Cabin Floor Access Plate

[Tim Paul]

My '97 h26 has a small round access plate on the cabin floor just to the side of the companionway stairs. Can anyone enlighten me on its purpose? Mine doesn't appear to be simple to remove without scarring, so I haven't tried. Is it simply another bilge access point or is there something underneath I should know about?

 

[Tom Wootton]

Access plate

Mine has it, too, between the galley and the ladder. When I pried it up I found the top of the ballast tank, less than an inch below the cabin sole. When I was researching before I bought the boat, I read some references in the archive to water sloshing out of the ballast tank through the vent hole under the step, and becoming trapped on top of the tank. I guess the deck plate would allow you to find and hopefully remove this water. Others wrote that only a combination of a poorly fitting (or forgotten) vent plug and extreme heeling could cause water to escape the tank in this way. I've only had the boat a week, and haven't yet made that pair of errors together. ;-)Tom

 

[Ron Mehringer]

Bilge

I just can't figure out why Hunter made this a sealed area. Why didn't hey have it drain to the bilge? Very odd.Ron Mehringers/v Hydro-Therapy

 

[Alan]

access plate

Hi guys, I have a '94 h26. Someone posted a while back that early '94's had access plates put in to check for water on the top of the tank. Wish I had it last year when I bought the boat as water on top of the tank didn't dry for three months. And then, a 2 1/2 gallon water container broke under the galley. On a starboard tack that water wound up on top of the tank. I am able to see the top of the tank between the mount for the tank controls and the inside of the companion way stairs but many can not. Anyway happy sailing and keep that vent plug tight! alan

 

[Michael Bell]

Hope this helps

There isn’t enough room on my ’98 H26 to access this area. The top of the tank is so close to the bottom of the sole that I can’t even get a small tube down along side the tank to pull water out.The source of the water, I believe, is from the ballast tank vent and shut-off valve area under the step. You may have noticed that the very top of the tank comes up into that stair-well area, but the two are not sealed at the edges. Any water that surges out of the tank (out the vent hole or out from around the shut-off valve rod), would end up outside the ballast tank area – where the access plate is. I can’t see any way to get water out of there but to soak it up with a towel (short of removing the sole).I caulked that area between the stair well and ballast tank top – as suggested by an earlier post on this subject.My concern was when overloading the boat on a cruise, and the ballast tank plate not sealing off the entrance to the tank, it would over-flow down into the above mentioned area (out of control).