Bilge Fairy?

[DaveMedd]

In the line of questioning titled “whaat?”….

For years the bilge on my 71 Grand Banks 42 Woody has had perpetual saltwater. I always chalked it up to wood hull, packing shafts, what have you.

Now - for the first time - my bilge is BONE DRY.

What the heck? Not complaining but I’m trying to figure out why.

Any ideas? Yes it’s now winter. And I have 4 golden rod heating bars in the engine room. But that’s the same as every year. Same heater. No dehumidifier, just the little space heater.

 

[O C Diver]

New bottom paint?
Shaft packings or rudder packings no longer dripping?

Ted

 

[Comodave]

Planks finally swelled up enough??? That is strange. You haven’t done anything differently?

 

[Slowmo]

Has it been sitting longer than normal? Our former wood boat was generally dry after sitting in her berth from Sept to June. We'd take the opportunity to vacuum the bilges out. The stuffing box would stop dripping after a period of non-movement. When the boat is still there's no flexing and moving of the planks so eventually the seepage there stops as well.

 

[Lepke]

Maybe debris in the water being drawn into the seams.


An old fix for leaking seams is to force sawdust under water near the hull. Leaks slowly stop as its drawn in. And sawdust is just more wood.

 

[DaveMedd]

Has it been sitting longer than normal? Our former wood boat was generally dry after sitting in her berth from Sept to June. We'd take the opportunity to vacuum the bilges out. The stuffing box would stop dripping after a period of non-movement. When the boat is still there's no flexing and moving of the planks so eventually the seepage there stops as well.

It had actually been sitting for a while… 4 weeks versus normally weekly usage. Perhaps the above is right… shaft packing not leaking. But wouldn’t explain where the water disappeared to that was there. Spose it could have evaporated in 6 weeks.

 

[rgano]

With dripless shaft packings, I normally had a dry bilge in my 1972 GB42 woodie. After being trailered from San Diego to Galveston in 1990, it was placed in a sling at Galveston for the night where I traced a pencil line right on the waterline of a small amount of water in the forward bilge. That waterline did not move a micron all night. I had smeared the underwater hull with Vaseline.