Water entering engine bay

[RedRover]

Has anyone had excessive water entering the engine bay on a rear engined boat is it a poor design of the compartment due to the hatch not being deep enough?

[Guest]

we sometimes get excessive water in are engine bay we just got a small bilge pump and put a long hose.

it depends if you have drain holes if they get clogged and water rises to a certain point it will start to leak through the engine vents.

[Antares_9]

Bit more info needed Barry, shaft drive, stern drive hydro, outboard? :-D

[RedRover]

ARP Hydraulics new shaft box,i am now told it is probably coming from the hatch engine bay when we have a downpour of heavy rain as we had last sunday next day i pumped out 4.5 gallons of water out.like jonny said he fitted a tempory pump and a pipe,seems to be a problem on rear engined boats.Thanks A-9.

[Guest]

Do you not leave your bilge pump on when you are away from the boat?

[RedRover]

Yes,there is an auto bildge pump left on but it does not cover the engine bay as according to the BSS you are not supposed to have one in there in case you pump out oil etc by mistake.

[Guest]

Yes, good point. They'd rather the boat sinks and empties all of its bodily fluids into the river system instead. I have a bilge pump in my engine bay so water would eventually get to it once it fills up behind the hull "stiffener" but that would have to be a heck of a lot of water to start overspilling that.

[Antares_9]

You can satisfy the BSS (or at least the spirit of it) and have a pump in the engine bay, you need to fit a hydrocarbon filter, I got one as I am most unhappy about the BSS attitude in that area for the reasons Simon points out, might even get around to fitting it one day. :-D :-D

[Gordon]

I think most of ours comes through the hatch cover, mainly due to, as Jonny said, the tiny drain holes round the rim blocking, we did have a problem with the cover itself being porous but since I have fixed that we get less water,

As for the i ssue of no bilge pump in there I cannot see that as a major issue as once the water got to the top of the engine bilge wall it will go over the top and then the main bilge pump will shift it, never had more than three or four inches in the bit under the engine but even if it was full I cannot see it affecting the boat at all, certainly not enough to come within feet of sinking. Think about it if the bit under the engine that was dammed off to prevent polution held 40 gallons that is only 400lbs, or three 10 stone people, or as my mate once said when stopped by the law for having his car overloaded,

"no mate I don't think its overloaded, just the same as having three big women on the back seat "

" I see sir, and do you ofter have three big women in the back of your car"

Gordon

[Mowjo]

We have an oil/water separator fitted on our Freeman, it had to be fitted to pass the BSS as the bilge pump is under the engine, according to my paperwork the separater cost £60, you can probably get the cheaper though,,

[Antares_9]

I can see where you’re coming from Gordon, but many boats are of a different design which would ship loads more water before it overflowed and also though Broads based and therefore come within the BSS remit make sea trips and I can assure you that whilst 4 or 500lbs of water on a calm river would not be an issue, just imagine it being sloshed about your engine room affecting stability with the boat pitching and rolling and then imagine you have to get rid of that before you even start to make any headway on the stuff that’s still coming in. Personally I prefer a pump that starts to get rid of it at the source of ingress. Mind you it’s a bit of false comfort anyway as most pumps will not clear enough even if you have only an 1 ½ “ hole below the waterline. "The best bilge pump in the world is a frightened man with a big bucket"

[RedRover]

I think most of ours comes through the hatch cover, mainly due to, as Jonny said, the tiny drain holes round the rim blocking, we did have a problem with the cover itself being porous but since I have fixed that we get less water,

As for the i ssue of no bilge pump in there I cannot see that as a major issue as once the water got to the top of the engine bilge wall it will go over the top and then the main bilge pump will shift it, never had more than three or four inches in the bit under the engine but even if it was full I cannot see it affecting the boat at all, certainly not enough to come within feet of sinking. Think about it if the bit under the engine that was dammed off to prevent polution held 40 gallons that is only 400lbs, or three 10 stone people, or as my mate once said when stopped by the law for having his car overloaded,

Gordon,how did you fix the porous hatch??? i am intrigued.

[Gordon]

Hi Barry & Olive

The porous hatch was not easy to cure but it was in a very bad way. The engine hatch is a double skinned self draining affair. The top skin was badly cracked probably due to it having been jumped on throughout its life. This lead to water getting through the top skin and draining not only into the channel round the edge but also through cracks in the inner skin, water also got into the engine bilge due to the blockage of the very small drain holes in the channel. Someone had attempted to reinforce the top by pooring in loads of resin, all this did was transfer the load onto the middle of the inner skin and cuse that to crack. As well as causing the rain to get in it also made the hatch feel spongy underfoot.

To repair I made a tempory cover from ply and took the real one home.

I sawed all around the edge to separate the skins, not easy due to the resin that had been poored in, i had to partly saw through that and then tear it away. Having separated the two skins I ground the resin (that had been poored in) away.

I layed three layers of glass matting over the cracks put 2 coats of resin on the inside of the top skin and a sheet of matting over the whole area. I repaired the tears in the inner skin and then resined the two back together with a matting bandage forming a lip on the inside of the join. Serious week spots were re-inforced outside as well. It has vastly improved the situation and even after the heavy rain and winds in November there was not above an inch of water in the engine bilge

I am not an expert on there things but it seems to have made a sound repair. Am I correct in believing you have a Bounty, not sure if its the same problem. We also moor in Stalham so you are welcome and come over and discuss when the start to get down to the boat more regularly

regards

Gordon :santa:

[Gordon]

Antares, I take your point there regarding a smaller sea going boat, scary indeed I am aware the of the dodgy effect of just a few gallons in the bottom of a sailing dinghy.

My comments were simply limited to the effect of the water on 10 or 12 foot wide floating caravan on a good still river. :-D

regards

Gordon :santawave: :santa: :santawave: