A Question Regarding Filling C36 Water Tanks

[Evergreen]

Hello:

I am trying to figure out if our boat has a problem requiring repair or am I just stupid.

We are at the boat and yesterday we decided to fill our water tanks for the first time since the marina had not done it when they dewinterized the boat. Our boat has three tanks: V berth tank; Starboard settee tank; & Quarter berth tank. The filling of the V berth tank via the deck fill went as expected. Then I moved on to the two deck fills on the starboard side. After a period of time I became concerned because the tanks did not seem to fill after a reasonable amount of time. Concern gave way to alarm when I heard the bildge pump go on. When I went below I found water had run out from the liner above the quarter berth and was flowing down into the bildge. Thinking that perhaps there was a disconnect between the deck fill fitting and the hose to the tank I then checked to see if the tanks had taken on water. Yes they were full.

My question: Where is the water leaking from? Is there a vent hose or something of that nature that would allow the water to escape? Access to the area of the deck fitting seems like it would be very difficult (hidden behind all kinds of fancy wood work). If I am unable to figure out the source of the water, I assume that in the future, it would be more prudent to have someone inside the boat visually monitor the filling tanks via the ports and let me know when each one is full. I just assumed that they would fill up to the top of the deck fill when full. Boy, I sure did feel stupid.

Your insights would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely, Philip & Sharon Merlier

[Woody]

Phil, I'm probably all wet, no pun intended. Did you check to see if the screw in tops were just that? If your tanks are "holding" water that would seem to eliminate a crack or leak in the tank proper. The next thing I might check would be the hose clamp on the "fill" hose. I always seemed to forget to screw in the top in the fall after winterizing the water system. You might also check the hose clamps at the water tank manifold under the galley sink. Last, but certainly not least, have your wife stick the hose in the middle fill tube on deck and watch below as water is delivered. I'll bet it is something very minor. Good luck, woody

[Woody]

Phil, I'm probably all wet, no pun intended. Did you check to see if the screw in tops were just that? If your tanks are "holding" water that would seem to eliminate a crack or leak in the tank proper. The next thing I might check would be the hose clamp on the "fill" hose. I always seemed to forget to screw in the top in the fall after winterizing the water system. You might also check the hose clamps at the water tank manifold under the galley sink. Last, but certainly not least, have your wife stick the hose in the middle fill tube on deck and watch below as water is delivered. I'll bet it is something very minor. Good luck, woody

[Bill Cochrane]

If I recall correctly, the vent hoses simply loop up under the side decks and are open inside the boat...this is one prime suspect for how your water reached the bilge.

Opening one of the cleanout caps and watching as the tank fills is standard practice on my 36.

[Russell]

Indeed it does sound like your tanks are just filling to the point the vents are flowing into the bilge. With my v-berth and quartberth tanks I just run the water until I see the bilge pump kick in and then cut it off, the waters path to the bilge via those vents is harmless and pretty direct. The starboard setee tank though vents into a hanging locker, so I am very careful to watch the level from the inspection port as I fill that one, ussually I just fill it via that inspection port, putting the hose through the hatch.

A good point made on the inspect ports, check here for leaks, mine all leaked a fair bit and I had to wrap the treads in teflon tape to stop the leaks, not really a huge deal, but if you spend a lot of time underway on a passage heeled over, you will lose a good amount of your fresh water from those ports.

[Parfait's Provider]

For sure there are vents that leak. I find the best practice is to open the inspection port on the top of the tank and fill it there. You can see what is going on and it fills very fast. If you can't get to your inspection ports, pull the plywood above them, determine where you need to cut it, and get it done. The settees arepull-outs that require that a hole be cut in the slide as well, but it is worth the trouble. No more fumbling on deck, just go full force into the tank directly and be done with it.

The fill hoses are thin wire-supported vinyl and quite subject to breakage; not worth the trouble to replace in my opinion. A hose with a valve in the end will make short work of filling from inside the cabin.

Thanks to Larry DeMers for that bright idea.

[Dean Abramson]

I am not intimately familiar with the plumbing on the 36, but it seems to me that if you have water leaking ABOVE the quarter berth, then you have a hose leak, either in the fill hose, or in a vent hose that is looped up into that area.

In the latter case, I am wondering if a defective anti-siphon valve could be letting water out.

When our tanks are full (at least one or two of them), I can hear water run to the bilge. As Russell says, that in itself is not necessarily a problem. It is the route that it travels to get there that needs looking at. If, say, you have a hose from a tank vent which goes right to the bilge, it's no harm, no foul.

Filling the tanks from inside the cabin is certainly an option. I personally would rather that operation stay on deck, so I would try to deduce where/how it is leaking and replace the hose. Or anti-siphon vent, whichever the case is.

Dean

[Al Levesque]

I found the same result when we first acquired our CD33. I also found that the inlet lines provided black flakes that didn't appear in the tank until after I had just filled it. I bought a shutoff valve to add to the end of the hose and I fill from the inspection port.

[Parfait's Provider]

I haven't looked at the plumbing or the diagram, but an anti-siphon vent for a water tank sounds like overkill to me since there is nothing but air to siphon and it is going into the tank in any case, not into the bilge.

Did I mention that in addition to being able to see what you are doing and where the water is going, it is much faster to fill through the inspection port? You can feel the rush of air out of the tank!

[Dean Abramson]

I think Ken is right. The more I think about it, I realize an anti-siphon vent is unlikely. So it is probably a problem with the hose or a fitting.

Dean

[grabhamb]

I've got hull number 140 so our two CD's are probably as close to identical as possible. On all of my three tanks I've got about 12" square inspection ports cut above each of the tank inspection openings and just fill from inside the boat. If you like I can take measurements as to where to cut the plywood above each tank and you can cut yours. It's easy to then take a router and cut a piece of 1/2" plywood to fit over the openings. On the starboard settee tank there are two openings so you cut a total of four to have access to each tank inspection port. Filling from inside the boat is not difficult as is just as easy as I'm forever forgetting where I last put that deck fitting key. Let me know if you need the measurements.

Bob Grabham
S/V Hunky Dory, CD36 #140
Rappahannock River, VA (Regent Point Marina)

[Evergreen]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their kind responses.

I have concluded that most likely the problem was water leaking out the vent hoses once the tank was full. It is not worth tearing into all the nice wood work to verify this so I will just go with that assumption.

We already do have ports cut that allow access to the tanks so in the future we just will have someone stay below to verify when the tanks are full or just fill them from below.

Once again thanks for you input.