Water in the bilge

[me00351]

I'm still learning about my 31 and thought that I had the bilge water issue solved.
Richard at Yellowfin suggested that water could be coming in from where the trim tab indicator wire enters the transom .
Since one of the indicators had quit working , we decided to look there first.
The fine people at stainless marine helped me with how to fix the indicators with a new seal kit but the old seals were good.Just a washer need to be replaced .
So the water is getting into the bilge from somewhere else. It's not a flood but the pump comes on about every 10 minutes.
Water is supposed to stay on the outside of the boat.
I noticed that the gutter drains stay full when we're fishing at the stern so it's possible that water is coming in through the bilge hatch.
This explains why they raised the deck on the new 29' to accomodate the heavier 4 strokes.
Maybe some additional gasket material attached to the underside of the hatch will do the trick.
I'll look around further and try to rule out the livewell since I was running it the whole time.
The only other place might be the thru-hull for the livewell overflow.
Any ideas are welcome

[Jsmith17211]

I have the same boat. Mine is from the livewell. I thought I had the same problem, but I found that it was coming from the livewell. If your not fishing bait one day, close the livewell valve off completely and see if that fixes it.

[me00351]

i got down in the console and looked around today while we were out and i saw a little bit of water leaking from the tee connecting the drain from the leaning post well and the below deck well.
i think that a few turns on the hose clamps would stop the leaks.
it was not nearly enough water to make the pump come on so often.

where was your livewell leaking from?

today i noticed that when we were standing in the stern fishing , the water was really flowing into the boat through the deck drains. The quantity appeared to be enough to fill the bilge.
would there be any downside to installing the ping-pong ball scuppers if the deck drains are the source of the water ?
a camera inside the bilge would solve the mystery but i'll try your idea of not using the livewell .

[l limit]

Have you checked the hose that leads from the deck drains ? On my 23 the hose on one side
developed a crack after being pinched between the fish box and hull. A good way to test it out of the water
is to plug the below waterline drain outside the boat and run a hose in the deck drain. If you have an access plate
you can then feel the hose for any water leak. Replacing that hose is not too difficult but there are a couple
of tricks that will save you a lot of time. Let me know if I can help.
Legal Limit

[hooligan]

I've had 3 31s and two of them developed leaks from the pie plates on the transom when the caulking got old. I cut them out, recaulked and the leak stopped. The only other substantial leak I've noticed came from old caulk around the rigging hose grommets in the splash well. These would leak aggressively when drifting in a heavy sea or any time I backed up hard into a swell.

[me00351]

Here's what I've discovered this morning :
There is minor leakage coming from the livewell T-fitting just below the deck. It should be an easy fix with disassembly ,cleanup and new hoseclamps. Maybe a dab of 4200 too.

I plugged scuppers from outside the boat and filled the deck drains with water and they held the water level perfectly. No leaks there.

I flooded the deck and could hear water dripping into the blige and could see water flowing under the bilge hatch. The rubber gasket looks good but obviuosly isn't sealing. I placed some weatherstrip material there to create a seal and it kept out a lot of the water.
I imagine with some fine tuning and maybe using a larger diameter gasket , it would do the trick.

Another solution would be to install the ping-pong type scupper drains to prevent the backflow . Has anybody tried this ?

[me00351]

I asked Richard at yellowfin and he advised to try new deck drains with ping pong ball scuppers.
I'll report back on this fix a soon as i get her back in the water.

[me00351]

I removed the livewell hoses with difficulty . Note to self " cut hoses and replace next time".
After tugging and straining to get the hoses loose i got out the tubing cutter and made short work of it.
I replaced the hoses , joined them to the tee with 4200 and double clamped the joint.
No more leaks !

The deck drains are the ping pong ball type and just had some crud preventing them from sealing.
I cleaned them up and tested them by forcing water up the thru hull and none came out the deck drains.
I shoud be ok now and have a dry bilge.