Among other places, my boat leaked through the cone of a cockpit speaker. I only found that one during a very wet weekend in Cherbourg. Loads of English boats in the marina, everytime the rain eased off to a mere torrent, people would pop up like meerkats wielding tubes of sealant.
A litre in 3 days when it's not raining and you're not bashing into waves is a lot IMHO, or have I strayed into the woodn boat forum?
 
lw395 said:
I agree it is a terrible job, very often a long series of terrible jobs.
But it makes a huge difference when you succeed.
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Yes I agree totally with that. The very worst case I've come across was an old trawler yacht we chartered in the Caribbean many years ago. The boat stank to high heaven from the minute we boarded it and on the first night I got 52 mosquito bites (my SWMBO counted them) despite having all the windows closed. In the morning I took up some of the floorboards to find large pools of water in the bilges which seriously reeked and which I attempted to drain with the one pathetic functioning bilge pump. We found out later that all the sinks and showers drained straight into the bilges and the rancid water was basically a breeding farm for mosquitoes. For the remainder of the trip I plastered myself from head to toe in mosquito repellent every night. Later on in the trip we did manage to put the boat onto a reef which is what I thought it deserved but thats another story
 
Thanks mates.

I can confirm the diesel leaking is from the starboard tank room. But not sure if it's from the bottom of the tank or the fitting in the tank housing room. I will wait for my pipe investigation camera delivery, so I can take video from there to verify.

The water leaking can't be found yet since there are some water about 1 inch in the bilge at the moment.
 
Lucas Gan said:
Thanks mates.

I can confirm the diesel leaking is from the starboard tank room. But not sure if it's from the bottom of the tank or the fitting in the tank housing room. I will wait for my pipe investigation camera delivery, so I can take video from there to verify.

The water leaking can't be found yet since there are some water about 1 inch in the bilge at the moment.
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don't think may of us would be surprised if you have more than one leak ....
 
Not read all posts yet so this may have already been mentioned. Are you manually removing the diesel water mix by the amounts you have stated? Is the level coming up to float height for any bilge pumps as these should be pumping out most bilge water leaving maybe only an inch of water.
 
I manually removed the water. It's not deep enough to activate the bilge pump yet. Especially the boat has a heavy canopy on the bow to make the bow lower than stern. So all water run to the front part of the bilge. And the bilge pumps are all located at the rear part of bilge. So no more water at the pumps.
 
Lucas Gan said:
I manually removed the water. It's not deep enough to activate the bilge pump yet. Especially the boat has a heavy canopy on the bow to make the bow lower than stern. So all water run to the front part of the bilge. And the bilge pumps are all located at the rear part of bilge. So no more water at the pumps.
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So you remove the water before it triggers the rear pumps. I may be inclined to fit a new or move an existing bilge pump to a forward bilge
 
Normally, the water in the bilge should level or a little run deeper in the rear. But just because of the heavy canopy on bow to make it difficult. The canopy should put back to stern soon.
 
As has been said, you don't want to pump oily or diesel tainted water overboard, the fines can be painful and everyone will hate you.
 
lw395 said:
As has been said, you don't want to pump oily or diesel tainted water overboard, the fines can be painful and everyone will hate you.
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Correct. I was not advocating pumping out overboard.
My concern was that with the amount you originally had pumped out manually, that the bilge pumps should have cut in.
 
Luckily, the bilge pumps just get a little wet but no water hold near the pumps because of angle make the water all go to the front part of the bilge. And, the deep of the water will not enough to cut in the pumps even make the boat level.
 
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