Bilge water amount during winter hard storage

[hsi88]

I have a 77 Catalina 30. Same thing. Nothing from the mast, water came in via old leaky vents, removed engine panel / instruments and around the companionway. I used white gorilla tape and covered all the holes and sealed the tops of the portlights. Then used the boom to mount a good sized tarp. Poured RV antifreeze in the bilge, just in case. Problem solved.

[seabreez]

Originally Posted by Owen Stubbs

So I am in the market for a 30 or 30-ish "new to me" boat. Looked at a Catalina 30 recently, on the hard for the winter. The boat is not shrinkwrapped nor covered.

It had rained recently, and I found drips near the v-berth hatch and qtr-berth operable vent/port. Nothing major, but both will need repair or replacement.

What I was shocked to see was a bilge nearly full to the cabin deck... mostly frozen. It would not have taken much more water to have overflowed the bilge. We pumped the liquid water out using the manual pump, but still left behind quite a bit of ice.

Is this normal, for a boat stored in this manner? There is NO evidence of standing water anywhere, and the companionway hatch had a poly tarp over it clearly attempting to minimize water intrusion at that point.....

Input greatly appreciated!

Water in the bilge that forms ice is dangerous for ant boat. Water freezes and the melts and refreezes and then accumulates and then the expansion. A foot of ice will expand 1 7/8". That is a lot of push and stress on the cross members and the hull. I saw a 24 foot boat that had 15" of ice in it for the winter and come springtime some members under the floor had delaminated for other cross members. When pointed to the owner, he sold the boat immediately and took the chance that the new owner would not notice the damage. A winter cover is a much if your boat has water ingress from normal rain. Always make sure the bow is high for storage and that the drain plug can drain any water...

[Owen Stubbs]

Thanks so much to everyone for your input - all of which I consider invaluable.

I am transitioning from power to sail, so water accumulation in a power vessel on the hard is nothing I have experienced... thanks to bilge/garboard plugs.

Is adding a garboard drain/plug a big deal to a Catalina 30?

[hsi88]

Originally Posted by Owen Stubbs

Is adding a garboard drain/plug a big deal to a Catalina 30?

That is a very good question. I have thought about it for the same reasons. I think the problem would be where to install it. Pretty much in every direction is fiberglass mat or wood core and straight down is the keel. To eliminate the chance of the hole saturating the hull, you would have to cut a chunk out, and pretty much make is solid epoxy and/or insert some sort of small through hull. Shop around, they may sell them or go to a boating surplus store. I'm guessing you will need to go through the side, so it will never really empty the bilge. Which is probably fine. Its pretty much impossible for a bilge pump to remove all the water. Both solutions have their pros and cons. That's why i chose to simply seal up the leaks instead. Then the water doesn't reach the sole in all but a hurricane!

[hsi88]

Did some searching. You have to figure others have done this. :-)

Garboard Drain

BTW, this is a great site for Catalina info. I realize its not the C30 website, but the boats have similar attributes and these guys have done some interesting upgrades that also apply to the C30.