The last couple of times that I've taken my Catalina 22 with a wing keel out for a sail, there has been a small amount of water in the bilge. I've tried to find the source and have not been able to find it. I'm not sure if it is salt water from where I have it slipped or fresh water from rain. In order to narrow my search, is there a way to identify if the water is fresh or salty without "tasting it" (ugh) as it is brown and ugly? I have two thru-hulls and both are not leaking. The keel bolts may be the source but remain dry after I soak the water up and then when I return in a week or so, there is again water in the bilge.
Identifying water in the bilge.
- Thread starter sigsgmret
- Start date
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,819
Here is something that might work..
AquaChek Salt Test Strip Titrators for Pools - Salt Water Pool Test Strips for Sodium Chloride - Quick and Accurate Results - Professional Water Quality Testing Kit (10 Strips)
AquaChek Salt Test Strip Titrators for Pools - Salt Water Pool Test Strips for Sodium Chloride - Quick and Accurate Results - Professional Water Quality Testing Kit (10 Strips)
If you determine it's fresh water please get my attention by @Crazy Dave Condon
I was the Catalina dealer who introduced the boat now retired
I was the Catalina dealer who introduced the boat now retired
So I had the same issue ('89 C22) but with a swing keel. After a trip in the Mississippi Sound in decent 2-4 seas I had some water in the bilge which was a historical problem , but never in this amount. After a trip to marina, they found that the original outflow from the small kitchen sink had gone bad. Problem is you cannot see it even on a trailer b/c it's in the receiving slot for the keel. Just a thought...
Those test strips will work... alternatively, if you have a local community college or university, you could contact the chemistry department and ask if you could have a pinch of silver nitrate. Dissolve the silver nitrate into about 2 milliliters of distilled water (or water from your tap if it is not chlorinated). Then take a sample (about 10 ml) of your bilge water into a glass and add the silver nitrate. If it turns milky white, then you have salt water in your bilge. The silver combines with the chloride and makes a white insoluble solid (collodial) suspension.
This is a part of a routine analysis (gravimetric titration) and all chemistry departments keep some of this around. You can also buy silver nitrate on Amazon
Boat wash, wet bathing suits, galley spills, rain, sea spray, plumbing leaks........ All bring water aboard a boat and some of that water seeps into and gets trapped by the hull stringers bellow the sole. Usually when the boat gets in motion, heels and moves with the waves some of that water is released into the bilge. It is usually fouled by bacteria during the time it remained trapped and it will stink. There are many postings in the Archives about flushing the bilge, drilling holes on the bilge liner, pumping the water out and restricting all forms of allowing water to enter the boat; or the alternative to let it be. As a matter of fact you will likely, only smell it for the first day aboard and after that it will be land that stinks when you get off the boat. Even under dry weather conditions you may still get water in the bilge as the amount of trapped water can usually be measured in gallons.