Hello sailors -- My partner and I purchased an '09 Hunter 45DS Oct 2020. In exploring and cleaning her we have noticed that there are hidden "sumps" that feed into the bilge. These sumps appear to run under the visible bilge and feed any bilge water into the visible bilge via "floor level" holes. We have used a turkey baster to empty them from time-to-time.
Upon deeper inspection, we found that, for example, runoff from our stuffing box (which is normal) flows into one of these hidden bilges and eventually makes its way to the visible bilge. We can find no access panels for these and while there are a few forum posts about a hidden bilge in an earlier/shorter hunter (a 34 I believe), nothing in the forums addresses this for the 45DS. I've worked through all of the documentation from Hunter-Marlow but cannot find anything that speaks to the hull mold or assembly. In short, we've hit a wall.
Our objective is to keep the bilge clean (top priority) and ideally dry (secondary priority). We have even explore plumbing the runoff from the shaft to the shower sump so that we avoid filling the bilge with water every time we are under power.
Any thoughts, links, learnings will be welcome. Thank you in advance!
Sean & Lori
s/v Halayah Rhea
Upon deeper inspection, we found that, for example, runoff from our stuffing box (which is normal) flows into one of these hidden bilges and eventually makes its way to the visible bilge. We can find no access panels for these and while there are a few forum posts about a hidden bilge in an earlier/shorter hunter (a 34 I believe), nothing in the forums addresses this for the 45DS. I've worked through all of the documentation from Hunter-Marlow but cannot find anything that speaks to the hull mold or assembly. In short, we've hit a wall.
Our objective is to keep the bilge clean (top priority) and ideally dry (secondary priority). We have even explore plumbing the runoff from the shaft to the shower sump so that we avoid filling the bilge with water every time we are under power.
Any thoughts, links, learnings will be welcome. Thank you in advance!
Sean & Lori
s/v Halayah Rhea