Mystery leak E28+

[Gary G]

The forward most bilge compartment (just aft of the head) on my 1983 E28+ accumulates sea water from some mysterious source. The water appears to be coming in through the port side limber hole (the second limber hole leads to the shower sump but that is dry and we never use it). I've checked the usual suspects (through hulls, speedo, plumbing system, etc) and found nothing. My understanding is that the keel on this boat is encapsulated and has no keel bolts. Is there some way that water can be leaking in through the base of the keel?? The leak is minor and maybe accumulates about a quart of water every few days. The boat has been sitting in the slip for days with no rain and I have sucked out as much water from the bilge as I can. A day or so later it's back. Any ideas or advice to hunt this down would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Bob Brigham]

On my E 28, the old cockpit drains were the culprit. Looked sealed, but if you used a hose you could feel the water seeping in under the actual drain. I enlarged the drain hole and purchased new stainless drains and then replaced all hoses. This did the trick. Worth investigating...

 

[Pat O'Connell]

Mystery Leaks E28+ 1981

Hi Respected Sailors

Discovered a little water in the bilge from a skinned keel years ago. Kissed a ledge in ME. Sucked water out of keel with shopvac hose ducttaped to keel and re glassed. No symptons everafter. Another tough leak to find was the engine bypass overflow that exits in the stern. Plastic nylon thru hull broke off between the plywood stern board and the fiberglass stern hull. Looked fine from the outside and the inside until I tugged on the hose and it pulled out in my hand. Replaced with nylon thru hull that looks like it is glass filled and has been working fine.

 

[Gary G]

Skinned keel

Pat,

Your mention of having skinned the keel on a ledge sounds like the kind of thing that may be causing my problem. Just so I understand you correctly, the very base of the keel on your boat was damaged enough to allow water to seep up very slowly through the keel into the bilge. Is that right? I would guess that such damage might well be invisble to the casual observer since it would only be seen with the boat hauled and in the travel lift sling. In the water, of course, you couldn't see it and when the boat's in the cradle it's resting on the keel. I'm assuming you repaired the base of the keel after hauling the boat and drying out the keel from the outside, there's no easy access (that I can determine) from inside the boat. I have not run the boat aground but I'm wondering if either the PO damaged it at some point or if over the years the yard has scaped it and worn off enough fiberglass to cause a leak. Hmmmm. Thanks for your thoughts on this.

 

[Pat O'Connell]

Hi Gary

If I remember correctly. We skinned the bottom of the keel and had a dent six inches or so up the front of the keel. We shop vacuumed the six inch dent which was just a little moist and then drilled a hole at that spot and got out a lot of water. The sympton in the bilge was about a cup of water per week and never more than that. When we would sponge out the bilge the cup of water would reappear. We hauled for the season about a month later and patched the dent and neatened up the bottom of the keel. Invisible now and we have had a dry bilge for about ten years. I had painted the bilge years before with some leftover white interlux waterproof magic and was amazed that I could not inspect where the water was coming from when it was weeping.

Good Luck

Pat

 

[jreddington]

Wow,

Sounds like exactly what I have been dealing with as long as I've owned my '84 E-28. Always a mystery because with the bilge and grid arrangement on this boat, it's hard to picture the arrangment.

I have even rigged up a hose and clamp that attaches to the bottom of my hand held pump so I can suck water all the way down into what I call the "deep" bilge.

Will have to explore this when she comes out at the end of the season. I don't have any obvious ingress points on the keel. I'm wondering if while out, I partially fill the bilge and look for leaks or wet spots on the keel.

Reglassing on the bottom sounds like a pain. However, might be able to get the yard to set up blocking to leave some of it exposed. I'd then have to have them take the weight off some how and move the blocking to access other areas. Might be able to do that myself with a bottle jack but wouldn't want to assume the risk of knocking her over.

 

[Pat O'Connell]

E 28+ Bilge Leak

Hi Jim

Maybe on haul day if the keel is towel dried a close inspection will see something moist? If the moist area is negatively pressured by a shop vac it may expose significant moisture? If still suspicious drill a easily patched hole in the keel to see if it contains significant water. After my incident I was concerned about water stuck in the incapsulated keel freezing and thawing. I interviewed a experienced fiberglass mechanic and he said that it is vey common to have water in the keel with no symptons. We are about ten years, maybe more, without any issues and it hard freezes and thaws pretty good here.

 

[jreddington]

Good ideas.

Since seeing this thread I have been thinking about how to find the problem.

Looks like I should definitely take the day off on haul day and witness the haul out. While it's in the slings I can get a quick look and snap a few pictures of the bottom of the keel befoe it is on blocks.

Also do a quick inspection while its in the slings. I may have a crack that closes up and is invisible once all the weight is on the keel. Might even see if the yard's fiberglass guy could be available. He might have insight into likely areas of trouble. He may do it complmentary (since he would probably do repairs), or worth paying an hour of his time forthe inspection.

 

[Pat O'Connell]

E 28+ Leak

Hi Jim

Just thought of a problem that you might have with my dreamed up inspection scheme. On our boat the bottom comes out fair and almost ready to paint as we have always had a Marine Clean contractor boat brush the bottom on the mooring the day before we haul. Seems to work much better than a land based powerwash. If you have a lot of bottom slime on haul out day you might need to be proepared to cope with that to get a good look.

Good luck.