Jump to content

Cabin bilge water, when to start to worry?


Gareth E

Featured Posts

9 hours ago, Gareth E said:

The problem I have is that I'm going abroad for 2 months in a couple of weeks, a bit worried about the water reaching the flooring while I'm away...or worse. I guess a solution for peace of mind might be to employ a temporary bilge pump with an auto switch in the cabin bilge, with a hose going to somewhere suitable, outside an open window maybe?    

Depending on the depth of water at your mooring, it might be an idea to leave your TV aerial up or a tethered buoy on your roof so you can tell whether she's still there when you get back! ;)

To be more helpful, you've eliminated your fresh water tank itself earlier, but if it was FW from pipework downstream of your pump you'd be hearing the pump kick in at intervals when taps aren't used, possibly quite far apart. Is that happening at all?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Gareth E said:

These replies make me feel a bit better! The problem I have is that I'm going abroad for 2 months in a couple of weeks, a bit worried about the water reaching the flooring while I'm away...or worse. I guess a solution for peace of mind might be to employ a temporary bilge pump with an auto switch in the cabin bilge, with a hose going to somewhere suitable, outside an open window maybe?    

 

Consider the worst case scenario and you have a canal water leak letting in the one pint a day. That’s 62 pints in the two months you’re going to be away. That’s only 8 gallons or 35 litres. I’d say there is no chance whatever such a small volume of water will come up above the floor. I’d say you’d need ten times that volume of water to be at risk of that. 

On the other hand, a permanently installed bilge pump is always a Good Idea, as would be double checking your insurance is still paid up and in force before you leave...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Consider the worst case scenario and you have a canal water leak letting in the one pint a day. That’s 62 pints in the two months you’re going to be away. That’s only 8 gallons or 35 litres. I’d say there is no chance whatever such a small volume of water will come up above the floor. I’d say you’d need ten times that volume of water to be at risk of that. 

 

Mike, a slight flaw in your logic.

As the boat sinks the flow of water will increase in speed thus the 10x volume will soon be reached.

Note to the OP.

I'm sure you don't have a hull leak, I had a similar problem and it took ages for me to get rid of the bilge water. Eventually no more water needed pumping out, I never did find out where it came from.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's no running of the water pump with taps off, so I don't think it's a joint in the water system. What I have found is a leaky mushroom vent. When I took the inside cover plate off there was a drip or two of water, plus more drips on the bearer that supports the roof. Could water from here find its way down into the cabin bilge, or is it more likely to show itself as staining to the interior woodwork?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Gareth E said:

There's no running of the water pump with taps off, so I don't think it's a joint in the water system. What I have found is a leaky mushroom vent. When I took the inside cover plate off there was a drip or two of water, plus more drips on the bearer that supports the roof. Could water from here find its way down into the cabin bilge, or is it more likely to show itself as staining to the interior woodwork?

Water can ingress at one point and easily travel to another point so in answer to your question yes it will make its way to the bilge and no it may not hang around long enough to cause anything other than mild staining.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Gareth E said:

Could water from here find its way down into the cabin bilge, or is it more likely to show itself as staining to the interior woodwork?

What kind of insulation does your boat have.

This can seriously affect how far water leaking in at one point can actually travel, initially unnoticed.

Rockwool is very good at "wicking" it from one place to another, with no evidence on cabin linings for some time that bad things are actually happening.

(But please don't ask me how I know this.............)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Phil. said:

Water can ingress at one point and easily travel to another point so in answer to your question yes it will make its way to the bilge and no it may not hang around long enough to cause anything other than mild staining.

OK great well I've sealed the mushroom vent up good and proper, including creeping crack cure to the screws on the outside. Hopefully I'll start to see the water diminishing soon.

Insulation is polystyrene, not very thick. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Gareth E said:

 

Insulation is polystyrene, not very thick. 

If it is not thick, it may well be against the linings, with a gap between it and the outer steelwork. 

If so water could certainly travel large distances running down the steelwork, and not necessarily damaging the linings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a leak that looked like it was coming in the top of a window and was catching the drips in a bowl, so when it was dry I give it a dose of captain tollys creep sealer but it still leaked so after another 3 goes with it I gave up and sealed with a bead of sikaflex, and been dry ever since.

Neil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I never found Cap'n Tolley to be any use whatsoever.  Year before last though I had a panic when I found about two gallon of water under the floorboards, all of which turned out to be condensation from a bit of the steel I had missed when insulating the boat after refitting about twenty years ago.  Never caused any problems until I moved the boat from the Shroppie to a higher and colder mooring on the Macc. It was only about two square feet of steel uninsulated - I was amazed at how much water was running off it.  Since insulating, no more problems. Well, from that, anyway...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
On 27/12/2017 at 15:20, Gareth E said:

There's no running of the water pump with taps off, so I don't think it's a joint in the water system. What I have found is a leaky mushroom vent. When I took the inside cover plate off there was a drip or two of water, plus more drips on the bearer that supports the roof. Could water from here find its way down into the cabin bilge, or is it more likely to show itself as staining to the interior woodwork?

The drips around the mushroom vent is very likely to be condensation.

On 28/12/2017 at 12:42, Arthur Marshall said:

I never found Cap'n Tolley to be any use whatsoever.  Year before last though I had a panic when I found about two gallon of water under the floorboards, all of which turned out to be condensation from a bit of the steel I had missed when insulating the boat after refitting about twenty years ago.  Never caused any problems until I moved the boat from the Shroppie to a higher and colder mooring on the Macc. It was only about two square feet of steel uninsulated - I was amazed at how much water was running off it.  Since insulating, no more problems. Well, from that, anyway...

Captain Tolleys is good stuff, but only for tiny gaps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.