Fresh rain water in bilge

[Kevin Henderson]

I must be weird... No ... I know I'm weird.   
Her in SOCAL we don't get much rain, and when we do it makes it's way down the keel stepped mast into the bilge.  The past couple weeks we have finally got some good rains and I eagerly look forward to adding just a touch of some Tide liquid detergent to the fresh water in the bilge and cleaning and drying out the bilge sparkly clean and refreshed again. 
I know... weird huh?

[Noah]

I hear you! First time in a year my "sunny San Diego" boat's bilge had water in it! We are spoiled!

[Stu Jackson]

You gentlemen are more than welcome to come up a tad north and do mine, you do such good work!  

[Ron Hill]

Kevin : Us up here in the "rainy climate" have been dealing with rain coming down the center of the mast since 1986 (for the keel stepped masts)!!

Look on this form and you'll find a whole bunch of posts on that very topic. 

[Set2sea]

I just climbed aboard my boat today (on the hard in Massachusetts) and was disappointed to see so much ice in my bilge, I would guess about 4". If it got that much from October to now (Jan 1), I'm afraid of how much more will accumulate! We did have some heavy rain storms a few weeks ago.

[Ed Shankle]

Paul,
I keep a small bucket in the center bilge compartment to catch the trickle down water. I make a tape "sleuth(?)" from the top of the mast step to the inside of the bucket. If we get a freeze after a rain, I can just pull the bucket out and pop out the ice. Check it @ once a month, depending on the weather. This year I pulled the mast, so no need for the bucket trick. I also leave the bucket in the bilge during the summer to keep the bilge pump from cycling over and over due to the backfill from the hose run.

Regards,
Ed

[mregan]

May not be coming down the mast.  I get almost no water down it. 

I do get water coming in from the stern locker cover in the cockpit.  On the rear side of the locker cover, there is only about a 1/2" lip on the inside at the top of the hump in the middle.  As the cover slopes down, the lip inside gets deeper.  When we get a hard rain, I think water fills up the drainage channel and overflows the lip.  I have some one sided sticky plastic sheeting that I covered the top of the opening with.  I also took so strips of the sticky plastic and covered the space between the stern and the rear of the locker cover.  When it rains, the rain flows off the plastic onto the deeper channeled section of the cover.  This stopped the leak. 

It took quite a while to find.  Even during a hard rain, you only get a 1/4" trickle of water.  It's really hard to find after it's rained.

If you can't find the leak, try to get to the boat after a hard rain to drain out the bilge.  I didn't last year and my bilge was almost full with ice.  The switch had frozen in the up position and ended up burning out the bilge pump.

[Stu Jackson]

I do get water coming in from the stern locker cover in the cockpit.  On the rear side of the locker cover, there is only about a 1/2" lip on the inside at the top of the hump in the middle.  As the cover slopes down, the lip inside gets deeper.  When we get a hard rain, I think water fills up the drainage channel and overflows the lip. 

Good point.  One of the earliest Mainsheet C34 articles (predating the separate tech notes section but included in the C34 Online Tech notes) suggested installing door weatherstripping around the lazarette and port locker edges.  I did, it worked.  I used 3/8" foam material.   Others have had more success with heavier rubber material.

[mregan]

I used the weatherstripping like Stu mentioned.  Seemed to work fine in the summer, except during really hard rains I would get some leakage.  In the winter, it didn't work as well for some reason?  I'm going to re-weatherstrip in the spring.

[Kevin Henderson]

I also use the rubber weather stripping on the port locker and lazarette.  Seals up nicely... AND... It silences the nuisance vibration that comes when motoring sometimes.   

[John Langford]

BTW, Kevin, with a small chisel and hammer you can get rid of the rusting around the keel bolt washers. Knocking off the excess gelcoat that covers the washers will stop the rusting which occurs (I understand) when the washers are damp but starved of oxygen by the coating of gelcoat. Since I knocked off the gelcoat and sanded off the bits of rust, the washers have remained rust free. It would be nice if the construction crew are a little less free with the gelcoat but it is easy to fix.

[Noah]

Very interesting tip on rust in bilge. Thx!

[SailingJerry]

Paul,
I keep a small bucket in the center bilge compartment to catch the trickle down water. I make a tape "sleuth(?)" from the top of the mast step to the inside of the bucket. If we get a freeze after a rain, I can just pull the bucket out and pop out the ice. Check it @ once a month, depending on the weather. This year I pulled the mast, so no need for the bucket trick. I also leave the bucket in the bilge during the summer to keep the bilge pump from cycling over and over due to the backfill from the hose run.

Regards,
Ed

Ed, very interesting idea. What kind of tape and how wide do you make it?
Jerry

[Ed Shankle]

Duct tape, of course !
Actually, you can just use some plastic sheeting cut to size. I just used duct tape because it was handy and I'd have to tape whatever I used to the edge of the mast step and bucket anyway. Just overlapped strips of tape to create a full width connection to the bucket. The key is to span the full length of the mast step and shape the sleuth so that the edges funnel the water into the bucket.
Not very elegant, but it will work until I get around to creating a better solution.

regards,
Ed