Major leaks following overland transport...

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Richard_Peevor

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I have recently moved my boat from Gosport to Swansea. The boat, previously on a mooring was lifted out and trailored to Swansea where she was lifted back in.

The boat previously had small amounts of water ingress (its an old yacht and was acceptable in the bilge above the keel) when I put the boat in (the boat had arrived perfectly well), the stopcocks were all dry etc.

I returned to the boat about a fortnight later and the cabin was 4" under water. I bailed it out - all areas around the thro hull fittigns were fine.

I have been back again this time 5 days later and the bilge was full but not overflowing... argh!!

I think it is new/increased entry from the deck fittings bit cant exclude the hull. There are no cracks to be seen. COuld the keel boats be leaking? Could they have vibrated loose on the journey? The toilet has not overflowed..

If it was the toe rail leaking one of my worries (which is riveted on along its length) how on earth can you sort it out as it seems to get to the underside you'd need to remove most of the interior...

Any thoughts much appreciated..

Water just tastes oily and not very salty - I think its rainwater but not certain..
 
To stop the leak you must first find it.

I know that sounds silly but we had a leak through a deck fitting - it took us four months to track down th source of the leak and 20 minutes to fix it!

What sort of construction is the boat? Wood/GRP/Steel? Assuming you have checked the obvious (stern gland, ruder stock, all through hul fittings fixings and bolts) then yo need to get systematic to track the leak down. Are you sure it's not the water tanks leaking?

If it's all coming in in one place you should be able to see sign of water ingress on the hull/coach roof - you will need to remove head-linings and/or locker-linings to see. Once you track down the source of the leak then you can work out how to fix it.

/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
If it's fresh water - and even pure rainwater will be a bit salty if it comes out of the bilges - then it's come in through a hole. Unless it's the fresh water tank - do you top it up each time?
You ought to be able to find a deck leak with a few buckets of water and someone down below looking for dribbles. Do you have a keel-stepped mast? The gaiter can go. Another one is the cockpit drain pipes splitting or coming adrift from the seacock.
 
Good suggestions, another possibility is that some boats have internal scuppers, piped from deck to a bit above the waterline. If a tube comes off or splits a lot of water can get in whenever it rains.
 
its a GRP hull.. not sure of the nature. Deck stepped mast. Water tank is tiny and level not changed at all.

The amount of water is huge which is my worry. I am planning to use a pressure washer to do a joint effort of cleaning the deck and trying to identify the leak.

The saildrive leg gaiter and the rudder post areas are all dry.

I think its the deck or the keel. The cockpit is covered by a tarp.

Can anyone answer re: keel bolts? Can they loosen with movement? How do you check them? If there was a leak there (the keel is joined to a stub on the hull - short fin keel) would water appear around the bolts?

worried!
 
As it doesn't appear to be salt water, you could wait for a dry day and try the hosepipe method on one section at a time. Worked for a friend of mine who found a deck leak some five feet from the point of ingress. Patience needed.
 
If it was a keel bolt problem the water would be salty, as it isn't it would appear to be a deck fitting leak, chainplate perhaps
 
If it's deck it'll only leak in the rain (provided you're not on a passage) if it's below waterline it'll leak all the time.
I did have a leak which fulfilled both criteria. The pipes from my cockpit drain to the skin fittings (just above water level) cracked and both rain and lake (if it was choppy on the mooring so that it lapped into the skin fittings) drained into the bilge.

Have lifting strops dislodged a skin fitting enough to start a leak?
 
Get hold of some childrens washable, stress the 'wash-off-able' aspect of the felt tip pens,
and draw around or along any suspect water entry points, when you go back you will find the pen washed off or at least 'run' where water has been over it.
Different colours for different places?
 
You have not said whether it is fresh water or salt. I had a major leak that I could not find, taking in a bucketful every two tides and I had no apertures on the hull other than cockpit drains. In the end traced it to an absence of gelcoat about the size of a 10p piece on the bottom of the stub keel, spot of epoxy putty and Bob's your uncle. Now I've a rainwater leak which needs some attention - hey ho!
 
first place to look is the windows. The boat structure will have moved and flexed as it was transported and window joint are an area that seems to suffer most from this.

I've never tried the washable pens - but I have used talc and toilet paper as a way of finding leaks. spend a few hours spraying vulnerable bits with a hose.

bit uneasy about the quantity. we have had lots or rain but 4 inches is an awful lot of water. how about the tanks and tank fittings?

above all, dont do what most of us do do - that is think of the most difficult to deal with problem and then worry that that is the issue you have got. you're more likely to have a cold than you are to have lung cancer! start elimination with the simple and obvious
 
hey ho - I will just get down to work tomorrow am and see what I've got to deal with...

1st thing is a bit of water tasting - bilge and marina to compare - yummy!

Richard
 
Is the boat on a mooring again now or a pontoon? We had a leak that we only found when on a jetty because on the mooring (on a lake at the time) the boat was always head-to-wind. When we moved to a jetty, we'd sometimes get a bit of water inside depending on wind direction. The sort of volumes you're talking about make me think that it's something more serious, but it's just a thought!
 
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