Possible Hole in boat?!

[Bryand82487]

Ok, so everytime I get off the lake there is about 1/4 inch of water in my ski locker. When I bought the boat I thought that it was fine because I got it on a day that it had gotten rained in. But after 2 times out I'm starting to worry. When I pull the drain plug on the back after I trailer it no water ever runs out from back there. Their are small screws and I've pulled a few nuts out from that hole that I believe have washed through the boat and gotten stuck right there. I haven't really tried to get all of it out yet but it doesn't really look like it should block the flow of water. After I sucked all the water out of the ski locker and got the boat home and dried out I noticed with my ear down against the bottom of the ski locker I could still hear water. So I started pounding on the bottom of the ski locker with my fist and I can hear water underneath it. I wouldn't think this is normal. What should I do?

[jward]

RE: Possible Hole in boat?!

what kind of boat and does it have ballast tanks or sacs? Also stop on a large hill and let the water drain out the plug hole.

[Bryand82487]

RE: Possible Hole in boat?!

It's a 2000 SAN. It has 2 rear tanks, 2 vdrive sacs on top of those, and a sac in the center ski locker. I checked and made sure there wasn't a hole in the sac.

[jward]

RE: Possible Hole in boat?!

I don't think you have anything to worry about. Water in the bilge is going to happen when you are running ballast. It could be anything from a small leak in the ballast system, water coming in from the rub rail, to water coming over the rear when stopping. Do you have automatic bildge pumps?

[jasper]

Check all your plumbing on the engine and sacs. Sometimes a clamp is not quite tight enough and water will leak into the bilge. Check the impeller housing for leaks too. A bad gasket or o-ring or the housing just plain not tight enough can let water in so slowly it is undetected.

[DavidF]

Water is going to get in the bilge no matter what you do. If it doesn't something is wrong. However, it seems that you are getting more water than normal.

[WakeSlayer]

1/4" in a very low point of the boat is nothing to worry about. As David said, if you don't have a little water in there, that is a problem. I doubt I ever have any less than that. Filling bags, climbing in the boat wet, shaft log, rudder log, etc contribute to that. Jasper is right, take a 5/16 nutdriver and hit every hose clamp on the engine. You should do this at the very least every year anyway.

[bkhallpass]

Does the boat have a heater? My boat collect water in the same area when the heater went out, and again, when the hose on the heater was not tight.

After that, I would start checking hoses from every fitting that can let water in. Make sure all clamps are tight. Exhaust hoses, bildge hoses, sac hoses, engine hoses. Next I would check shaft and rudder to make sure tight. After that, it becomes more of a mystery. Some people have had water get through a gap between the cap and hull, under the rub rail. They have used silcon, or somthing like it to seal off the gaps.

My $.02. BKH

[N2Orbit]

I thought my boat(2001 SAN) was leaking some water last year. The bilge pump would run a little more than normal. It ended up being some cracks in the stock Ballast tank hoses. Check that out first.

[WakeSlayer]

My buddy's 2005 SV211 that is currently getting a ballast system installed, had a cracked bilgle pump on the bottom of his port tank. He had water in his for the last two seasons and we could never figure it out fully. We figured it was something to do with the stupid T valves and a hose, but could never find the source. The hose CC used to use was really poor, in my opinion.

[Bryand82487]

Well I knew the guy who had it before me and we thought one of the ballast tanks were leaking so he took it right before I bought about a month ago to Drakes Creek Marine in Hendersonville, TN. The tech their Tim Naple said it was not the tank that it was the hose running to the tank and reccommended replacing them all because it woud eventually happen to all of them. He replaced about 20 hoses and charged the guy I bought the boat from like 800 dollars labor, plus installed a new servo motor. Could it be one of the new hoses?

[DavidF]

Not trying to sound like a you know what, but of course it could be one of the hoses, or any other hose, or the shaft packing, or the rudder packing, or a thru hull fitting, or a pump, or whatever. I think you get the point in that you have to identify what it is and repair it. Maybe, just maybe, the person that replaced all those hoses forgot to tighten one of the hose clamps. Pull up the floors, put the boat in the water and look for the source which is about all you can do.