A mystery leak kept filling the bilge.
Issue 147: Nov/Dec 2022
“Steve!”
“What?”
“There’s water in the cabin!”
“There’s…what?
“Water in the cabin! Lots of it!”
Osprey under sail, nice and level. The leak only occurred when the boat was heeling under sail.
My new girlfriend, Susan, and I were out for a daysail on my Catalina 27, Osprey. We were running close-hauled as we tacked our way southwest in Illinois’ Carlyle Lake in about 10 to 15 knots of wind, gusting up to 20, washing our port side with the amount of heel we were experiencing.
We were ecstatic. I was, especially, because after two marriages over 40 years with partners I had to drag to the boat, I finally thought I had found someone who loves sailing and is a natural at it. This was only her second time sailing and the first time with me as skipper on my boat.
Susan’s first sail was on my nephew’s Freedom 40 in Pensacola Bay under similarly windy circumstances. Have you been on a sailboat with a novice on board, and the first time the boat heels, they look startled, then start to scramble up to the high side while asking plaintively, “Is this supposed to be like this? Is it gonna turn over?”
Not Susan. She didn’t seem bothered at all, and the onboard conversations continued. It was natural. I thought, I’ve found my first mate!
So here we were, on a beautiful, sunny day with brisk winds. I was trying to impress her with my seamanship and my beautiful craft. Then she climbed down the companionway ladder for snacks and literally stepped into it.
Yes, there was water in the cabin. The bilge was full and overflowing. The carpet was floating in a few inches of water pooling on the port side of the cabin sole. This had never happened in the eight months since I’d bought the boat. The bilge was always totally dry.
The new Suzuki outboard used a much larger bracket to attach to the boat, which obscured the holes from the previous engine.
As every sailor knows, when you buy a good old boat, you make a list of projects that need immediate attention, like a new engine. Other things end up on a wish list.
Since the lack of an automatic bilge pump was on the project list, I bought a new one to install. But, because the bilge had been totally dry up to this point, the new bilge pump sat in the blister package, not yet installed while I tackled other projects that I thought had priority. That’s why it was high and dry in my garage while my boat’s interior definitely wasn’t.
Susan took the tiller while I went below to see for myself. Where was all this water coming from? At what rate was it flowing into the boat? I grabbed the handle of the manual bilge pump and pumped her out. Thankfully the waterline inside the cabin crept lower as we dropped sails and motored in.
When we returned to the dock, I checked along the hull-to-deck joint, which was dry. The leak didn’t come from there. There was only a residual bit of water in the bilge. I started theorizing where it had come from.
A few weeks earlier, I had replaced the plumbing from the water tank to the sink in the head and to a new foot pump I had installed for the galley sink. I then filled the water tank for the first time with about 15 gallons and tested the water system. It worked fine.
My first theory was that somehow the water tank leaked when we heeled. I pumped out enough water to insert my iPhone into the tank without drowning the phone. The deck fill and water line coming out of the tank were tight and double-clamped. That left only the possibility that the top access hatch, which was fine when the boat was level, leaked when the boat heeled and hobby horsed through the waves.
The photos seemed to show that the hose connector from the deck fill to the tank looked suspect.
I emptied the water tank and figured that the following weekend I would replace the deck fill hose connector.
A closeup of the bolt holes, now filled, that were the source of the
mystery leak in Osprey when the boat was under sail.
Well, the following weekend came and so did two guests, so I postponed the deck fill fix, threw off the lines, and went sailing. With the water tank empty, there should be no problem, right?
It was another day with glorious winds and a good heel on Osprey as one of my guests went below and…
“Steve!”
“Yes?”
“There’s water in the cabin!”
“What!?”
Obviously, my water tank theory was out the window. Despite the empty tank, the carpets were floating again.
We dropped the sails (again), I pumped the bilge out with the manual bilge pump (again) while motoring back to the dock (again). I then pulled up the floorboard to see only a residual amount of water (again).
I checked the seacocks. Both were totally dry. I checked the hull-to-deck joint (again). Dry. I studied the floor of the bilge where the keel bolts come through and noticed what I thought looked like a slight crack, barely visible, portside of the keel bolts.
Oh, no! Is it just on the surface or is it deep? Is there delamination there, and if so, is the keel wobbling enough in choppy water to let some in, while not a drop gets in while she sits in calm water? The keel bolts were shiny, as if they had been put in yesterday. No rust, no corrosion.
I researched Catalina 27 keel problems and learned everything there is to know about the dreaded “Catalina Smile,” when the coring of the keel stub turns to mush, allowing the keel to wobble and possibly depart from your boat when you least expect it.
The cure for it would be even worse. Did the water enter through the keel or from elsewhere? I needed more information.
Belowdecks on Osprey under normal circumstances, when the rugs weren’t floating in water.
The following weekend, I finally installed and wired the automatic bilge pump to the floor of the bilge. We then took Osprey out for a spin. I kept the floorboard up and was ready to go below as much as possible to try to figure where the water was coming from. The bilge pump was running about every 10 minutes because water was invading the bilge.
I noticed it was flowing into the aft end of the bilge, so I opened the compartment under the cockpit that would house the engine if this Catalina 27 had an inboard. My auxiliary was a new Suzuki four-stroke 9.9-hp long shaft outboard in the outboard well.
While crawling in the dark void under the cockpit, I followed the stream of water aft to the transom and noticed outside light streaming in from two holes through the transom, seemingly drilled by a quarter-inch bit, about 3 inches above the waterline.
What were they for?
We dropped the sails (again), I pumped the bilge out…well, you know the drill.
At home, I scanned through the hundreds of photographs of Osprey that I had taken as I documented all my projects. I focused on the repowering project completed a few weeks earlier.
The boat had come with an old Chrysler 9.9 long shaft that ran great at high rpm but died at low rpm—not entirely helpful when entering a marina. So, I had the yard repower Osprey with the new Suzuki.
However, apparently the old Chrysler engine’s clamp had been bolted through the transom, and when that came off, the holes were not filled. The bracket for the new engine, which was much larger than previous one, hid that fact.
When I approached hull speed, especially heeling, the water passing past the stern would well up over the holes and flow in. It is incredible how much water can enter your boat through two little holes!
The good news was that whoever drilled those holes in the first place had sealed the core of the transom at that time, so water hadn’t penetrated the transom itself. All I had to do was plug the holes.
Done!
Even after moving back to Florida, where Susan and I sail Osprey in Pensacola Bay and cruise the Gulf of Mexico year-round, that new automatic The new Suzuki outboard used a much larger bracket to attach to the boat, which obscured the holes from the previous engine. A closeup of the bolt holes, now filled, that were the source of the mystery leak in Osprey when the boat was under sail. Belowdecks on Osprey under normal circumstances, when the rugs weren’t floating in water. bilge pump stands ready. But so far, the bilge has been totally dry. The water stays where it belongs—outside of Osprey. And we both like it that way.
Steve Wein has been sailing since 1974 on the Gulf Coast as well as the Great Lakes. Currently, he and his wife, Susan, sail the Catalina 27 tall rig Osprey in the Pensacola, Florida, area. On shore, he works in radio at various stations, from small markets to major markets like Chicago, and he’s presently part of the news department of NewsRadio 92.3 in Pensacola.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
