Water in bilge

[Rated Aargh]

What’s an acceptable amount of water in your bilge? My boating experience tells me that there are some dry boats some wet boats. This is my first trawler a 34 double cabin. I do have a dripless PSS shaft seal that is dry just rebuilt it honestly. But in the bilge infront of the engine I get water in there and the bilge will pump 2-3x a week. It’s obviously not serious and I know the cycles because I have a counter installed on the pump. The rear shower would drain into the bilge if it was used which it hasn’t, the forward shower drains into a sump box that’s been replaced and all the hoses and hasn’t been used this year yet either.
I can’t rule out rain because it’s been hit or miss with the rain at the boat I don’t actually know how much it’s rained.
So how wet is your bilge? How frequent does your bilge pump run? Eventually I’ll find where it’s coming from but I haven’t had the time to crawl around with a flashlight yet and inspect every inch.
Any insight from experience on certain things too look at closely?

 

[CharlieO.]

I am in the middle of replacing my shaft tube and components. I had water coming up through my keel/bilge floor. There was a hole in the inner support and in the shaft tube itself.

Some pictures here

Suggestions needed for removal

Looking for suggestions on getting the shaft log/tube removed. This is as far as I can get it being hitting with hammer from the inside. Putting a pipe wrench on from the outside just started to crush the tube with out turning it at all.

www.trawlerforum.com

I also had a water tank leaking so I removed them both to get welded and pressure tested.

 

[Rated Aargh]

Think I’m dry there I’ve checked the new pss shaft seal several times. Nothing there that was noticeable but I will look into the water tanks. Seems a possibility of a leak or the wife uses a massive amount of water doing dishes. I’ll peak at your other post and see if I have an idea.

 

[CharlieO.]

My shaft packing wasn't leaking or dripping either, I finally traced the water coming in from under where my muffler was mounted. What was leaking was into the concrete filled keel and that is where it found its way into bilge. I would have been completely content if my pump only came on 3 times a week. I did form a bit of sump in the bilge just aft of the forward bulkhead for bilge water to collect by pulling out some concrete and refiberglassing that so I didn't get a lot of water before the pump kicked on as opposed to having a long flat bilge.

 

[Rated Aargh]

Ok thanks for that insight. I would have never considered that, I’ll check this weekend.

 

[Mac2]

Does your chain locker drain over board? If not, a lot of rain runs down the chain/entrance to the chain locker if you don't have a cover over your windlass. Also, make sure your house pump is off when you leave the boat. So many hose clamps will get loose over time and start to drip. When I installed a new house pump that had a higher pressure, I started hearing the house pump run excessively and discovered several hose clamps loose and leaking.

 

[CharlieO.]

Yup, I've also fixed a dripping showerhead and a leaking copper water line coming out of the hot water heater.

 

[Mac2]

Yup, I've also fixed a dripping showerhead and a leaking copper water line coming out of the hot water heater.

My Krogen Manatee had several copper pipes that were attached to a water hose/line with no barb! Just a hose clamp holding it together. After 20 years, they all started to leak.

 

[Rated Aargh]

I know as a fact the anchor locker doesn’t drain over board. Never thought of that….. thanks CharlieO

 

[rslifkin]

If it's a known water source like some drips from a chain locker or stuffing box, a little water isn't necessarily abnormal. I generally work to minimize it, but as long as water isn't excessive and it's from a known and non-problematic source, I don't worry too much. If I don't know where water is coming from, that's an issue and it's time to go searching for it.