Wet bilge and oil glops: troubleshooting tips?

[LukeAvanti]

Hi all, new 1987 Catalina Mk II owner here. I’m retired now and wasn’t looking for a project boat, so I felt pretty fortunate to find this particular boat in Washington State. The previous owners had intended to fix this boat up proper and sail her for around ten years until they felt completely ready to upgrade to their “forever boat,” something in the 40 foot range that could take them around the world. So they had a lot of work done on this boat: rebuilt the engine, replaced the transmission; added a line cutter on the prop shaft; tore out the CNG gas cooking system that a surveyor had raised concerns about and replaced it with a Wallas cooktop/space heater that runs on diesel and provides dry heat; all new Garmin nav electronics; new running rigging; new 130% Genoa with Harken furler; bimini (a short one protecting the helm station); new Rocna anchor with new chain and rode; and an anchor windlass. And then they found a sweet deal on their forever boat and just had to grab it. So I feel like I snagged a pretty sweet deal.
There are only a few items I’ve found so far that I need to chase down and fix. One is a small leak in a few of the windows on the port side. For now I’ve mooshed butyl tape around the window frames on the outside, the disassembly and reseating will have to wait on warmer/drier weather. No biggie.
But the other is water in the bilge. I tasted it once and found it was not salt water. But it also sometimes shows a couple of little dime sized glops of grease or oil... Could be related to the window leaks, of course; but it has persisted after the butyl tape application. I reckon I need to rule out that the fresh water tanks might be leaking; and try to figure out where the oil is coming from.
So my question to the Catalina 30 hive mind is: can anyone suggest a good way to troubleshoot this? Any other advice to a new Catalina 30 owner? (besides keeping my posts shorter, I mean )

 

[jssailem]

Welcome Luke. Congrats on the new to you boat. Nice to have another sailor from the Puget Sound here on the SBO forum.

Water is a pestilence. It finds it’s way into our boats. Not always is it evident where it comes from.

Besides the obvious window opportunity, include the hardware on deck, handrails, your lifeline stanchions, the chainplates, dorades, and the hatch cover are all on the usual suspects list for water intrusion.

You need to be a bit of a persistent sleuth to hunt it down.

Oil on the other hand is most likely only one culprit. The engine. Could come from An oil change gone bad, or it could be a weeping from a hose. You need to inspect tye engine carefully. Perhaps even resort to wiping the engine down with rags or towels. Once clean it is easier to spot an pil or fuel leak.

Good luck. Your in good company.

 

[dmax]

The oil could also be coming from your engine's crankcase vent - the factory setup just has the vent connected to a hose that drains to the engine pan - this can result in a little or a lot of oil in the engine pan (depending on your engine's condition). If yours just has the open hose, you may consider doing this:

Universal M25 diesel problems

Universal M25 diesel problems

c34.org

 

[Tally Ho]

Water is Wiley....

Good news is that it is fresh, and not salty.

as @jssailem said, you need to check all stancions, cleats, deck fills, winches, clutches, and any other deck perforation for leaks And rebed as needed.

I had a persistent leak in my head storage compartment. I rebed the stancion base above the leak, but I would still get water in there. Turns out a nearby stancion support was the culprit (now fixed).

But when I was at the boat last week crawling around the inside of the stern to replace a few above the waterline thru hulls, I noticed a water train in the dust under the swim ladder mounts... so those will be rebed next week.

it never stops!


Greg

 

[LukeAvanti]

Yikes! OK, better get used to chasing and fixing leaks... thanks, Greg and all the others, very helpful!

 

[Scrimshaw CT]

Of the 7 years I have owned my MKII, I have had a dry bilge 4-5 seasons. The ports you identified could be a source. If you rule that out, another source could be the wire chase into through the deck to the mast. If that is the source, next time you destep the mast for inspection, you might want to replace pvc pipe and wire harness and recaulk. This project took me only a couple hours and gave me years of a dry bilge. If it smells like fresh water, you should also check the freshwater hoses and T connectors. Last year, we developed a very slow leak from one T connector that was starting fail (they do not last forever). If you are not sure where the source of the leak is, one trick that we found handy was to leave folded strips of paper towel at various places we suspected to locate the path into the bilge. From there we used more small pieces of paper towel. Over the course of a couple weeks, I narrowed the last source to that T joint I mentioned. Slow leaks will not sink your boat, but there a dry bilge is both satisfying and helpful in fighting that "old boat smell." Good luck!

 

[Steve k]

Do you have a dripless bearing fitting? If it's a normal stuffing box it will drip while motor is running so my bilge is always wet.

 

[MikeHoncho]

Put a poly pad in the drip pan for the engine. It will catch any oil and let water flow off. That will tell you if it’s from there. Also check the storage areas for maybe a old oil container. One might be tucked away and leaking.