76 cuddy bilge

[Gallagher]

[QUOTE=smokeonthewater;206493]First things first .... your boat is sinking.... FIND the leak and fix it before you launch it.... small leaks can become REALLY BIG leaks fast..... boats can go from seeping a little to on the bottom in very short time...


Good point! How exactly?

[smokeonthewater]

no "exactly" to it but plain and simple, if it's leaking then something has failed... they aren't supposed to leak and until you find the leak you have no idea what has failed or how close it is to getting a lot worse

quick example... cracked thru hull fitting... seeps a few drops an hour till it finally pops off and then it "seeps" say, 1700 gallons per hour
OR I/O rotten bellows several years past needing replaced have a small pinhole and just drip a little till all of a sudden they rip and it starts coming in fast.....

the REALLY scary part is that for every inch lower the hole gets in the water due to boat taking on water the speed that the water comes in goes up exponentially

a 1" hole 2' under water will sink a boat in a couple minutes

[Gallagher]

Originally Posted by smokeonthewater

no "exactly" to it but plain and simple, if it's leaking then something has failed... they aren't supposed to leak and until you find the leak you have no idea what has failed or how close it is to getting a lot worse

quick example... cracked thru hull fitting... seeps a few drops an hour till it finally pops off and then it "seeps" say, 1700 gallons per hour
OR I/O rotten bellows several years past needing replaced have a small pinhole and just drip a little till all of a sudden they rip and it starts coming in fast.....

the REALLY scary part is that for every inch lower the hole gets in the water due to boat taking on water the speed that the water comes in goes up exponentially

a 1" hole 2' under water will sink a boat in a couple minutes

I guess I meant, how check for leaks, but I searched the forums and found some great suggestions. Thanks though. You're right of course, I should definitely clear up the leak issue as job one.

[tsubaki]

Welcome to the site!
You may not have enough space to do what you want to due to the angle of the hull.
Might I suggest installing an access hatch between the last floor box and the bilge. This will give you a lot of room for most anything you want to do.
Also you can make the drain hole between the inner bottom and bilge bigger.
By putting the pump(s) in this area you will have them against the bottom of the boat which would be even lower than the shell in the bilge area.

[Gallagher]

Thanks, Benny! That is exactly what I wanted to know.

So midway between the last floor hatch and the transom? From the threads here I understand that as long as I retain the width of the floor hatch I will stay between the stringers? How and where do I run the line out from the bilge?

The guy who did the transom for me 10 years back put a second drain hole in below the original. He said water was getting held up below the original hole.

Sorry for the lack of pics. I hope to get her back home in the next week so I can post pics and get to work.

Dan

[tsubaki]

Mine was like you said, stringers on either side of the floor boxes.
Simply enlarge the drain hole from the inner bottom to the bilge enough to accommodate the hose(s) and wires and put the thru hull(s) below the rub rail.
Dremel tool or Roto Zip would be an easy tool for enlarging the hole. I did mine in a half moon.

[Gallagher]

I guess I'll understand once I tear into her but how do you get the hose to the side hull just below the rub rail? I can't understand how that gets plumbed with the stringers and deck in the way. Or do you run the hose out to the transom?

Thanks! I'm psyched to get that hull water tight and have working bilge pumps in the near future.