How wet are your bilges?

[aquaplane]

I get a bit of water in the engine bilge but that's probably from the stern gland, or through the cockpit sole hatch, or somewhere else, looking at it I'm not going to taste it to see if it's salt because it doesn't matter, there isn't enough to worry about.

The bilge under the saloon is now dry, except when fresh water from the galley leaks a bit.

The lockers with the keel bolts in are dry as snuff, as they should be.

Oh, this is on a Centaur for those who don't know me.

 

[Tam Lin]

The water in my engine bilge is coming in from above. I think through the engine instruments, the round air vent, log or engine controls. I can catch it in a bucket as I have no engine at the moment so it must be one of these. It's a Centaur too. Otherwise bone dry.

 

[NickRobinson]

Originally Posted by AndrewB http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5007641#post5007641 They seem like a waste of money to me. Cost about £4 (half for refill), each one will pull a litre of water or so before swamping. A dehumidifier pulls 3 litres A DAY.
If your boat is letting in 3 litres A DAY ashore, at a pontoon or somewhere else you can plug in a dehumidifier then I fear you have bigger problems than the cost of drying it out. As I said, a calcium chloride pack was quite enough to keep the inside of my Hunter 490 bone dry in the barn last winter ... where in any case I could not have used an electric dehumidifier.

If your boat is letting in 3 litres A DAY ashore, at a pontoon or somewhere else you can plug in a dehumidifier then I fear you have bigger problems than the cost of drying it out. As I said, a calcium chloride pack was quite enough to keep the inside of my Hunter 490 bone dry in the barn last winter ... where in any case I could not have used an electric dehumidifier.

My guess is the 3 ltrs are atmospheric, not leaks. As I'm sure the poster knows, dehumidifiers need the external vents closed to avoid trying to dry the world outside.

The science of the drying trays is limited. If there is moisture to clear, week in, month out, where could the water go? They work well where they are not needed and those users report positive results.

 

[jwilson]

AWB with deck stepped mast. If I start with bone dry bilges and do not put in the log impeller or heat the calorifier it stays that way. The three sources are a few drops of salt water from burping the Volvo stern gland seal after launch, a few pints of the same from log impeller in/out, and up till now an unpredictable amount of fresh water from the calorifier pressure release valve if it gets very hot. Now on third valve, and I do turn the knob to clean the seating regularly. Recently fitted an expansion tank after the calorifier to hopefully stop this leakage.

My only problem is that the water that does get in does not all end up in the tiny bilge pump sump - it prefers to settle in two wide flat bilge compartments aft of the sump, for which sponges are the only solution.

 

[AndrewB]

My guess is the 3 ltrs are atmospheric, not leaks. As I'm sure the poster knows, dehumidifiers need the external vents closed to avoid trying to dry the world outside.

The science of the drying trays is limited. If there is moisture to clear, week in, month out, where could the water go? They work well where they are not needed and those users report positive results.

Yes, I did say condensation when ashore. (There are no leaks and in summer the boat is perfectly dry). I do shut vents when laying-up, but even if its completely watertight the boat isn't air-tight, and after a couple of months there is still a lot of water in the bilge. When I tried them, chemical dehumidifiers made little perceptible difference. I can see they might work for a yacht stored in a barn where the temperature differential (between inside and outside the yacht) will always be slight so there is very little condensation. But for most of us whose boats stay in the open air they would seem pretty useless.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Yes, I did say condensation when ashore. (There are no leaks and in summer the boat is perfectly dry). I do shut vents when laying-up, but even if its completely watertight the boat isn't air-tight, and after a couple of months there is still a lot of water in the bilge. When I tried them, chemical dehumidifiers made little perceptible difference. I can see they might work for a yacht stored in a barn where the temperature differential (between inside and outside the yacht) will always be slight so there is very little condensation. But for most of us whose boats stay in the open air they would seem pretty useless.

In my case it was useful because in the barn there is little air flow and so the inevitable dampness inside from a season afloat tends to stick around, so I have to take the cushions and so on home. The dehumidifier dealt with that perfectly ... so yes, more of a way of collecting water that's already inside than dealing with water which is coming in, one way or another. With that proviso, though, I still recommend them.