Why is there a foot of water in the cabin?

[WayneH]

One of my dock neighbor's powerboat had a water hose lined up to his boat. The pressure reducer did not fail, the hose fitting on the boat end did. The stern of the boat was down about 6 inches before anyone noticed. The hose was in the cockpit and usually wouldn't have been a problem but the owner was working on the engines and had to go to town for a part. And of course, the hose flipped itself into the open engine hatch and luckily down into the bilge.

 

[RitSim]

We had upgraded to a C30 the previous fall. I had winterized the water and engine systems. Now it was spring. The yard launched the boat while I was away in a business trip and put it on a mooring. I returned two days later and went out to inspect the boat and found easily 6" of water above the floorboards. I connected the batteries and the bilge pump started.

The water drained after a time. The only damage was the springs in the starter.

The root cause was the foot pump in the galley that was used to rinse dishes with seawater. The pump froze over the winter and dislodged the seals. It was thankfully a slow leak that was easily fixed. Always drained that pump after that.

 

[MitchM]

this happened to a friend on a delivery of a BRAND NEW SWAN from florida up to annapolis. full moon goo weather on the atlantic, crew were down below all asleep. denny gets up to use the head, steps into a foot of h 2 0. calls all hands, mayday to USCG, they are 50 miles off the mouth of the chesapeake . (no bilge pump hi water alarm on a $650,000 boat. ) frantic scramble to check where's it coming from. it's salt h 2 0 , not fresh! crew crawling under cabinetry, pulling up floor boards. no thru hull diagram supplied. on a $650,000 boat. USCG sends a helo w a carolina moon, new swan boat is in real trouble, may be a crew evac. water is fast approaching engine-kill height, crew wants to try to rig raw water pump for engine to use as extra bilge pump but figures it's too dangerous due to flotsam in water etc. then someone discovers that the PLUG for the knotmeter instrument has come out, thus flooding the boat. knotmeter plug is still attached, they re -inserted it. by now a USCG boat has arrived and supplies hi volume electric pumps. uscg stood by for massive pumpout . boat engine was saved, swanboat made it in under her own power. a reconstruct of the cause: the sensor for speed was mounted right past the turn of the hull, with instructions to twist it in then and then lock the lever down. the prep crew had twisted it in but han't locked the lever down. it popped out. the boat flooded. the new owner WAS NOT PLEASED. when my dockmate denny related this to me, i promptly made a diagram of all the thru hulls on my boat, and installed a double bilge pump switch with a piercing high water alarm.

 

[Ken13559]

Once on a passage, I noted my floor rug in cabin was wet on the side nearer edge. Boat was heeeling on that side. Checked the bilge to find in water filled almost to top. Realise bilge pump wasn't working due to badly corroded wire joint. Uses manual bilge pump and fixed faulty wiring. Upon return from passage, installed bilge high level alarm so that I won't get caught by such surprise again.

Ken Y

 

[mchall]

We had well over a foot of water one winter when the boat was on the hard. The boat was not shrinkwrapped, unattended for the winter, and leaves clogged the cockpit drains. After the cockpit filled up additional rainwater spilled into the cabin. No structural damage, but lots of mold and mildew and warped paneling.

 

[yelkenli]

A fellow club member bought a Catalina 27 that had electric propulsion installed. The installer, who was the previous owner, did not do anything with the exhaust hoses that run to the transom. When at dock, the sterns of these boats sit above the waterline, but under propulsion, they squat. This let plenty of water in. Cutting propulsion to go below and look for the leak, or looking for the leak after successfully bailing yielded a mystery. It was finally resolved though.

 

[High Current]

As I was sailing a couple of years ago, I kept noticing a subtle noise/vibration. A few minutes later I realized it was the bilge pump cycling every minute or less! Had my wife take the helm and methodically checked all the thru-hulls until I discovered the packing nut had completely backed off. I had recently adjusted it and clearly didn't get the jam nut tight enough. Never got to floor level because the bilge pump did its thing, but I'm lucky I caught it when I did.

Also - same boat, first launch after I bought it, and while we were stepping the mast the bilge went from bone dry to half full. Fortunately still in the slings. I found a steady dribble coming in from the speed transducer. Had to abort the launch to re-bed it.

Previous boat flooded the cabin sole on the hard (before I owned it) because the cockpit scupper hose detached. Same thing happened to my neighbor in the yard last winter and caused some serious damage. If I didn't have a walk-thru transom (no scuppers), I'd be drilling a garboard drain. I might anyway...

 

[pgandw]

Sailing our 25ft ODay back to Key West from Dry Tortugas with DW, 1 year old son, and myself. Son was laid down on the carpet on the cabin sole just after we tacked to keep him from being knocked around while napping, as we were hard on the wind. Son woke up screaming, DW went down to see what was wrong. Son was on hands and knees, up to his belly in water. She grabbed him, brought him up to the cockpit with life jacket. I pointed at the nearest cay (a couple of miles), and told DW to run aground there. It was a broad reach over to the cay, so boat leveled out somewhat. At her insistence, called the CG, and then started with a bucket.

Proved the old adage that a scared man with a bucket can out bail any pump. At some point before we ran aground, I got the water level in the cabin down to a more tolerable level and tried to figure out where the water was coming from, and why it had apparently stopped coming in. Discovered the hose on the thru hull for the galley sink had popped off. This thru hull was normally above the water line and did not have a seacock from the factory. Hard on port tack the thru hull was underwater, and with the hose popped off, was pumping water in. Got the hose back on, the cabin pumped out, and returned back to course for Key West. The CG small boat then showed up and wanted to use us for towing practice. DW insisted I accept the offer, and we were towed in.

I installed a seacock a week later, and reclamped the hose carefully.

Fred W

 

[rpwillia]

First boat was a Catalina 22 and it had a vent in the bow hatch and it was on a mooring. Hurricane was close and with the waves breaking over the bow and the vent open it was getting about half a cup with each big wave. Marina called me and took me out there as it was noticeably down by the bow. Bailed it out and checked it the next day and it was fine and realized it was that open vent.