Hiya.
Quick background: bought my Hunter 40 last year, 365-liveaboard
I was trying to clean the bilge. It had I-don't-know-how-many years of crud in it. I don't know if PO cleaned it at all. Plus, to make things more fun, the two heads both leaked. It needed cleaning badly.
I was scrubbing, and then siphoning out with a hand pump into a gallon bottle which I then flushed into the rear holding tank (front one is cracked, rear is a newish replacement) so I could get it pumped out. I'd scrub, spray in a little fresh water, siphon, flush, repeat. It was starting to look like the bilge water was becoming less black-gunk. Yay!
But either I lost count of how many gallons I had flushed, or I was wrong about how big the rear holding tank was. And unbeknownst to me, it was overflowing into the rear cabin.
The tank is in a side cabinet, and it has all top-mounted ports, but the black water just leaked out, into the cabinet, and started spilling out from under the cabinet onto the sole.
Now, the sole in the rear cabin was already spongy. I knew the rear cabin wasn't in great shape when I bought it, but during the first cold snap when condensation had every hull surface dripping and the leaks were pouring down the sides... Well, the sole was ripping apart along the edges and the bed support was saturated and wobbly too. What a mess. But after drying it all out, I thought I might be able to go a bit longer before having to yank it.
The problem is that all that spongy wood seems ideal for soaking up sins. My rear cabin now smells like a steaming porta-potty, and the smell isn't much better in the rest of the boat.
I've got fans trying to dry it all out. I'm guessing 1 - 1.5 gallons may have spilled over, but no way to tell now.
At this point I really don't know what to do. Am I out of options and it's time to rip out the cabinet, sole, and bed frame from the rear cabin? Is there any way to un-stink this colossal mistake? My car decided it wanted my repair budget for this month, so anything I rip out will stay ripped out for a while.
Help?
Quick background: bought my Hunter 40 last year, 365-liveaboard
I was trying to clean the bilge. It had I-don't-know-how-many years of crud in it. I don't know if PO cleaned it at all. Plus, to make things more fun, the two heads both leaked. It needed cleaning badly.
I was scrubbing, and then siphoning out with a hand pump into a gallon bottle which I then flushed into the rear holding tank (front one is cracked, rear is a newish replacement) so I could get it pumped out. I'd scrub, spray in a little fresh water, siphon, flush, repeat. It was starting to look like the bilge water was becoming less black-gunk. Yay!
But either I lost count of how many gallons I had flushed, or I was wrong about how big the rear holding tank was. And unbeknownst to me, it was overflowing into the rear cabin.
The tank is in a side cabinet, and it has all top-mounted ports, but the black water just leaked out, into the cabinet, and started spilling out from under the cabinet onto the sole.
Now, the sole in the rear cabin was already spongy. I knew the rear cabin wasn't in great shape when I bought it, but during the first cold snap when condensation had every hull surface dripping and the leaks were pouring down the sides... Well, the sole was ripping apart along the edges and the bed support was saturated and wobbly too. What a mess. But after drying it all out, I thought I might be able to go a bit longer before having to yank it.
The problem is that all that spongy wood seems ideal for soaking up sins. My rear cabin now smells like a steaming porta-potty, and the smell isn't much better in the rest of the boat.
I've got fans trying to dry it all out. I'm guessing 1 - 1.5 gallons may have spilled over, but no way to tell now.
At this point I really don't know what to do. Am I out of options and it's time to rip out the cabinet, sole, and bed frame from the rear cabin? Is there any way to un-stink this colossal mistake? My car decided it wanted my repair budget for this month, so anything I rip out will stay ripped out for a while.
Help?