Water in the bildge

[Terry Wepsic]

I recently had a problem which might be of interest to some Catlina 34 owners.  During a recent trip to Avalon I decided to run my engine for a little while to top off my batteries.  I usually sit in the back and watch the temperature as the engines run.  Not this time. I exited to the Hammock for a little s and b (snooze and beer).  When I came back about twenty minutes later I noticed white smoke coming out the back of the boat and the engine temp was quite high.  I shut things down and the next morning I check the strainer which was jammed with fish eggs and kelp. I put things back together ( I thought ) but on the way back home I noticed the bilge was full. After initially panicking and pumping it out we proceeded home but I continues to get water in the bilge. After checking things out for various areas of leaks, keel bolts etc; I looked at the strainer.  It was hard to detect water leaking but I had somehow lost the "O" ring on the strainer when I washed out the fish eggs etc.  I replaced the ring and things are back to normal.  I should have remembered the old rule--When a new problem arises look at the area that you last worked on/ fixed.  Best regards. Terry

[Stu Jackson]

Terry

When we first got our boat in 1998 I, too, cleaned the strainer housing, but was stupid enough to wring the plastic housing overboard by hand, and while that cleaned out the goop inside, I also threw the danged O rig out along with the dirt inside the housing!

Dumb.....

So I went down to my local Ace hardware and bought TWO new O rings.  Still have the backup!

Stuff happens.

Ron's advice is great:  put the strainer "bypass" 'T' in and be able the clean the thru hull out as well.  Still's on my To Do list.

Stu

[Ray & Sandy Erps]

Another strainer story:
In Northern Puget Sound we get a lot of eel grass floating loose in late summer.  I try and dodge most of it but the inevitable happened and the motor started running warm.  Took the strainer off, cleaned it out, put it together, ran the motor and saw low water flow in the exhaust.  Went back to the strainer and found the big O-ring distorted allowing an air leak when the motor was running, so it was loosing its prime.  I had that strainer off another dozen times, trying goopy stuff, vaseline, and a different O-Ring trying to get a seal.  Each time I would run the engine, I could watch the O-ring slowly distort and then a stream of airbubbles enter the strainer.  Then it dawned on me that there was a lot of suction there.  Pulled everything apart down to the thru hull, openned the valve and water trickled into the boat along with a big gob of eel grass.  Stuck a coat hanger down the thru hull to unplug that and was good to go.  Takes me a little longer than others sometimes, but eventually figured it out and we were back on our way.