Bow Drain

[nsteffens]

The water in front of the bow that comes through the drain from the bilge is annoying. Why didn't correct craft install a one way valve in the drain so water coming over the bow would drain to the bilge but not come back up through the drain in the bow?

[NautiqueJeff]

How much water is in your bilge, and why isn't your pump pumping it out?

[GoBig]

...and why are you taking water over your bow?

[brananders]

I've got the same problem and I posted a message on this topic on an older thread, but I haven't heard a response. The carpet under the bow in my boat is always wet, even if no water has come over the bow and I'm not sure how its getting there. I don't know if this is normal, if I am taking on too much water somehow or if the front bilge pump isn't working? How much water do people get in their bilge on an average day? Any ideas?

[nsteffens]

I'm not taking water over the bow, just water coming up through the bow drain.

From my understanding, the bow drain either plumbs back to the bilge or to the ski locker (not sure which). I do not have much water in the bilge after a day out on the water and the bilge pumps only come on a few times to remove the water. When i pull the boat out the water and have it sitting level to the ground, I noticed that there is a little water buildup in the ski locker and under the gas tank (2002 SAN). I remove the plug, but since the water is in the middle of the boat, it does not drain. The water is low enough that the bilge pump in front of the gas tank does not pump any water out. I then have my nice trip back to the boat storage which goes over many hills, but non of which I can pull over to drain rest of the water out. Once I get to the boat storage, I have a nice hill I can let the boat sit for a few minutes to drain (usually only drains for about 30 sec). Of course, by this time, water has made its way up through the bow drain.

[NautiqueJeff]

You have another issue going on there, maybe more than one.

First, there should be a drain that allows the water in the front to drain down into the main part of the bilge. It must be blocked.

Second, your bilge pumps should not have to come on 'a few times' during the normal course of the day unless water is coming in somewhere. Sounds like it is time to check your shaft and rudder packing, as well as possibly your hull to deck seal.

I can go all day long and still have an almost totally dry bilge in my 210 without the pumps ever kicking on at all.

[nsteffens]

I'm still confused why I have water in the middle of the boat if both bilge pumps are working properly.

[nsteffens]

My guess is that water is coming through from the shaft seal because I've looked for other leaks and didn't see any water leaking in. I plan to replace the shaft seal with a drippless during the winter.

As for the plugged drain, are you saying that I might have trapped water in the drain because it's plugged somewhere allong the tubing?

[brananders]

It sounds like I may have similar problems, my bilge runs at least once during a normal day on the water and I'm surprised by how much water I'm pumping out. This figures as my luck with this boat hasn't been great. What is a hull to deck seal?

[nsteffens]

Checked the front bilge drain just to make sure it was working and everything is fine. Next step will be to check the bow drain to see if it plugged.

[brananders]

I'll be doing the same thing this weekend. How did you check the front bilge pump?

[nsteffens]

The pump is right in front of the gas tank. I used the ski locker to access the pump (2002 SAN)

[wakedog01]

I have the same boat (02 SAN) with the same problem and have also been chasing leaks. I replaced the heater core due to leaking and installed a dripless shaft seal. This eliminated the leaks from those 2 areas. I have replaced the rear hard tanks with 2 750 lb sacs and when the sacs are full, the swim platform is under water. Below the swim platform is a rubrail where the deck and hull are joined together. It seaps water through this area so my next step is to try to reseal this area.

[gatorgates]

I have the same problem, i.e. constantly damp carpet in the bow. My thinking, after many years of fooling with this is as follows: Given the configuration of the bilge and the center plug, no matter how hard you try, you cannot get the bilge completely empty of water. I know this as I pull the plug at the ramp, drive 5 miles to the barn and no more water comes out. But if I then crank up the bow at about 30 degrees and pull the stern plug, I get about 3 cups of water. So, while driving the boat, either on land or on the water, that 3 cups of bilge water sloshes to the bow, and escapes up the bow drain. (any teamster knows that freight shifts to the front). The water drains right back down, but not until it soaks the carpet. I cannot come up with a good fix, so I just got in the habit of pulling the center cushion of the bow seat at the end of the day so the carpet can dry out.

[SkiTundra]

Same problem on our '08 211. Bow carpet all around drain is nearly constantly soaked and is starting to get some growth. This seems to mostly be from bilge water flowing up through drain.