Unexpected water, multiple failures

[shipwreck66]

Finally got my C27 back in the water Thursday afternoon. Spent the past month in the boat yard getting a beautiful bottomjob and buff and wax on the sides. Went out early this morning to greet my darling for a day of sailing, openned the hatch, and found six inches of water in the cabin. Seems the stuffing box completely dried out during the weeks on the hard in 105 degrees and water was pouring in around shaft. Sahara bilge pump, my second, and last, wasn't pumping hard enough to get anything out the discharge. Rehooked my old Tsunami and it pumped the bilge down good. Got in and retightened the packing nut and locking nut on stuffing box, took the boat out for a trial run and it seems ok now but will recheck tomorrow. I now have a big 1250 gph pump hooked in w/ float switch. Lessons learned. 1.Never trust the boat yard. 2. If it can break, it will, at a bad time. 3.A Catalina can take on a lot of water and no one will notice.

 

[adirondackbob]

Wow. Good thing you checked the boat when you did. I just replaced the packing in my stuffing box, which was probably more than 6 or 7 years old--maybe much older--because it was dripping so much that it filled the bilge enough to trip the automatic bilge pump several times an hour. We bought the boat last year, and I have no idea when the packing was done. Once I realized where the water in the bilge was coming from, I arranged to repack the stuffing box. But I had a week or two of anxiety hoping that my bilge pump wouldn't fail. The old packing looked like chewed cardboard. Now the stuffinf box drips a few drops per minute while the engine is running, and the bilge is mostly dry again. But the whole episode convinced me to install a backup bilge pump. Your story makes me even more certain that a secondary bilge pump is a good idea.

Bob

 

[Joe Diver]

Sorry to hear that...I know you've been working hard on her....and these temps aren't helping anything at all. I think we're all pretty much wore out.

 

[shipwreck66]

Amen Joe. Returned a pair of Atwood Sahara 500s, POS, 1st one failed during the freeze and 2nd didn't have enough power to get water past my manual pump aft. Once I hooked up my old Tsunami it pumped the bilge dry. Currently the boat has a 1250 gph pump w/float switch.

 

[jrowan]

I feel for U man - I had the same issues, though not as severe when I did my C 30 haul out earlier this spring. My stuffing box packing must have been dry too, cause I got water coming in at a faster rate than usual when I launched. Guess it dried out.
I can't even get my packing nut to budge. It's corroded in place at the bronze fittings. I don't even know how old the packing is. I've just decided to wait till the next haul out to replace it. I've also had that "sinking" feeling of finding water in the cabin - when my 1st catalina - C 25 had a huge swing keel leak. That put 2 feet of water in there - but she didn't sink! When bilge pumps go bad, it's always bad news....

 

[philwsailz]

Mine has been on the hard for a year, and will be for a while longer yet. I will be adding stuffing box to my list of to-dos, after this story.

Sorry man, but thanks for the heads up!

 

[shipwreck66]

Phil, I thought yours was a pre-diesel model with outboard setup. What engine do you have?

 

[philwsailz]

A4 gas motor. It is rebuilt and runs well.