Anyone else have trouble with rain water getting into their bilge after haul out? I’ve been out for a week, not covered yet. Had the bilge bone dry last weekend and came back yesterday to find about ten gallons in the bilge. The mast is out but there is a cover over the hole. My suspicion is that the boat is sitting tipped back toward the stern and that perhaps the rain water accumulated on the seat above the propane locker and entered there rather than draining as it usually would while sitting in the water. I placed some dry paper towels strategically around the boat to see what gets wet with the rain coming this week. It was very scary to see how much had gotten in there with just the 1 and half inches of rain that we got last week. I plan to cover her this coming weekend weather permitting.
Thanks!
Rebecca Bray
“Tessa” N30C #11
Watch Hill, RI
If water is entering the bilge from the propane locker you have a safety issue. The propane locker should be sealed off from the rest of the boat. You need to check that out.
Possible sources are the port and starboard side locker lid drains. Also the cockpit floor drains and the attached hoses.
My boat is on the hard during the summer months in Florida. We live on her in the winter. Lots of rain in Florida in the summer. Lockers stay dry but the bilge fills. PO put a thru- hull low in the bilge and opens it on the hard when in storage. It works. Also came in handy when I decided on a water maker. Dual purpose depending on the season.
Cheers
Mike
Intuition, N36, #11
Ft. Pierce
In the trough around the locker lid is a small bait well style drain. This goes into a hose that runs to another drain just above the cockpit floor. A plywood backer was used for the drain. If the drain developed a small leak the water would rot out to backer and additional water would come in. This happened on both the port and starboard side lockers on La Reina. I used some Alaskan Yellow Cedar to make new backers and installed new drain fittings. This solved the leaks.
Years ago, someone suggested blocking off those drains and removing the hoses to make the cockpit lockers more accessible. I did that, plugged them up and never regretted the access I gained and it did not put any more water in my bilge.
Joe Valinoti
S/V iL Gatto NS30U #221
Sea Harbour YC
Oriental, NC USA
Several years ago a Nonsuch member reported that when he visited the boat in the spring he had bilge water above the cabin sole, delaminating it. The boat was on the hard with a cover on for the winter. The simple solution to avert a disaster is to pull the knot log plug. This serves as a drain while improving ventilation. Don’t forget to put the knot log back in before launching.
Thank you. I’m really hoping to figure out where the rain water is getting in. Perhaps the coming rain will help with that. I do not want this to happen while it’s in the water next year. In the event that something needs to be repaired I would like to get to that now.
The investigation continues. So after the rain that we had earlier this week, I went to the boat to assess the rain water intake. Looks like about 6-7 gallons this time. I checked the strategically placed dry paper towels for moisture and found those up forward in the bilge dry. Back aft in the engine compartment I found the one on the port side to be soaked with a trail of water coming from further back aft. I climbed down into the back of the boat below the cockpit and found three puddles of water: one just behind the sail drive, and two held up in areas on either side of the steering mechanism (sorry, I cannot think of the term at this time). Attached are pictures. I looked just above the two puddles and found water dripping in through the stainless exhaust cowls that we bought a few years back to replace the vinyl ones that were there. Not coming in through the threads for them but right in through the cowls openings. Now the boat is listing pretty far to port in the stands. Enough that it is noticeable to anyone who sets foot on her. I have asked the yard to adjust that. However, since this is not a problem while she is in the water, I cannot explain why it is such a problem now while hauled out. I looked around for any other dripping or wetness back aft and I could not find any other leaks. Attached are photos if anyone else has any ideas. How could so much water enter through these? They are now covered with plastic until I can get the boat covered.
I’m having a bit of trouble orienting myself with exactly where some of your pictures would be located on the boat. The two that most caught my eye were the first (“water dripping in”) and the fourth (“Exhaust cowl with water sitting in Ledge”). Are those pictures the inside and outside views of the same thing? And where on the boat are those pictures located?
When people talk about exhaust cowls on a Nonsuch, I tend to think of the “clamshell” cowls on the outer sides of the cockpit coamings. Those connect to the blower ventilation hoses. But these pictures aren’t of that. So, it seems like you’re talking about something else. Maybe you could post a picture a bit more zoomed out to give a better sense of where the cowl you’re talking about sits on the boat?
I’m wondering about those two pictures for several reasons. The first one appears to be showing water dripping around the edge of the opening. That opening looks like bare plywood, and I’m guessing it’s probably somewhere horizontal on the deck. At a minimum, there’s likely to be pooled water leaking underneath the edges between the deck and whatever is on the other side of that picture. The edges of that hole need to be sealed to make sure that water doesn’t get into the wood and cause it to rot.
If the fourth picture is showing what’s on the outside of that same hole, then it’s also likely that the cowl vent needs to be removed and rebedded because there doesn’t appear to be any caulking underneath it.
If those two pictures are opposite sides of the same thing, that’d certainly explain a lot of your water. In that case, you could be getting both rainwater blowing in directly through it the cowl opening, in addition to pooled water leaking in underneath it. Because boats tend to be tied up in line with the prevailing wind, and keep the wind coming from their forward end when in motion, you can orient a cowl vent so it’s facing away from wind and seas. But when it’s on blocks in boatyard, all bets are off.
If you have a cowl vent that can’t be turned away from the wind, then water will always find its way in through it unless there’s either some way to cover the opening or put a dorade box under it.
Six or seven gallons still sounds like a lot more than that alone would cause, though. But fixing those things might at least be progress.
