Lot of Water in Bilge After Rain on 270DA

[thompsdw]

Anyone solve this problem? Seal things up and drain external? I also thought about water proof fabric (outerwears). ?

 

[Lazy Daze]

For my boat, I originally thought about building a drain into the collector boxes and running it to a new thru-hull. But I felt that I would still likely have water entering the blower hoses, unless I did major modifications to the box. I decided it wasn't worth it. Instead, I just replumbed the blower hoses so there were no dips in them and remounted the blower in a vertical fashion. This way any water that enters the hoses goes directly to the bottom of the bilge, as opposed to leaking onto the shelves on either side of the engine.

You could, if you wanted to, fashion an "apron" or a outer bilge vent cover. You could use some of your existing hardware, such as the camper canvas snaps to attach it. With double-sided snaps, you could still attach your camper canvas. The cover would be long enough to extend below the vents and you could weight the bottom edge to keep it in place. Use a piece of Sunbrella that matches your camper canvas, if you like. Obviously, you wouldn't keep the cover there while underway.

 

[rcon]

Engine vents on my starboard side "collect" water as it runs over them and channels into bilge. Horrible design.

 

[dicor]

What it needs is something similar to a hood scoop with the opening facing downward.
I don't know if its a good idea to cover them with sunbrella material I think it may get musty in the engine room if it were sealed from the outside.

 

[thompsdw]

I think I'm going to put outerwears material below the vent and trim the excess off.

 

[streetdoc432]

I stay in a covered slip & had a similar issue. The only thing I had exposed was my bow pulpit. I siliconed around the edge of it & it fixed my problem.

 

[Lazy Daze]

I think I'm going to put outerwears material below the vent and trim the excess off.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. "Outerwears" and "below the vent"?

 

[thompsdw]

I'm sorry. Outerwears are a material that will let air pass, but not water. They are most commonly used as a pre-filter on jet skis and atv's. I was thinking a out sandwiching a piece under the vent cover and then trimming off the excess. You can purchase it as sheet material.

 

[Lazy Daze]

OK, now I understand. I thought it might have been some type of hi-tec clothing! I thought of what you are thinking about when I wrote my response above. But I shied away from suggesting that (although my only thought for material was landscape fabric) because I just don't know enough about it in regards to letting enough air in. I would think it would work just fine when the blower is on. But once the boat is on plane, normally we turn the blower off. It's at that point that I'd wonder if the air would still naturally get pulled down into the bilge. Granted, the engine will still create a negative pressure - just not sure if the vents will work as good as they are supposed to.

As far as the mildew/musty thing with a Sunbrella cover... I think it's a good thought, but the material breathes well enough that it shouldn't be a problem. Besides, some people completely seal the vents over the winter with no ill effects.

 

[Paladin]

I've got rain water that does the same trick on mine (into louvres/vents, then into engine room) and I have thought about putting acrylic visors over the vents on the outside, like you can get for car side-windows? They'd stop most of the rainwater going in. Or SS ones, for that matter. The old Tolleycrafts had that setup. The vents had sort of an angled-down "roof" over the vent slots.

 

[boatrboy]

I'm not following some of this. Attached are the pics of my hatch and I don't have any gasket material under hatch. Water runs in the channels and out to the swim platform. I am curious where is the seal you are referring to?

My thoughts are is it possible your water connection is leaking down the stern into the bilge or is it disconnected with the water system off?

BTW - the pics above were taken when I was trying to find if the plastic buttons (and the ss washers/spacers) were from Sea Ray and they confirmed (customer service at SR) they were not. I don't know who installed them and for what....

 

[dicor]

I think he found that the rain was entering here thru the stern side vents.

 

[Lazy Daze]

It's quite common to see those plastic shims being used to keep the hatch from squeaking.

 

[Paladin]

Boatrboy: like on the outer side of the hull...

 

[boatrboy]

It's quite common to see those plastic shims being used to keep the hatch from squeaking.

Boatrboy: like on the outer side of the hull...

Paladin - the reason for the picture was to show Sea Ray the other side
Lazy Daze - thanks for the feedback - I tried to buy these but could not find a number so I called Sea Ray and e-mailed pics. They called me and said they never saw this - he said he even checked with many folks and no one was aware of this item. They look like Door panel fasteners. Is that what you use?

Dicor - oops - missed that post - was having so much trouble loading pics I never went back to re-read everything. Since I fixed my steering bushing I get no water in my bilge at all, even after heavy rain. The OP probably saw a note I wrote once about the gas fill area needing re-sealing and he mentioned this was not his problem, but I hosed fresh water over this and vents and have no water now. I did wash my cockpit last year by hosing everything (which I never do) and found the rear storage compartment frames seemed to leak a small amount of water to bilge or more specifically the shelves where the water tanks sit, but not to the extreme that the op mentioned. Anyway - hope he is permanently fixed and was trying to understand and help

 

[Lazy Daze]

Lazy Daze - thanks for the feedback - I tried to buy these but could not find a number so I called Sea Ray and e-mailed pics. They called me and said they never saw this - he said he even checked with many folks and no one was aware of this item. They look like Door panel fasteners. Is that what you use?

Well, that's interesting. The boats come to us from Sea Ray with those spacers/shims installed! Besides squeaking, the other obvious reason is to level the engine hatch. We might have some laying around as once in a while they need some fine tuning. But, really, you could use just about anything.

 

[dicor]

Dicor - oops - missed that post - was having so much trouble loading pics I never went back to re-read everything. Since I fixed my steering bushing I get no water in my bilge at all, even after heavy rain. The OP probably saw a note I wrote once about the gas fill area needing re-sealing and he mentioned this was not his problem, but I hosed fresh water over this and vents and have no water now. I did wash my cockpit last year by hosing everything (which I never do) and found the rear storage compartment frames seemed to leak a small amount of water to bilge or more specifically the shelves where the water tanks sit, but not to the extreme that the op mentioned. Anyway - hope he is permanently fixed and was trying to understand and help

My steering assembly was also leaking, I kept getting salt water in the bilge. I ended up having the transom assembly replaced, is that what you did?

 

[boatrboy]

My steering assembly was also leaking, I kept getting salt water in the bilge. I ended up having the transom assembly replaced, is that what you did?

You can see the salt under the steering lever before - I ended up rebuilding it myself and cleaning up everything. - in the last pic you can see my flushing system too.

 

[thompsdw]

I think he found that the rain was entering here thru the stern side vents.

I actually think it is coming from multiple sources. I just think I need to be in the boat when it rains. Hopefully tomorrow. The seal on mine basically compressed with the lip on the engine compartment. As I said before, Im not sure it was for water or noise. It should drain.

 

[dicor]

You can see the salt under the steering lever before - I ended up rebuilding it myself and cleaning up everything. - in the last pic you can see my flushing system too.

I give you a lot of credit for doing that job yourself everything had to come off. When I developed the leak I asked around and was told that there was a 50/50 chance that the leak would come back because of the corrosion on the transom assembly itself so I opted to have the assembly replaced. I like what you did with the flushing system, I went with Volvo's Neutra-salt system instead.