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Home Port: Northport, NY
Vessel Info: 3600 Convertible 1990 with Crusader 350 HP
I haven't hooked the boat to shore water supply until recently at a slip. I notice the bilge pump come on a few times & thought that was strange since I usually don't have much water in the bilge. After the weekend, I noticed the boat listing to the side where the water hookup is. I'm thinking there must be a leak in the water line somewhere and the water is built up & only coming out slowly. Wondering if this has happened to anyone else?
I'm guessing the water will continue to leak out of where it's trapped, eventually but, I have to pull the boat out of the water next weekend. I guess I should plug a solar panel into the system to keep the batteries charged so the bilge pump can continue to pump out the water? Any thoughts on this?
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Home Port: Ashtabula, OH
Vessel Info: 1986 Tiara 3600 Open, Crusader 454's
11-02-2020, 10:11 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-02-2020, 10:12 AM by Misdirection.)
A simple way to test if you have a leak is to buy a blowout plug and connect an air compressor at 20 psi to your water inlet. Close all of your faucet's and let it sit there for a bit. If the psi's on the compressor go down, you have a leak. And that blowout plug is useful when winterizing your boat. But I agree with the inlet regulator being suspect.
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Posts: 8
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Home Port: Northport, NY
Vessel Info: 3600 Convertible 1990 with Crusader 350 HP
Thanks for the helpful reply, I will give this a try.
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Home Port: Lake Michigan
Vessel Info: 52 Sovran, Cat 3406
At the risk of stating the obvious make sure the dockside water is turned off while away from boat. A small leak can turn into a big leak and in the case of city water pressure, quickly overwhelm a bilge pump.
FWIW I had similar symptoms that turned out to be the connection between regulator and FW system/plumbing. FW pump didn't generate enough pressure to cause it to leak but when on dockside water it sprayed pretty good. Now I use an automatic regulator that needs to be reset every 200 gallons. If I break a hose in the boat that is the limit to how much water can enter.
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Home Port: Lake Michigan
Vessel Info: 52 Sovran, Cat 3406
Go to Amazon and search for water timer. I would recommend a dial, not digital timer. they allow you to set how much water flows before shutting off. I set mine at 200 and reset it every weekend.
