Bahia 46: water in stern hull (behind engine bilge)

[Bahia]

Hello to all Bahia owners!

I was inspecting my newly bought Bahia thoroughly today and I noticed something odd:

If you are in the engine bays you can see through a little window by the rudder mount towards the stern of each hull.
I have noticed quite a large amount of water in each of the hulls.
Apparently these parts of the hulls are neithe connected with the engine bilge nor the hull bilge.

So what's the secret of that?
And should I install an extra bilge pump for that matter?

Thank you

Best regards,
Rod

[DotDun]

I would suggest you look for a leak.

My Belize is half-full of foam under the aft steps. I found water on top of the foam on my port hull and figured out the transom shower wasn't shutting off properly and when stowed it would leak into that area. Sucked the water out with a shop vac, fixed the leak and haven't seen any water since.

[captainjay]

It is very common for the sugar scoop on the stern of Bahia's to get damaged and leak. People tend to drive the dinghy up into the rear of the boat and bang it. They also get hit on docks easily. It's likely you have a leak there. The hull to deck joint is along the stern. You will want to find the leak and repair it. They also can leak where the swim ladder or the handle attach on the stern.

Jay

[FourAtSea]

We found the same situation in the compartments under the steps in our Bahia. Water slapping on the underside of the bottom step was driving us madd and kept us up at night. Since haul out was not scheduled for another year I installed a drain and plug fitting in the bulkhead behind the lift muffler. There must have been at least 50 gallons of water in there. Since this was a new boat to us no telling how long it had been accumulating in there. Since then we have verified it is a very slow leak. Maybe less than one gallon per month. When we haul out I will be removing the rubber bumper strip from the sugar scoop edge, looking for cracks around screws and rebedding those with 5200 or the like. I suspect collisions back there from the charter boaters and quick fixes by the charter company may be the cause more than the deck seams.

[Soulflyer1980]

I had the same problem after fighting 60kn of wind with 6m for 5days (no other choice)...sealed the whole thing and filled it up with water from the inside to see where it was leaking at the seam of the steps. Found 3 little cracks near the bottom. After opening the compartment back up from the inside n getting rid of all the water I drilled (dremel) open the cracks a bit more and filled them up with white sikaflex from the outside. Finishing is good and haven't had anymore issues with that.