Boat took on water - enough to wet the carpet behind the driver...

[jet]

As soon as you got her on the trailer you should of kept her running and looed for the source. Now you will just be guessing. It can either come from the engine cooling system (water pump, hose,eng, ballast) or from a boat hull leak (exhaust, bolts anything that pokes thru the hull. Hook the water hose up to her and try it again. If that doesnt leak anywhere start looking at the hull places. Good luck man. Jet

[Dtha]

Had you been running your pump at all during the day? My comp takes on a bit of water as well, and I just figure it as the cheap plug from walmart I use, or from the several holes I drilled in the transom for my lights, water isn't all that bad, the pump takes care of it instantly.

Your water on the floor problem might be very elementary. Mine does the same thing. Pick up the middle section of the rear seat, just behind the driveshaft to see the removeable floorboard. Does it has a hole cut in it like mine does? If so, I can GUARANTEE, it is just the water splashing through that hole and running up the side of the boat on the carpet, because I watched my boat do this first hand when I was testing any severe leaks from the transom light install.

When you slowdown, any water in the bilge will rush to the back and splash through the hole, and will rush forward as the boat settles over the carpet, then disipate back into the bilge. I just use it as a good "Hey turn the bilge on dummy" reminder incase I forget.

[rludtke]

I took today off from work to try and fix the boat for the week end.

In order to remove my rudder, I had to shift my boat over to the left side of my trailer, as there is trailer prop cage structure on the centerline that prevented the rudder from dropping free. While under the boat, I noticed droplets forming beneath the boat about 3/4" forward of the stern, directly under the exhaust pipe outlet, in an area of the boat normally covered by the righthand trailer bunk. Wiping the droplets, I could see a brown colored crack, about 3" long, parallelling the transom. The water drops would return quickly, so to explore further, I removed the righthand Super Trapp and its attach flange. Water started running from the lower screws as soon as I removed them, and sped up as I removed the flange and sealant. Most of the sealant pulled off smoothly and cleanly from the boat, indicating a faulty seal.

To help the water drain, I drilled the lowest screw hole up to 3/8" in size, and a considerable amount of water drained out. I am allowing it to dry out now.

I am planning to fill all of the Supertrapp screw holes in the transom with cabosil, do a fiberglass surface repair of the crack, and remount and reseal the Supertrapp and exhuast.

I took a good look at the structure at the stern area. There are no limbers cut through the main stringers anywhere, including at the transom intersection. This would suggest that the boat has three seprate chambers under the floor. Left, Right, and Center. I saw water above the floor on the right side only, near the gunnel. The bilge (Center chamber) was aproximently 3/4 full at that time. If my right hand side exhaust allowed water to leak into the Right hand chamber, which it may have, I don't understand how that caused the bilge to fill. I would like all of the water from the three chambers to drain to the bilge, but I can not find the water path in my boat to allow water to do so. I suspect that I had water trapped in the Right hand chamber of the boat. If I had never moved the boat to the side of the trailer, I may never had noticed.

But, this may not completely solve my problem, as it doesn't make sense to me why the bilge was so full. I must still have a seperate leak in the Center chamber?

I will accomplish the repair, and re-assemble the rudder, then take the boat to the lake to do some testing.

Can anyone with first hand experience with the stringer replacement of a 1987 Comp describe the stringer design and the factory intended water path to the bilge? It does not look to me like the designers ever thought water would enter the left or right chambers, and so they did not provide measures to allow it to drain.

I don't understand the failure mode for this crack either. I suspect it has been there a while. I do not see anything like it on the left side.

[CincyLaunch]

My boat earlier this season filled up with water. It was due to the dealership cross-threading the quick disconnect on the ballast bag. (Don't know if you checked those.) I fixed it by taking some PVC cement the kind with the purple primer and just glued the connecter to the bag. Hope this helps.

[rludtke]

I completed the fiberglass repairs this weekend (filled the worn Supertrapp screw holes, and repaired a small crack under the bottom of the boat very close to the transom). and replaced and re-sealed the supertrapps. I also increased the tension preload on the dripless seal.

I launched the boat in a nearby lake today without the back seat, engine cover, or aft floorboard removed. Drove around (no wake speeds only, as the lake was not open for powerboats yet) and inspected everything that could possibly leak. My bilge was nearly dry upon launching (It was dry, until the steep launch caused water from the fwd bilge to leak aft, creating a small pool under the drive shaft), I did not experience any leaks, or change the amount of water in the bilge.

Returned home to reassemble the boat, load gear, eat lunch, and load the family. Back on the water and hard at play, the auto-bilge kicked on from time to time, and between riders, my peeks under the engine cover would reveal some water sometimes, and no water other times. I don't know where this water comes from, but it would seem that the auto-bilge can easily manage it.

Therefore, I am going to consider this issue resolved.

I had hoped to get all three days of this weekend on the water, but one day is better than none! Summer isn't over hear in the Pacific Northwest (in-fact, it appears that it is just begining. The forecast for next week and beyond is for a strech of the hottest temps yet we'ved had yet this year!). So perhaps we'll get out next weekend too.

[DAFF]

Have you tried to run the boat onland hooked up to a garden hose at the strainer??? Make sure the connection is water tight and look for water entering the bilge area. This test will eliminate the water entering from the engine side and then you can look more in detail for underside leaks.

Ever thought about the skegs on the bottom side of the hull?? You said something about beaching the boat, and got me wondering if the seal there could be the culprit. A tube of 5200 will go a long way......

[wotan2525]

I just assumed everyone with old-ish boats was OK with them leaking a little bit. My auto bilge kicks on probably every 20 minutes for a minute or so. I'm 90% sure it's the rudder seal, but it could be a million tiny places, too. I've just learned to live with it.

[rludtke]

Have you tried to run the boat onland hooked up to a garden hose at the strainer??? Make sure the connection is water tight and look for water entering the bilge area. This test will eliminate the water entering from the engine side and then you can look more in detail for underside leaks.

Ever thought about the skegs on the bottom side of the hull?? You said something about beaching the boat, and got me wondering if the seal there could be the culprit. A tube of 5200 will go a long way......

Yes I have Daff, with no issues noted. So I put the boat into the water to inspect the hull while the boat was in gear. Still no leaks. But excersizing the boat with riders on skiis, booards, and tubes is a little different than ideling around the lake. Some of my water could be tracked in by wet people, but some is also from a yet to be determined leak resulting from driving the boat hard.

You bring up a good point about the skegs. I only beach in sand, and only when the lake shore is steep. I am pretty sure that the only part of the boat contacting the beach is the deep keel of the bow.

I just assumed everyone with old-ish boats was OK with them leaking a little bit. My auto bilge kicks on probably every 20 minutes for a minute or so. I'm 90% sure it's the rudder seal, but it could be a million tiny places, too. I've just learned to live with it.

I too suspect my rudder seal. I tightened my shaft log as much as I could, but I think I should replace the packing to see if my leak improves. I think i've reduced the water down to an "I can live with it" amount.

[oward1202]

Rick, my 85 comp was leaking as well all last year(which was my first year with the boat). I also found that it was the SuperTrapps. I did the same repair that you made and I felt alot better about the boat this year. I left the boat on the water overnight last year while we stayed on a houseboat, I set my alarm to wake me up every 3 hours to go out and run the bilge. That will kill the fun of staying on the lake. Glad you got your problem resolved and are able to be back out enjoying your boat. Have fun.