Typhoon: Water in the bilge

dlankow · Post by **dlankow** » Sep 27th, '09, 16:07

Hey all,

Yesterday I pumped probably 7 gallons of seawater from my bilge for the first time in 7 years ownership. Pretty sure it had been there a few weeks.

Any thoughts? Hoping just rainwater that got in?

novotny · Post by **novotny** » Sep 27th, '09, 18:54

As far as I know there are three ways to get water in a TY bilge:
1. leaky seacocks
2. leaky rudder post
3. rain, most likely

I am also getting water bellow at times and it is from the rain. My hatch is not in the best of shapes. I eliminated the seacocks and replaced them with triple clamped radiator hoses and I carry wooden plugs, rudder post can be checked by feel while afloat.

Good luck

sloopjohnl · Post by **sloopjohnl** » Sep 28th, '09, 15:50

also under and around the teak trim piece surrounding the rudder post.

Sea Hunt · Post by **Sea Hunt** » Sep 28th, '09, 16:57

If you go to the "search" section and type in "Typhoon Weekender" and "water in bilge" or similar type of query, you will get several threads addressing this issue.

Most causes (and solutions) are comparatively simple - clogged scupper drain hoses; water entering through cockpit hatch covers (common); and water building up in cockpit and then entering through tiller stem fitting.

What is a red flag to me is your statement that it is the first time in 7 years you have found a significant amount of water in the bilge. This suggests something significant has broken, clogged, changed, etc.

On my Ty Weekender, after I plugged up and repaired all the possible leak points, there is never any water in the bilge (regardless of the amount of rain fall) except for the ubiquitous "South Florida moisture" water about which nothing can be done. If I boarded S/V Tadpole to observe a large amount of water (2"-3") in the bilge I would immediately begin looking for something broken, clogged, etc.