Water in port sponson

[Red]

Howdy, long time boater, new to f/g Tom Cats. Question on water in starboard sponson. I live in Alaska and fish out of Homer. I run the boat about 25 miles to Port Graham and end up pumping about 40 to 50 gallons of water out of the port sponson. The starboard sponson is dry. Anchor, fish for a couple hours, check the bilge and both dry. Run back to Homer and have to pump the port sponson again. I see no signs of cracks, I’ve patched anywhere I could possibly think of, still the problem continues. Any ideas would be appreciated. Boat is in storage until spring. Just thinking ahead.

[thataway]

Fresh or salt water? Check all thru hulls (including transducers), any fasteners on the transom which might have caused a leak. Do you have a bait well? The normal anchor locker is in the center, but is it possible that someone had put a deck pipe or drain over a hull.

[Captain Starbucks]

I bet it's the bait well pickup. Mine blasts water into the bait well at speed but nothing static. Probably has a leaky line. It's on the port side sponson. If your boat is on a trailer, put some speed tape over the pickup.

[Molly Brown]

My first thought was a leaky water tank but 40 gallons is way more than your water tank holds. I also had issues with water in the forward port sponson, which in my boat has a bulkhead and can't be pumped out by the aft bilge. That issue was from the anchor locker not draining overboard but into the spoon. Once I glassed in the bottom of the anchor locker and repositioned the drain hole it cured the problem.

My only other thought would be a gap behind the rub rail. Either way 40 gallons is a LOT of water.

A start would be to figure out if you are getting water in the boat while at anchor/ dock, i.e. not moving, or only while underway.

I'll be interested in what you find out,
James

[Discovery]

I had a 2003 24" TomCat that leaked water through the baitwell drain hole. It was drilled oversize and would inject water at speed into the port sponson. The leak was between the laminations of the fiberglass and not visible from the top or bottom.

In fact the leak was so bad and impossible to find, that the factory (Reynolds C-Dory) took my boat back and gave me 100% of my purchase price back as a credit on a new 2006 255 TomCat. I got the 5th TomCat built in December 2005 and had it for 16 years.

The factory was eventually able to figure out where the leak was and fix it. I don't know where the boat ended up. I can feel your pain.

[Molly Brown]

Brent:

That makes perfect sense to me and can see that totally happening. But, in my 2003 the baitwell is totally sealed from the spoons. No way for water to drain into the spoons. Drain at the bottom of the baitwell drains out under the boat between the spoons. I installed a 13 gallon bait tank that drains through the closest deck scupper and use the factory baitwell for storage. Only getting water in the port spoon should help Red narrow things down.

Red, my other thought is the raw water intake, which on my boat is in the starboard spoon. From the factory it was just plastered with 5200 and the backing nut. Years later I replaced the seacock attached to it and took the time to remove the intake and put in a proper backing plate. All the for naught in the end because when I removed my marine head I took out the black water tank and replaced it with a second fresh water tank. Since then we rarely run out of water even using it as a washdown so the seacock remains closed. If I ever do any hull work I've been thinking I'll just remove it completely.

James

[Red]

Thanx for the reply’s guys, my apologies for the slow response. I thought I would get notice in my email and didn’t think anyone read my post. Any way the water in the port sponson has to be salt water as my fresh water tank is in the starboard sponson. Anchor well, I don’t seem to get any water to speak of as I took the Lewmar off and mounted a Lone Star drum winch above deck. All I see is drain holes coming out of the exterior of the hull. The fish well is in the center aft and drains out under the boat. I haven’t seen any water coming into it. I’ve resealed everything I could find especially on the stern. My raw water intake is on the starboard side also. I have to thoughts, #1 - could it be flooding in the port battery compartment while under way ( I didn’t think to check that this past summer). #2 - could there be a crack in the bottom of the port sponson that only opens up when under stress of motoring? I appreciate all the advice and I’ll try to stay on top of this thread more diligently.

[Molly Brown]

My only other thought is those drain holes you speak of are all potential ingress of water. The most obvious to me would be the drain hole of the bilge. It's the one that is closest to the stern and most likely to be under water while cruising depending on trim, load and or sea state. Check the bilge hose and make sure it is run higher than the drain before attaching to the drain. When I replaced my bilges and drain hoses I ran the hose all the way to the top underside of the gunnel then forward towards the bow before curving down and back to the drain. While running I routinely have water running past the bilge drain. It's amazing how much water can get in one wave at time. If you look closely at your drain fitting there should be 2 small nubs where a flap is supposed to be. There were no flaps on either of mine which is why I ran the bilge hose up before going down to the bilge.

James

[Red]

Thanx for the advice Molly. I’ll keep this in mind and check it this spring after the snow melts. I’m still wondering if anyone has ever heard of the possibility to having a crack in the in the fiberglass at the bottom edge of the sponson which doesn’t leak while setting but could open up when under stress of running?

[thataway]

[Captain Starbucks]

[Red]

This is good information Thataway, sounds like the fiberglass is probably not the culprit. And Capt Starbucks, I understand what you’re saying about the operation of the bait tank, the only problem is that I don’t know of a bait tank on my 2000 tomcat. The only tank I have is the fish holding tank in the center on the stern. I’m perplexed, I’m thinking the port bilge exhaust is my only hope to find the culprit. Thanx for all the info, unfortunately I can’t check it out until about May.

[Schuster]

Have you checked your salt water washdown system? I would check from the through hull ball valve to the outlet and make sure that there isn't any disconnect along the way. Just a thought.

[Red]

Good thought Schuster, I’ll check that again in the spring but my wash down system comes through the starboard side of my boat.