Help!!!! water again!!!!

[Gina Marie]

My last thread on water under my engine compartment floor was addressed and to date has shown no sign of returning. Thank you for all your help . Now after a very through detail of my engine room. I have found on numerous occocasion water build up on my port side under my shaft against the stringer and not from my packing, I have isolated this.

After spending the better part of a day drying the water that is collecting and trying to find its origin I have followed the water build up to the compartment located under my galley floor. I have a 45C and the galley has a compartment with a removable section of the floor to view the compartment below. At the wall that divides the engine room and galley on the inner stringer on the galley side I see water ever so slight but continuously building. It is very difficult to work on as the openning in the galley floor is about 3 feet in front of the wall that seperates the galley and the engine room. I also noticed that their is a drain pipe there and this pipe empties into the rear engine compartment under my port shaft thus the water build up as explained earlier.

Once I am in motion and I raise my bow ever so slight the water does drain from the galley to the rear engine compartment and then to my midship bildge. So I am not accumulating water under way. The water look clear and does not have any salt residue.

My fresh water tank which I beleive is located in the center of the boat and is very near this leak.

I will tomorrow empty my water tank and see if the leak exist but if it proves to disappear thus being my water tank what do I do then.

Thank GinaMarie/Tom

 

[spartonboat1]

FWIW, could it be coming from one of the flex hose to copper sink faucet lines, while at the dock under the higher pressure of the shoreside water. Have had this happen.

Also, chased a leak for four years...blamed the fwd holding tank. Then one day saw the slightest shimmer and traced it back to the through-hole mount point of an engine sea water intake. Very insidious...barely noticeable.

Finally, I mentioned in an earlier thread about A/C condensate water.

Best of luck...

 

[jim rosenthal]

Try red food coloring in the FW tank. If it is coming from there you'll see it. There are not that many sources of FRESH water- the FW system, condensate drains, rainwater. Don't forget the icemaker if you have one, bar sinks, that kind of thing. Most boat FW systems WILL leak with dockside pressure, which is why I never hook up to dockside pressure. Also, my Hatteras has a FW spigot in the engine room; does yours? That plumbing is another potential leak site.

 

[REBrueckner]

Also, take a spoonful of water, or other small quantity and boil it off..see if there is salt residue...if not, fresh water is the culprit...

 

[Maynard Rupp]

Don't forget to check the hot water tank. They are aluminum inside and do corode through.

 

[Trojan]

Jim,why would you say most boats FW systems will leak when hooked up to city water. Mine does not. Isn't that part of keeping your boat in shape. I never worry about my City FW leaking. I always use it. I also treat it just like everything else on the boat. Why should it leak any more than your home water system if you maintaine it. Granted I don't leave it turned on when I'm not there for saftey,but if it leaks you fix it. Bill

 

[Banshee36]

I would look at the sea-chest for the galley sink. Mine had a crack in it and leaked water horribly. the one in the head area also leaked, just had to tighten up the hose clamps.
JW

 

[Fanfare]

I never leave my boat hooked up to city water. I have had the regulator fail and put 100+ psi water into a system designed for 40 psi. At home when a pipe breaks it's an irritation.. There is a drain in my basement that lets the water out. No drain on my boat, and a lot more water in the reservoir than there is volume in my boat! Sooner or later a connection WILL fail. A sunken boat is too high a price to pay!

Jim Grove, Fanfare 1966 50MY

 

[jim rosenthal]

Bill, I have seen too many boats flood at dockside from being hooked up to city water pressure. The boat's systems are not robust enough to take it and connections frequently fail. And there is no limit on what the city water system can put into your boat. So I just don't do it. I use the city water to fill my tank and use my FW system. The worst that can do is dump 50 or 70 gals into the bilge. It will not sink the boat, just make a mess.

 

[Trojan]

I never LEAVE my boat with the shore FW on. But that dosn't mean you can't use it when your on board. I don't know of any FW water components that are not pressure tested for less than 125 psi for city water. I never had a boat that I could not use city water on. I only fill my tank with enough water for the time that that I am going to be away from the dock so it stays fresh. Sorry I didn't mean to change the thread. Enough said. Bill

 

[jim rosenthal]

Actually that's pretty reasonable...more or less what I do. I have been awakened twice in the middle of the night on my current boat by leaks in the FW system from city water pressure. I know they shouldn't leak, but they do. So for my peace of mind I don't go to sleep or leave the boat with dockside water hooked up. Which has, over time, made it easier to just use the tank water. Keeping it fresh, now there's a whole different set of headaches...

 

[ThirdHatt]

I've recently noticed my aft bilge pump (under Master stateroom sole) cycling occasionally. I started poking around and discovered that I seem to be holding a fair amount of water dirtectly under the guest stateroom floor. I pumped it out last week via a hand-pump and probably got 30gallons out. I just checked today and it is full of water again. Pumped it out again. There must be a leak somewhere allowing water to be trapped under the guest stateroom floor. There is no real bilge there, or much access for that matter. No way to get a bilge pump in there, and it shouldn't have water. I see no thru-hulls in the area and there is no water plumbing on the port side of the boat until forward of the engine room. The only water sources I can think of are the fresh water tank under the bunk in the guest stateroom or coming through the hull somehow. This area of the bilge is where the shaft comes though the hull, but my stuffing boxes are fine. Any chance there could be something wrong allowing water in somewhere AFT of the port stuffing box? Any suggestions?

 

[Gina Marie]

Third Hat, with help of this forum and Genesis who has the same 45C as I do I would only say this: I looked for two weeks and followed all advice from both this forum and Hatteras. The water in my situation traveled from the water pump under some platforms down a stringer and through or under a engine room wall to a place their should never be water. My now experience tells me to first empty out your water compartment and shut down all pumps. Then fill up the water compartment with No. 2 dye and see if this is where your water is coming from if not then pressurize the system if you experience a leak it must be a fitting. We are also assumming that this is fresh water. Hatteras also notified me that rudders if the packing is leaking it could in my vessel leak into the galley compartment. This although would be salt water leak. So don't take anything for granted. Other Hatteras owners with the same vessel my help you if they had experienced a similar problem.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Third Hatt,

I had water under the guest stateroom bunk (outboard). It was coming from a leak in the exhaust. You might look under that bunk and see if you have any water in there.

 

[ThirdHatt]

Bone dry under the outboard bunk. Water tank and connections are bone dry, what little I can see under the inboard bunk. All water seems to be contained in an area directly under the walkway in the guest stateroom.

 

[ThirdHatt]

Although I have not found the source of the water just yet, I did find out why it was trapped under the guest s/r floor: CLOGGED WEEP HOLE! I reached down into the port aft engine room bilge area under the shaft logs and ran my hand along where the bulkhead meets the hull. Although there was little water and it seems fairly clean, there was about an inch of muck built up along that edge and sure enough I found a nice little weep hole in the bulkhead! I stuck a screwdriver in it to clean it out and water started RUSHING into the e/r bilge area where I have two 2000gph Rule pumps, one in front and one behind the engine. So, as I expected, that area should not hold water. Now that it is not holding water, I still need to find where that water was accumulating from. The search moves forward, but continues.......

 

[Traveler 45C]

Keep in mind that the water could be coming from above from plumbing in the bulkheads. I recently discovered a shower hose leak that caused a lot of water to accumulate on top of my center tanks.

Good luck!

 

[REBrueckner]

Water leaks are of two possible types: fresh or salt. If you don't want to taste it, to find which you have boil off a small amount of water and check the residue for salt (or not).

If fresh water, three possibilities...either the pressure part of your water system, non pressure part (mostly tank) or exterior rain or condensation. If pressure part, your pump should cycle; if tank part, your water level should go down. If rain, a separate leak hunt is required. If salt water, look elsewhere.

It's often tough to tell which way water will run...uphill and downhill in a bilge (especially when viewed upside down) are not always obvious...a small level can make it so. Or dump a cup of water to see which way it goes..

Good hunting..