Water in the bildge.

HMMMMMM... Probably at he thruhull bedding or any transducers, especially speed transducers. I suspect that if you tie off securely, and run the engine in gear, while watching the packing, you will see the problem. A small amount of water through the packing while the shaft is turning is normal, but a fine spray or steady stream is a problem. It is possible that the exhaust is siphoning back, but this will almost always present itself by the engine refusing to turn over.
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[ozskip]

My money is on that it is getting in through the rudder stock shaft gland and it needs repacking.Greg

[Maddog]

Ok, this weekend, rudder stock and packing gland. Thanks for the help.

[Talbot]

put reasonable amounty of money on the packing having been wound on in a single strip rather than laid in layers with the next layer overlapping the join. If this is not the problem, next most likely candidate is the waterpump seal.

[Vasco]

it might be that the leak is above the waterline and only happens when you are motoring and the boat "squats". I has a leak once in a cockpit drain hose, it only happened on port tack and was about a half a foot above the through hull so only leaked when she heeled, the hose had a bend in it and the leak was on the outside of the bend which was right up against the hull. Took a while to find it. If you have a suspicion on where the leak might be try sprinkling talcum powder around. I've done this with engine leaks and it's quite helpful.

[Talbot]

Confession time

My stern lockers can top up with water when squatting under power - it has a drain at the bottom, but thats not a lot of good when its underwater. the steering arm between the rudders passes through a hole into both lockers, and the rudder quadrant has a gapeing hole at the back, so its not feasible to make it dry. without considerable modifications (I was going this route but the price tag of £15,000 detered me!). I have just put up with this and accepted a small quantity of water making its way further forward into the next large compartment through the gap provided for the steering cables, and then allowed the water to drain back out through the hole.

Never had more than a pint in the forward compartment before weekend before last. Then I was faced with a 30 mile trip directly to windward at very top end of Force 6. To make the conditions more interesting there was a 3knot wind against the tide. So on motor and away I went, making excellent progress (Thank you to 27hp diesel outboard). Towards the end I had noticed that she was getting a llittle slower and reckoned that the squat had really filled up the stern compartments. What I had not realised was that the steering cable gap had been allowing a continuous stream of water into the next compartment forward. When I checked once alongside, I had over 100 gallons of water slopping around in there. Took me for ever to pump out, and has ruined my portable generator.

I am now filling the lower drain in the aft compartments and adding auto bilge pumps in there.

[Sonosailor]

This thread reminds me of an experience. I was helping a buddy and his wife bring a newly purchased Catalina 30 up from Rhode Island to Saint John, NB, Canada. After having rain come through a window seal onto the electrical equipment, having the motor mounts break and the engine be pushed out through the cabinet just as we were cueing up with some barges to go through the Cape Cod Canal, losing reverse after that repair, being plagued by great misunderstandings about the plumbing and especially the ability of the head to flood, and countless other problems, the story about the rudder post starts.

Although as careful as could be through the great maze of lobster buoys along Maine's coast, we finally caught one on the rudder. After an hour struggle, caught so that we were not moving, we finally got it cut and disentangled. We went back to sailing, without much trouble. Later, when motoring was called for, we once more noticing the water rise in the bilge. As with other incidences, we noticed it when the prop shaft universal started to throw water around.

We were still troubleshooting an intermittent bilge pump, which was complicating every other problem. That problem was not figured out until the end of the trip, when we realized the pump was controlled by a toggle switch that was along the main passageway, and was often accidentally flipped just by traffic up and down the main hatch.

As for the rudder shaft leak, it happened only when under power, and stopped each time we stopped to tear up all areas below the waterline to look for it. It is comical to recall, but so frustrating to think how many times we transferred equipment, stores, bedding, spare parts, tools, and panels to look for the phantom leak, and to try to get the bilge pump to continue to work continuously.

When we finally did look while under way, it didn't stop there. I assumed my buddy, a good mechanic, understood how the packing gland at the top of the rudder post sleeve worked. He didn't. I kept sending him back under to stop the leak, and he kept tightening the gland to the post. He tightened that sucker until it moved with the post, and loosened the gland housing from the sleeve. The strain also caused the steering cable to break from the rudder quadrant.

We ended up steering with the emergency tiller through an 8 hour storm until we rounded Cape Elizabeth and entered Portland. This was made worse by the previous owner, who had shortened the emergency tiller so he would not have to remove the wheel (I assume). It took two of us to steer, while a third stood up and told us which way to go.(As I recall, we found out about the lost reverse gear only after reverse was needed to keep us off the dock.)

We sorted it all out after nice nap, took all bedding and clothing to a laundromat, and ultimately had a nice sail to Canada. However, by that time, the wife was acting irrational, suffering a bit of a meltdown. She is fine now.

[myblueheaven]

You did not say if it is fresh water or salt( if a ocean going vessel). I had a leak somewhere in my boat and could not find the source. I new it was a water tank( at least one of my 8) I simply used "food coloring" in each tank. One color for every two tanks( in my boat the rear tanks use one filler, the middle starboard uses one filler and the other side uses one and the forward two tanks use a single filler. Blue, red, green and yellow. I topped off the tanks with coloring added and waited. Sure enough, I started to see blueish water in one part of the bilge then some green water coming from another are into the bilge! I was then able to narrow down which tanks these colors represented and , in my case I simply bipassed them as they were too burried to extract. Keep in mind a leak can be on the top of a tank which means it will only leak a little when full, or more if the leak is lower. Hope this method might help.

[JGI417]

One other suggest is to use a yellow high-liter, draw aline around suspect areas, then after a sail the yellow mark will be washed from the area water is coming in.