Letting your bilge dry?

[homer12]

I have a bit of a funny question that I can't find any info on. This may be my OCD taking over here, but here it is. We keep our boat on a lift. I never get enough water in the bilge when taking it out for the day or weekend to run the bilge pumps and hardly enough to run out the plug forward of the v-drive either ('04 SV211). I seem to always get a small amount of water that is in the bilge to accumulate under the engine all the way aft. I of course pop the hatch and lockers during or at the end of the day to let it dry as much as possible, but it never gets all the way dry before we have to cover and leave for the week.

Does anyone have any tricks to getting that to dry fast or get the water in there out? When I used to keep a boat on the trailer I could use the trailer jack to move the bow up and down until I got the water mostly out.

[72Miles]

Same here homer. I actually took a beach towel and soaked up the water last week. It lasted until the first dripping wet kid climbed back into the boat! You can use that water to your advantage. Pour a little Simple Green in there let it slosh around a bit and clean things up.

[lucky7t]

We keep a wet and dry vac in our boat box . Suck it out every Sunday before heading home .

[d_nodixon]

I roll up a wash rag and stick half through the hole and spread the other around the hole. Its not fast but does slowly wick out the water.

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[Paxdad]

Same as lucky I use a shop vac to suck it out. I also use a bottle of Spic and Span from the Dollar Store every couple of weeks and let it slosh around.


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[homer12]

I love the OCD ideas! Keep them coming. 😀 I might have to go the shop vac route. My wife already gets annoyed by how long I take putting the boat up though


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[Rogue14]

No tricks but I don't have a lift so my boat sits in the water all of our short season from May-June until Sept. I don't leave the bilge pump on as I don't want to kill the battery. Never had a problem but as has been said, I leave the hatch open to help dry it out. I also have a water gun "super soaker" that I use to suck as much water out as I can and sometimes use a rag to wick out a bit more.

[charlesml3]

Gang,

Just for those of you that are working this hard to keep their bilge dry: Keep it UP! I've been boating now for more than 40 years and one of the biggest problems for boats is water getting into places you don't want it to be. I've seen dozens of boats that have been covered up with wet carpet and bilges. The problem is evaporation and condensation. The water evaporates but having nowhere else to go, it condenses right back. It wets the engine and electrical components. As waterproof as all of them may be, sooner or later water will find a way into some connection or junction.

By keeping your bilge dry you're eliminating this potential problem.

[McCannLand]

New to Nautique but by no means new to boating. I have always taken the shop-vac approach. The added benefit of shop-vacuuming your bilge is not only keeping it dry but removing all the small debris that could potentially foul bilge pump(s) and ultimately in some cases sinking a boat. I have had the good fortune of owning a couple of new boats in my life, even with a new boat you would be surprised at how much debris (mostly from construction) you can find in the bilge. I have always felt a shop-vac was essential equipment to owning a boat. Additionally, this approach keeps you in tune with what’s going on down below and has never hurt my resale value.

[2001SAN]

+1 on the shop vac method.

D.