Water in Bilge

John 32i

John 32i

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We sailed our new (to us) yacht (1988 Beneteau Oceanis 320) back from Woolverstone to our mooring at Felixstowe Ferry this morning (great weather at 06.30+ and a great sail!) but arrived back at Felixstowe to find the equivalant of three buckets of water slopping around in the bilge. None of the seacocks are leaking, the freshwater tank / through the hull fixings and keel bolts all seem intact. No leaks from the engine (they were sorted before we took delivery) so where can this water be coming from? We have dried it up and left it for further checking tomorrow but anyone have any experience of this / advice for a relative newcomer...??
 
3 buckets is quite a lot !! .

Did the loo overflow when heeled over ?
What about the galley sink , either from slopping over or split drain hose ?
Don't know what engine you have but some cooling water pumps have a tell tail hole that leaks when the pump shaft seal has gone.
Chain locker leaking internally instead of draining overboard ?
 
Faulty Ytube on the raw water intake.

If fresh water, the pump will keep cutting in. My hot water pipes became stiff and leaked at the manifold after 10 years. More likely would be the pressure relief valve.

Set aside a whole day or weekend to trace it. Sometimes it has taken me weeks.
 
So has this boat been standing on the hard all winter? Have fresh water pipes froz and burst a joint? Do you have a transom shower - big culprit for freezing and splitting. Has the stern gland dried up and was it greased before you started out?

Do you have a raw filter with a spin off top (Vetus type) - not done up well with a bit of grease on the rubber seal?

Where does the calorifier discharge?

Some many options (don't ask).

Good luck and much fun with the new boat.
 
about 18 months after ownership of Black Magic, I suddenly had a bucketful of water appear in the space under where the cooker sits. Mopped it out, dried it up and never saw anything again. Mysterious.

then about six months after that, I had a bucketful appear in the well where the log paddle is. I left it while I pondered what do it and I when I went back to do something, all the water had disappeared never to appear again anywhere else. Since then, the boat has always been completely dry.

double mysterious. :confused:
 
ChattingLil said:
about 18 months after ownership of Black Magic, I suddenly had a bucketful of water appear in the space under where the cooker sits. Mopped it out, dried it up and never saw anything again. Mysterious.

then about six months after that, I had a bucketful appear in the well where the log paddle is. I left it while I pondered what do it and I when I went back to do something, all the water had disappeared never to appear again anywhere else. Since then, the boat has always been completely dry.

double mysterious. :confused:
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Guess we now know why the boat is called "Black Magic"!!!!
 
We had water sloshing around in the bilge once after a firm grounding. I spend half a day cleaning out a disgusting bilge to find the source only to find a trickle coming from aft, where a cockpit drain pipe had rotted adjacent to a hot (dry) exhaust). After continuing with one drain seacock turned off the problem recurred, which was due to rain-water from the cockpit draining through the same hole.
 
Dried everything out over the weekend and started trying to work out where the water is coming from, the transom shower head was cracked and leaking when the pump was on but dont think this has caused so much water to be present and I couldnt see how it would have got back to the bilge, it doesnt look as though the fresh water tank level has gone down much either so starting to fear that it is the stern gland, particularly as there was some water underneath the shaft. Guess this will mean lifting out; not quite what we had expected so early in the season, the perils of buying an old boat and to a certain extent an unknown quantity!
Thanks to all for your advice!
 
John HH21 said:
Not conclusive..tasted it and it didnt seem salty but there again the freshwater tank/pipes didnt seem to be leaking !
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Sea water does taste very salty - your bilges might be contaminated with salt, so that a fresh water leak tastes salty, but i doubt that you'de be in any doubt if it was a sea water leak.

It did rain very hard in a few showers over the weekend. Have you tried sprinkling talc all over the bilges (after drying them out thoroughly) to see if you can trace the leak?
 
John HH21 said:
Dried everything out over the weekend and started trying to work out where the water is coming from, the transom shower head was cracked and leaking when the pump was on but dont think this has caused so much water to be present and I couldnt see how it would have got back to the bilge, it doesnt look as though the fresh water tank level has gone down much either so starting to fear that it is the stern gland, particularly as there was some water underneath the shaft. Guess this will mean lifting out; not quite what we had expected so early in the season, the perils of buying an old boat and to a certain extent an unknown quantity!
Thanks to all for your advice!
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at least the boat is yours.
not like the unfortunate customers of Tarquin or Trader ;)
 
Adding one more to the mysterious 'bilgewater from nowhere' debate i had it on my Trapper 500.

Bilges filled up, then when pumped out she stayed dry - even when motoring. I had thouight that the stern gland might be dripping when we motored but the bilges remained dry. Then about 12 months later it happened again. The water did taste salty but point taken about fresh water from the bilge tasting salty.

Eventually I've foud a cockpit drain fitting that had had it and replaced that so if it was rain water getting in when it was really raining hard, that might solve the problem. But at the last check she was dry with just a tiny bit that could easily have been condensation in the bilges.

Twice lots of water, but for the most part over four years no appreciable problem. Weird or what?
 
What type of stern gland do you have? We have a packed gland and when I frequently forget to grease before starting the engine we get a lot through. "Grease early and grease often" :D
 
John HH21 said:
Dried everything out over the weekend and started trying to work out where the water is coming from, the transom shower head was cracked and leaking when the pump was on but dont think this has caused so much water to be present and I couldnt see how it would have got back to the bilge, it doesnt look as though the fresh water tank level has gone down much either so starting to fear that it is the stern gland, particularly as there was some water underneath the shaft. Guess this will mean lifting out; not quite what we had expected so early in the season, the perils of buying an old boat and to a certain extent an unknown quantity!
Thanks to all for your advice!
Click to expand...

Should not have to haul her out, depending on what kind of stern gland you have you can do it afloat, did mine once without too much bother.
 
sailorman said:
we only normally give greaser a turn after use or during a long motoring trip, we dont get drips
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I have just bought a larger plastic MAB with a greaser. As only the second boat I have had with an inboard engine, I'm afraid I'm a little wary of it. My other boat 'Glayva' has a deep sea seal which it took me 5 years to work out how to stop it leaking into the non existent bilge. But I sort of understood the rate of leak of that except when motoring at full throttle.
When I bought 'Raven'* my new boat I was advised by the old owners that half to a turn after use was about right. 'Raven' has a 6 feet deep sump in the keel which allows me a fair margin of error in terms of taking on water, but the only bilge pump is worked by hand.

The question. I am taking 'Glayva' to the Azores this year and will leave 'Raven' on the mooring for two months. I assume if I tighten up the greaser well before I leave, I will have minimum leaks into the bilge. Am I right or should I get someone to check it every couple of weeks?

*Proper name 'Raven of Hamble', a much smaller sister to 'Phoenix of Hamble'
 
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