I do not know your boat, but in most
boats the
keel bolts are the lowest point in a wet
bilge. I do not know how you determined that these bolts are the culprit, but if they, in fact, are the source, this needs immediate attention.
That said, let me add where much of the
water that accumulates in many wet bilges comes from:
**keel-stepped
mast has many openings from the top to the sealing boot.
**leaking fresh water system
**leaking deck-hull seal
**leaking
anchor chain bulkhead
**leaking cutlass bearing and/or shaft packing
**leaking ball-cocks
Have you eliminated all of the above? BTW, it is easy to check for salinity using a TDS meter...this will eliminate some of the sources that would leak from rain water (mast) and fresh water systems.
Our previous boat was a
Beneteau 46. The largest contributor to our bilge water was the mast and there was little that could be done about it. The bilge was very shallow and healing caused some of the water to come above the floor when healed. At one point we
lost some
oil which also drained to the lowest point of the bilge. We had a mess when we healed over with that
oil. We learned to drain 100% of the bilge water before heading out for a day of sailing and when out longer than a day, to check it daily.
Hope this helps.
Bill