Water keeps seeping into cabin

G

gstraub

Member
We have a 1998 22' cruiser with the little step that houses a bilge pump at the door where you enter the cabin. There are three grates that allow water from the cockpit to get in there so the bilge pump can pump it out. However, we keep getting water seeping under the forward wall of that little step compartment into the cabin, and if we have lots of rain, there is quite a bit of water in the cabin.

OK, I thought well, the forward wall must not be sealed well, so I put a layer of fiberglass on all sides and onto the bottom of the little compartment and said that should fix it. Wrong. So, I hit the whole compartment with FlexSeal...still seeps water. I thought, OK, the pump must not be coming on fast enough during a hard rain, so maybe the water is building up enough to go through the holes where the hoses go through...so sealed them...nope.

Today I ran a hose in the cockpit and water seeped in. I put a towel on the outside of the little grates to keep cockpit water from getting in to the bilge pump box and just put some water in the box...and sure enough, the water starts seeping under the inside wall of that box and into the cockpit.

I am about to lose my mind chasing this down. Any ideas?

Thanks!
 
I'm fighting the same issue. There are a number of other helpful threads if you search for them, but I'm a little stumped at the moment. Mine wasn't coming from the bilge well, it was coming from the cockpit--the seal where the back cabin bulkhead meets the deck had some age-related hairline cracks. I picked up the removable deckplates, sealed along the deck and bulkhead with 5200, and patted myself on the back... until the next time it rained and the cabin flooded again.

Next step for me is food coloring in water to see if I can identify the precise spot where it is leaking through. The other threads you can read on this site will talk you through other means of diagnosing it and other possible points of ingress. Let me know if you figure it out and I'll do the same.
 
I used to get water from the cockpit through there also. Somebody had drilled holes in the dam inside the cabin. I decided I didn't want any nasty water from the cockpit getting inside the cabin, so I dammed it off and glassed the hell out of the whole thing. Was a bit of work, but I was doing a lot of other work on the boat at the time. Now, I have a pump under the step, and two in the cockpit. The little sump under the step is just to pump water out from wet people coming in, spilled liquids, or emergencies. I put two pumps in the rear bilge of the cockpit. I like this modification. The only downside is that you cant get all the water out of the cockpit unless you accelerate, because the dory lays forward at rest.

20210418_221512.jpg
 
There are two issues here. One is water from under the place between the bunks were the porti Potty sits. Water there is often. from the brass strip on the bow. Many were drilled all thru the glass and poorly bedded.

The cure here is to pull the brass strip by removing all of the screws. Look to see which ones go thru the hull. Fill all of these holes with thickened epoxy. Re=fair the groove that the brass strips set into. When you drill pilot holes for the screws, be sure that none pierce into the hull inside. Put the brass strip back in place with 52000.

There were also some that water comes from a poorly sealed anchor locker, I have had boats where there was no exit from the lower anchor locker, where the hole was too high or too low.

The "cure there is to complete seal off the bottom of the anchor locker. Mold the bottom so that it allows all of the water which gets into the lower anchor locker out thru the hole in the hull. Be certain all of the bottom of the anchor locker is completely glassed off.

One of the other place of leakage is from the rub rail pop Rivets. Some have had to replace the pop rivets with machine screws washers and nuts.

In the back, I am not following the grates? Please a photo of these. What type of floor in the cockpit: just the inner hull, nothing on top of it. The two section removable flush floor--tapers from about 1 1/4" ib on the centerline forward, and to an edge outer and in the back.

Then there is the level floor which is laminated in when the boat is built. That is the most difficult to fix. The first two, look for bad tabbing of the bottom of the aft bulkhead to the bottom of the hull. The water will pool in the cabin, since that is the lowest part of the boat when floating. With the boat on a trailer, the wheel jack can be raised, or eve cribbing under the wheel to get all water to drain aft.

Both sides of this bulkhead must be solidly glassed to the inner hull. I have no experiencee with the built in factory floor. That is the most difficult to repair.
 
Yeah, that's the pic of how mine is set up. The water is not coming from forward or from rub rails or the water tank. It is definitey coming from the cockpit or that collection box, as I filled it with a hose and water started seeping in to the cabin under the back wall of that box...which should be impossible at this point since I have fiberglassed it. I think my next option is to pull everything out of there and just redo that whole box.
 
gstraub":2sxja14l said:
Yeah, that's the pic of how mine is set up. The water is not coming from forward or from rub rails or the water tank. It is definitey coming from the cockpit or that collection box, as I filled it with a hose and water started seeping in to the cabin under the back wall of that box...which should be impossible at this point since I have fiberglassed it. I think my next option is to pull everything out of there and just redo that whole box.
Click to expand...

I agree. I would make the new box so that at least inside the box is fiberglass, and glassed into the hull bottom. I would use epoxy resin and saturate the wood.
Bed the box into cabosil on its bottom, then tab in on both sides of the walls 0f the box.
 
Well, I may have found it. I found a crack in a piece of fiberglass tabbing on the bottom of the box. I have suspected that the water was finding its way under the box somehow and this fits that theory. I temporarily sealed it up and if that stops the water intrusion, then I'll do a proper repair.

Thanks for all the ideas and think this issue is unique to our boat so probably won't help others even if this is the fix.
 
This defect is far more common that you might think. Some want to repair it before they sell a boat, or when they buy a boat, and do not come to light on this site. I get frequent off forum questions, which I keep confidential,
 
Found my leak, too. A hairline crack where the cabin and deck meet that I must have missed when I resealed it. We had torrential rain yesterday that washed out roads and flooded basements and I had no issues.

Makes sense to me that, over more than a decade of pounding under normal use, such things happen. A minor annoyance, not a structural concern. Honestly, of all the boats I've owned, this has been the most solid and reliable. It's got some quirks, but don't we all?
 
I am also experiencing water in the cabin that comes thru the bulkhead under the step. I was going to attack it by removing the
cockpit hatch/gas tank and glass the bulkhead between the cabin and cockpit floor thus keeping the water in the cockpit area and out of the cabin (lots of work). After reading the comments, I might start with just glassing the area on the cabin side of bulkhead under the step.

Any comments or questions would be appreciated.

Bud
 
After reading the comments, I might start with just glassing the area on the cabin side of bulkhead under the step.
Click to expand...

How are you going to glass the area under the head floor?

How will you prevent water from wicking up the core of the aft cabin bulkhead? (Balsa Cored)?
 
Thanks for the reply, Bob.

As far as I can see under the shower floor the bulkhead wall
is pealing up from the floor. With just a small amount of water
added to the rear area aft of the aft bulkhead where the main
bilge pump is located only a small amount of water enters
the cabin area close to the shower drain. By cutting/pealing
up the loose fiberglass as far as I can reach under the shower
and re-glassing/caulking the joint between the floor and bulkhead this may stop the water.

I could also seal the step box thus keeping the water under the step and out of the cabin.
This would be an easy solution if I knew the bottom of the bulkhead wall was sealed thus protecting the balsa wood core.
To your point, I just do not know how that bulkhead was constructed.

I may just have to just bite the bullet and attack it from the cockpit side.
 
The aft cabin bulkhead is balsa cored. It is not sealed at the bottom, and rot can occur. If you are going to do major work, you might as well do it properly. The tank is 16 years old. It may. still be in great shape, or it may be time to replace. A lot depends on if salt water was standing under it, if there was any carbon in the strap or spacers under the tank. Also we have seen situations where the tank had slow leaks, and the ethanol in the fuel, disintegrated the fiberglass under the tank, causing core failure. The initial placement of the tank allowed water to collect under it--as well as each side, with the grid placement around the tank.

If there is no cabin leakage, and the tank is free of major corrosion, then nothing needs to be done.

To re-do glassing, one should remove all of the old failed tabbing, then grind the area clean to good glass fiber, lay down alternate layers of mat and cloth/1708 strips concentrically narrow to reglass the bulkhead to the hull.
 
Well, that settles it. I have my work cut out for me for a while.
As you say, "If you are going to do major work, you might as well do it properly."

The boat is in the water now while the trailer gets new Hydraulic Brake Actuator and disk brakes. Just as soon as I get it back
I will pull the boat out and get started on the leak.

Thanks for the good advice, Bob.
 
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