Can anyone solve the mystery

[BarbW]

My beloved S2 9.2C just experienced a catastrophic something. I haven't been on the boat for a while. When I opened the hatch, the boat had water 6-8 inches above the cabin sole. Mold everywhere. The boat had been checked on weekly and after major storms, but no one had checked the interior since March 5. At that time, there were no problems, no leaks, bilge pump working, batteries good, etc. The water was not rising. We pumped the water out and it doesn't appear to have a leak (when the sun is shining). The ceiling above the salon is wet, dripping, in fact. It's wet all around the mast post. Looking at it from the outside, there appears to be no hole or crack or missing caulk. Is it possible for a new leak to form and in a matter of weeks leak that much water? At some point the bilge pump quit working (obviously) or couldn't keep up. The batteries are still charged, so no battery failure. But there's so much water! Maybe someone has a theory I can pass along to the insurance company that explains such a deluge of water in the boat. Ideas? P.S. I know the bilge pump failed. But it was working on Mar. 5. Did it fail because it couldn't keep up? Am I destined to have two bilge pumps in every bilge?

[Nekton73]

A low volume, shallow cutoff bilge pump at your lowest point that handles small volumes, combined with a high volume one with the float/sensor switch at a higher point, is never a bad idea. Redundancy is cheap insurance for bilge pump failure.



As for whether a leak could suddenly appear and cause this... sure, it's the only answer. You just have to find out what is leaking. Seacocks (and anything attached to them if any were left open) are an obvious place to start, followed by keel bolts. Around your mast is another common place and rain can fill up a bilge pretty fast if the leak is big enough. Do you have a hose that you can turn on and flood the top of the deck with while you look for leaks?

[Tin Tin]

Go to a dock and spray boat with a hose, have someone sit inside and check for leaks.

[Lee Jerry]

The obvious place to look is around the mast. Is the boot still intact?

Another way to collect a lot of water is the cockpit; check the scupper hoses. (Wouldn't necessarily explain the wet salon ceiling, unless that is morning condensation.)

[Searles]

First check has or can the bilge pump back syphon ,or the toilet valves not turned off ,that much water ,maybe a burst water tank ,check and check again ,.good luck ⛵️⚓️

[PSGB]

I know of a boat that didn’t have an anti siphon loop for the toilet and the owner had a similar experience to you. He arrived at his previously dry boat to find it filled with water above the floor boards. That’d be my first guess,

[BarbW]

All good ideas--Thank You!

There's only a Nature's Head on board, so no head plumbing. Although, I didn't do the conversion myself, so I'm not sure what plumbing was retained and whether it could eventually cause a problem. Hmmm.

Cockpit is draining fine. Seacocks were closed, but I will check around them.

We are going to do the hose test today. It will be difficult to replicate the downpours experienced in South Carolina of the past few weeks. I will keep everyone posted.

I like the two bilge pump option suggestion for the future.

Thank you all.

[carstenb]

Silly question perhaps, but was it fresh water or salt?

Fresh water means a leak due to rain etc. Salt water is coming through the bottom.

[sailorboy1]

It has rained a lot I bet and you have a keel stepped mast

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by PSGB

I know of a boat that didn’t have an anti siphon loop for the toilet and the owner had a similar experience to you. He arrived at his previously dry boat to find it filled with water above the floor boards. That’d be my first guess,

One beautiful Sunday morning while dinghying in to dock I noticed a boat just like mine (Hinckley Pilot 35) at the time sitting very low in the water and went aboard to find the settee cushions afloat so got there just in time to save it. Siphoning through the head is what was determined to be the cause. I put a spacer under my head to raise the lip of the toilet bowl above waterline to eliminate same happening to me. On current boat I always pump into holding tank and empty that daily when out of the harbor, so an anti siphon failure will only result in a holding tank full of sea water.

[BarbW]

The mast is stepped on deck over a compression post that’s built into the main bulkhead. Leaks could develop there, but not sure how so much water could get through, especially when there's no obvious crack or hole, lack of caulk, damage, etc.

As far as the type of water, it's sitting in brackish brown water. The water in the boat is brown. I didn't taste it, but when we pumped it out, it looked just like the river we're sitting in. I'll do a little more investigation on that.

[Grandwagoneer0]

I have seen bilge pump and hvac discharges close to water line. If under water line can siphon water into boat

[MicHughV]

I've had this problem before.

Rain hits the mast and finds the various openings there....halyard pulleys, etc.
This rain water runs down the inside of the mast.

From near the bottom of the mast are some wires that feed the tricolor light, etc...these electrical wires are fed thru' a deck fitting to inside of the boat.

Rainwater had found these electrical lines and had wicked down inside the boat. A surprisingly large amount of water from a downpour can find it's way below.

But as CarstenB pointed out, see if you can determine if it's fresh or salty. Easy enuff to do....taste it. Then resume your sleuthing activity in that direction.

[gthompson]

Did you taste the water? Is it fresh or salty? That will tell you if the leak is above or below the waterline...

[Bellinghamster]

So sorry to hear about your wet boat!

That much water in the boat seems over the reasonably short period of time seems very unlikely to be coming through mast or wiring penetration. Wet bilge, sure, but 8" over the floorboards in ~40 days?
Quick rough guestimation for that size boat (25ft LWL, 10.25ft beam, so maybe 6-7ft wide at the waterline): ~450-500 gallons to be 6" over the cabin sole.

Original poster stated water was not rising. A slow leak for a long time would be hard to observe a change. 500gal/40 days = 12.5g/day, or rising about 0.15" per day, or a little over .006" per hour.

Just for giggles (and since I have the calculator out already):
Dripping shaft packing scenario - ~15,140 drips = 1 gallons, so 12.5 gallons per day = 189k drips per day. Divide by 1440 minutes per day = 131 drips per minute or about 2 per second.

Pump may have kept it pumped out cycling on a couple times a day until the pump failed?

If it was siphoning in starting from normal waterline, it should continue to sipphon after the bilge is pumped out therefore should be fairly obvious. Same for leaking through-hulls or water intakes. Pump it out and see if/where water is coming from.

I've seen and heard of boats full of mystery water that was due to cockpit or deck drains - either leaking into the boat from interior hoses or plugged so that the cockpit floods and runs into the companionway (under/around boards or door). Side decks flooding and running through a leaking deck penetration (leaking stanchion, deck fill, etc.)? Plugged drain in the anchor locker, LP locker, or other deck locker that fills up and overflows into the boat?

Be sure to let us know what you find!