[C320-list] Water in Bilge and Keel Bolts

[crashley at gte.net]

Tasting bilge water can be hazardous to your health.

CRA
Rosebud#882

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Van Vessem" <jvanvessem at sbcglobal.net>
To: "C320-List" <C320-List at catalina320.com>
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 7:19 PM
Subject: Re: [C320-list] Water in Bilge and Keel Bolts


> Randy,
>
>  The first thing I would do is taste the water, is it salt or fresh.  If 
> it's fresh you know where to start looking.  I get water in my bilge every 
> time I fill up the fresh water tanks.  Just a thought.
>
>  John(Sojourn645)
>
> Charles Greenwell <CGreenwell at sparusa.com> wrote:
>  I have a 2000 model. For years I pride myself for always having a dry 
> bilge. I went for a sail this weekend and upon returning noticed a lot of 
> water in the bilge (about 8 inches). The bilge pump was no pumping it out. 
> The pump would run but it was not pumping the water so, using a hose I 
> shot water into the line to prime the pump and behold.. It was now 
> working. I pumped all the water out and dried out the bilge.
>
> The next day I looked in the bilge and it had about 3 inches of water in 
> it, just shy of the point where the float would turn the pump on. I hit 
> the manual switch pump switch and pumped it out and dried it out again. 
> This time a made sure all of the sides flowing in to the bilge were also 
> dry. I removed the sole plates forward and aft of the bilge and also 
> ensured they were dry. This way I could find out where the water is coming 
> from.
>
> Today, I have more water in the bilge. I checked the forward and aft areas 
> that feed it to see were it was coming from. They are both completely dry, 
> from the speedo aft and the engine compartment forward.. I checked the 
> sides of the bilge under the sole and they too were dry.
>
> This means that the only way water could get into the bilge is from the 
> keel. The boat was on the hard for the winter. This was the first time it 
> had been out of the water for that long of a period. I saw no evidence of 
> any cracks or other problems around the keel or bottom before it was 
> launched. The bilge stayed dry for the 2 weeks it was in the water after 
> launching.
>
> Is it possible that the keel is leaking around the bolts? Do these bolts 
> ever need to be tightened? Should I have checked them prior to launching 
> the boat? Am I over looking another source of water?
>
> Randy
> Le Bijou - Hull 719
>
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>
>
>
> John Van Vessem
> Sojourn 645
> Vallejo Yacht Club
>