Drainage in bilge

[saltygirl]

My husband and I noticed a very small amount of dark brown water in our bilge when we were dewinterizing our 1998 c34 (not near enough for the bilge to turn on). This keeps slowly accumulating and smells very stagnant.  Our holding tank was emptied in dec 2017 and has not been used.  We have not had this happen before.  Has anyone had a similar problem.  Thanks in advance

Celeste and Greg Ray

[derekb]

Hi,

I'm still new to my boat, but it also had brown water in the bilge. After lots of checking around I found that the exhaust outlet from the muffler was loose (two rusted hose clamps were not doing their job) so brown water was dripping from the muffler (as well as fumes) when the engine was running.

One possible source?

Regards,
Derek

[Ron Hill]

Salty : What part (4 compartments) of the bilge is the water in?
Suggest to mop it up and then watch it closely.

A thought

[David Comando]

I've had my boat for 14 seasons. This was the first spring that I also had brown sludge in the bilge. No clue as to what it is and where it is coming from. I won't be launching till June so I have some time to explore.

[anon]

I also had he dreaded brown sludge. Turned out to be a leak from the hot water tank.

[Jeff Tancock]

This is weird. I just started getting some brown fluid in my bilge after 20 years of ownership.
I have had the boat hauled and it hasn't rained so the bilge was perfectly dry and I noticed some brown liquid trickling out of the hole in the base of the mast step. Wiped it up and more came out. It just keeps on trickling out. Can't figure it out! Looks like coke, dark and not viscous, not much in the way of smell.
Any thoughts?????

[sailaway]

Some of the mast base had wood inside them. Depends on the year. Charlie

[scgunner]

   Saltygirl,

       Just because your holding tank was drained doesn't mean it's dry. My holding tank was empty and I was getting a dark brackish fluid in the bilge, long story short the holding tank had split. Amazingly, it didn't smell as bad as you would have thought.

[Pgutierrez]

I sail on upper Mississippi-bulge water was ugly. Added a TBSP house hold bleach and must have killed some bacteria.  Biked water is now clear.

[rmbrown]

I can't say it's the holding tank, but I can say that i discovered yesterday, while working on the vent in the rain, that I get rainwater down my vent line, so you might not be as dry as you think.