Salt water in bilges in a seaway

[Scallywag-l36]

Hi folks

My 2004 hunter legend 36 seems to accumulate a lot of salt water in the bilges whenever I have been sailing or motoring into choppy waters. Anytime water breaks over the bows or I slam into short waves (the kind that creates lots of dramatic looking spray!) I find salt water and sometimes sand in my bilges. I have verified nothing is coming in via the seacock fittings. Everywhere else seems dry enough down below. Any clues where it might be getting in?

 

[Alan]

The most obvious source sounds like the anchor locker though the hull/deck joint would also be suspect. There's a very simple to do test for all leaks of this kind. Seal up the cabin and make a template to replace one of the hatch boards. Connect a shop vac to the outside of the template and set the shop vac to blow into the cabin. While the shop vac runs use a spray bottle of soapy water to spray all around any suspected leak areas from the outside. Any leaks will appear as bubbles from air escaping from the interior.

 

[Steve Kamp]

Check the drip rate at the shaft seal; it should only be a couple of drops/minute when the shaft is turning, but if it needs tightening you could accumulate quite a bit of seawater in a short time.

 

[Steve Dion]

Sand?

That would also lead me to believe that it would be the packing gland.

You may want to put some talc powder in the area under the berth and see if that area is where the water is coming from too?

 

[Scallywag-l36]

Thanks for the tips guys, I have a sail drive, the seal for which is bone dry so unlikely to be anything to do with the shaft seal. I am assuming sand was in the green water i was taking over the bow. I will try the technique of using a shop vac and soapy water though. Great idea never heard of that one before! Anchor locker seems most likely culprit at the moment

 

[Bill Roosa]

Sand and sea water, lets see, your anchor has sand on it on occasion. and also is at the front of the boat where you say the big splashes are when you see the water down below.
It is NOT coming from the prop shaft gland as if sand was coming in it would be leaking very badly and you would have found it by now.
You anchor locker probably has a clogged drain and is leaking over into the rest of the boat. Don't know your boat configuration though, it may be that you don't have a watertight bulkhead there in the first place. Not much you can do about that except run the bilge pump or don't sail in chop. A washdown pump and hose can do wonders at removing the sand and mud when you weight anchor. This keeps the anchor locker cleaner and would cut down on the sand.

 

[Claude L.-Auger]

Alan's idea with the shop vac and Steve's with the talc powder are both good. I agree that if you are getting sand, the anchor locker is probably where it's coming from. As Bill said, I would make sure that the drain isn't clogged, but after, I would plug it up with a rag and then fill the anchor locker with fresh water, adding food coloring to it. Cheap and easy to clean. Pick a bright color and see if the now colored water finds it way in the bilge. Good luck and keep us posted

 

[Scallywag-l36]

The search for the source of the leak continues. I'd dried the bilges completely then gone home for a few days during which time we'd had heavy rain. When I got back on board- fresh water in the bilges!! So dried it out again, added red food colouring to a bottle of fresh water and poured it first over chain plate fixings, then centre cleat, then genoa track fixings on the port side (I had a bottle of green coloured water ready for starboard side). Popped below to have a look.... Nothing! Went outside again and spent next two hours trying to remove the red stripes from the hull caused by food colouring... Had to use a cutting polish to remove it! Used pressure washer on rest of top sides as general cleanup but still no water in the bilges. I think I'm going crazy or else it takes a long time for water to creep below?

 

[Scallywag-l36]

Mystery no more! I took the boat to a guy who is a magician when it comes to fixing and working on Hunter Legends here in UK. He removed the woodwork inside the forecabin above the foot (forward) end of the bunk and found evidence of major water ingress, and not only found one source of the water leak, he found several!
* water leaks actually passing through the simpson Lawrence electric windlass, caused by faulty seals when manufactured. 7 year old boat so well out of warranty. Remedy is to send off for and fit new windlass seals, then refit.
* bottom of anchor well not properly sealed when the boat was manufactured 7 years ago. The shortcut of jamming some filler where sides of anchor well meet the hull when it was manufactured had finally given up over time. Remedy is re-glassing the well.
* seal around fresh water filler fitting under anchor locker lid leaking. Remedy is remove fresh water filler fitting, refit with new sealant.
* leak around D fitting inside anchor locker (used to secure bitter end of anchor). Remedy is remove D fitting, refit with new sealant.

No wonder water was coming in in large quantities whenever I had seas over the bow!

I have no means of recourse to anyone now of course, Luhrs marine in UK having left these shores years ago and the hull and windlass being out of warranty anyway. Not exactly "fair wear and tear" is it?

Mike

 

[Scallywag-l36]

Sadly not entirely the end to this story! After a couple of weeks or so out of the water (poor weather prevented work being completed sooner), our H36 was lifted in and off we went for a few days. On the passage home, I experienced a couple of hours or so of F7 winds and steep sea swell on the beam (typical for the UK Solent area). Not desperate, just tipping us 30 degrees one way, then the other , which was more uncomfortable than dangerous.
When I finally tied up, I had a peek under the saloon floor- Lots of salty water sloshing around!! By now I'm seriously disheartened not knowing where this could be coming from. Back to the boatyard she went for further CSI investigations (Continued Seawater Ingress). The latest theory is that water was entering via the skin fitting for the elec bilge pump, which is just behind the elec control panel. There is a small 'swan neck' bend in the pipe inside the hull before it goes to the bilge pump, and my angle of heel in the swell might have allowed water past the bend in the pipe. We are fitting a one-way non return valve to see if it fixes the problem. I'm not normally the type who sails her on her ear as we all know they sail better and faster when upright but sometimes I get caught in uncomfortable seas. Anyone else experienced this?

 

[FourPoints]

when heeled over that far, you may have been siphoning water into the bilge through the hose. Verify you have a vented loop on your bilge hose. Next time you go out, leave the bilge open and when heeled over look to see if the water is coming in through the bilge pump.