liner and thru hulls seacocks on H 34

[Islandsail-Hunter 34]

I posted a previous question about the hull/keel crack and water coming in the bilge.

Well I recaulked the keel hull crack after tightening the keel bolts --WATER is still coming into the bilge - a lot of water. I checked the seacocks and they were dry--But a friend of mine looked at them and speculated that the valves and lever are above the liner and if there is a leak we would not see it.. If this is true I am amazed at the stupid design on such an important feature of safety.. Regardless, has anyone experienced this??? How does one check behind the liner?? Can it be inspected or fixed while in the water--as I am in the water now? IS there any other potential hidden leak areas. I rebedded the toerail, backing glan is OK.

PLEASE HELP

 

[PilotAlso]

non of my boats thru-hulls is over anything but solid fiberglass and they are not hidden in the liner/framing members.
one sits under the forward sink, two under the dinette table forward seat (raw water flush and one waste pump out (disabled), one under the galley sink, one at the rear of the engine compartment space (raw water cooling system intake).

If any of them were leaking, you would be able to see it on casual inspection.

Leaking hoses may be a different matter. Once the rubber on the manual holding tank pump started leaking on our boat. It was then that I found the gate valve wasn't completely closing. This allowed water to flow back into the pump and drain via it's bad internal one way valve and finally out the cracked rubber diaphragm. The bildge filled pretty fast and it looked like there was a keel leak. Turns out the water ran down into the shower bildge and eventually into the main bildge.

 

[Allan12210]

Sorry your leaking problem hasn't gone away yet. The obvious place to check again first is the stuffing box where the prop shaft enters the hull. That drips directly through a hole cut in the liner and runs down the inside of the hull. Turn the prop shaft by hand to see if there is a spot where a lot of water will leak in.That's the easiest place for water to come into the boat. Next, close every single seacock completely and dry everything. I hope you have real seacocks and not the OEM gatevalves otherwise you can't be really sure it is closed completely with out pulling the hose off. This will eliminate any water entry through hoses above the valve. . You might have to wait a while to let them drain down if that is where the leak is. Speaking of which, does the holding tank/head discharge form a loop above the waterline? Does water still come inside after everything is shut? If not, then open them one at a time and wait until water appears.

I presume this is salt water and not due to some leak in your fresh water tanks filling the bilge?

None of the factory installed seacocks are mounted on top of the pan. There is a cutout in the pan that gives direct access to the hull, accessable for observation. The engine seawater intake is a bit hard to see, but accessable under the rear berth.

Allan

 

[Dan Johnson]

Thru-hulls...

Like Pilot said, none of the H34 thru-hulls are behind any liner. The closest is under the galley sink, but a generous amount was cut away around the valve assembly to make it easy enough to check.

Check your thru-hulls for your depth sounder and knot meter. Mine were weeping after I splashed the boat Wednesday afternoon. A little twist of the retainer ring brought that to a halt.

My shaft log was also passing more than a few drips when launched Wednesday. A fifteen minute run, including a minute at WOT and the stuffing had swollen up enough to not drip when not under way. The first spring launch after purchase saw the log flowing water in a torrent--scared the bejesus out of me! About one face turn of the log nut tightened it up so as to stop it at rest and drip slightly as expected under way.

Feel around the forward, starboard and aft sides of the bilge sump to determine which side the water coming in may be coming from. If your major thru-hulls are dry and the shaft log isn't leaking, you may have a keel problem that needs quick and permanent resolution.