Water Under Aft Cockpit in 07 Venture

Yeh I have read through the post and am in the process of getting a game plan in place. I think I have a good plan now. I really appreciate all the help. I think I will start with the inspection plates just to get an idea of what I am facing..... Thanks mucho Doug...

PS any good ideas for ways to dry out the hull once the inspection plates are in place?

Tim & Dave Kinghorn":2zfq0i6x said:
Hi Doug,

If you the time, read all 11 pages on this thread--especially see Ross on p. 4 & 5 of Pacific Wanderer, Oldgrowth on p.5 of c-voyager, and Casey on p. 10.

You could take out one of the lag bolts holding down the gas tanks amidships (by the sump) and check for water under the cockpit deck by sticking a rolled up paper towel down the hole.

At a minimum, a 4" inspection port in the forward berth area, under the porta-potty and one aft between the tanks would allow you to determine whether you have water under either the cockpit deck or the cabin sole. In cutting the aft inspection port, be aware that some c.c. have a spar down the center between the tanks.

If you have water coming up in the cockpit, you most likely have water under the deck and probably under the cabin sole. The inspection ports will allow you to remove any water, dry out the area, and keep a check on any future water intrusions.

A number of us have gone through this drill (see Ross), and it has solved most of the water intrusion problems that have bedeviled us.

Happy boating!

Tim & Dave
Click to expand...
 
Hi Doug,

On our boat, we have inspection ports fore and aft in the cabin and in the cockpit. This allows us to put a small fan over one port and blow drying air out the other.

If you only have a single port for each under deck area, then you could put a hose on the exhaust of a shop vac, stick it through the inspection port to the far side and let it blow back out the port.

Or you could go to the desert and let it cook with the covers off the ports!

Let us know how it goes.

Tim & Dave
 
Doug,

Welcome to the Water Mystery Club, eh?

If you haven't used your watertank this season, and presuming it's empty that may thrown a slight twist into the equation. On the otherhand, I'm pretty sure the watertank fitting (where it enters the tank, not the deck fitting) was my problem, and the below deck leakage developed over some years. The water may have been down there for quite a while. Once the water is below the deck (from whatever source) it is virtually trapped, and doesn't seem to evaporate without cutting in the inspection ports. If nothing else, the 6" holes will tell you if there is water or not below the deck.

Another aspect of this problem is that many of the vessels seems to have been built differently. Some had a water-tight bulkhead between the cabin and the cockpit; some didn't. For example - my boat was essentially open from beneath the porta-pot area back to the aft end of the cockpit. In a way that actually made draining and drying because I was just dealing with one larger area.

I also found that letting the boat sit here in the Arizona sun for a few days, with the new inspection ports open, really helped to get it dried-out!

Good Luck!
Best,
Casey
 
Sorry to revive this dead thread, but having just recently purchased a CC26, as I was going through this thread, I went out and did some checking and sure enough, it too has this issue.

I was told it was one of the last CC26s built and the details of this thread hold that to be true since it has the water tank up in the bow under the vberth. It also has inspection plates near the fuel tanks where there is definitely a stringer running down the middle of it and it has an inspection plate up near the vberth. It was very hard to tell if there was water in the inspection port back by the fuel tanks, but there was definitely water in the cabin. Clearly this is going to take a lengthy investigation and testing on my part.

A few questions though... have all of your repairs/fixes held after all of these years? From reading all of the pages of this thread, for some of you, you felt it was the anchor locker, one of you did repairs on the water tank, etc.

Have you folks been running dry after all these years after doing the repairs?

It also seems like different coring was used for these boats with some of you definitely having balsa and some is definitely foam. Is there any rhyme or reason for this?

What a pain in the ass...
 
Katmai is still "dry." There is a hint of moisture on the current trip, but I think that is only below-deck moisture that has accumulated during the past month whilst we've been on the water.

Best,
Casey&Mary
 
Thanks for the update Casey! The previous owner supposedly did a die test, but I'm planning on pulling the tank and testing anyway. I'll also definitely do the locker drain since that should be a relatively easy fix.

What is interesting is that from what I can tell, I am hull number 16 for the 26' Venture. My HIN is GXK26016L607. Yet, Blue Eage is number 31: GXK26031A708. That being said, it definitely has the cockpit stringer and the bow mounted water tank. I wonder when in 07 they made that change-over. What I also find weird is that my hull #16 was built in December if I am reading the HIN correctly and Blue Eagle was built a month later in January? How in the hell did they produce that many hulls so quickly and maintain any semblance of quality? I would have assumed even cure time in the mold would be at least a few days per hull...
 
Haakebecks

Our 23' Venture has stayed dry, but we only fill the water tank 1/2 full.

When we bought our Venture, there was a 26" Venture the shop was finishing to sell under the court agreement. It might be the reason for the discrepancy.

Tim & Dave kinghorn
 
One item I failed to mention....
When I did the watertank filler repair, it seemed to work (not
leak water), but even with that - now I fill the tank THEN drain-off
four gallons, which lowers the water level below the inlet point.
(The pump makes 2gal/minute so I simply drain it for two minutes.)

Best,
C&M
 
haakebecks":2c92wx90 said:
Thanks for the update Casey! The previous owner supposedly did a die test, but I'm planning on pulling the tank and testing anyway. I'll also definitely do the locker drain since that should be a relatively easy fix.

What is interesting is that from what I can tell, I am hull number 16 for the 26' Venture. My HIN is GXK26016L607. Yet, Blue Eage is number 31: GXK26031A708. ...What I also find weird is that my hull #16 was built in December if I am reading the HIN correctly and Blue Eagle was built a month later in January? How in the hell did they produce that many hulls so quickly and maintain any semblance of quality?
Click to expand...

I don't know anything specific to the Venture, but the way I understand HINs, the letter/number combo that is fourth and third from the end is when the hull construction was started. So, for example, yours was begun in December of 06 and Blue Eagle was begun in January of 07. Then the last two are the model year. So yours is a 2007 model boat and Blue Eagle is a 2008 model boat. What this doesn't tell you is when they were completed or how long they took to build. And I don't know that they are always done linearly (i.e. ones started first are finished first); it may also have to do with who orders what and when (colors, models, etc.).

The two boats you mention happen to span years (as does mine, which was begun in late 2001 but is a 2002 model), but there are also many times the year of beginning construction is the same as the model year. I think it might be slightly unusual that a boat was begun in January of one year and ended up as the next year model (such as Blue Eagle), but I suppose it's more likely in a boat of which few are made, such as the Venture 26 (and perhaps too there was some company changeover around that time?).
 
haakebecks":3j82u1uz said:
Thanks for the update Casey! The previous owner supposedly did a die test, but I'm planning on pulling the tank and testing anyway. I'll also definitely do the locker drain since that should be a relatively easy fix.

What is interesting is that from what I can tell, I am hull number 16 for the 26' Venture. My HIN is GXK26016L607. Yet, Blue Eage is number 31: GXK26031A708. ...What I also find weird is that my hull #16 was built in December if I am reading the HIN correctly and Blue Eagle was built a month later in January? How in the hell did they produce that many hulls so quickly and maintain any semblance of quality?
Click to expand...

I don't know anything specific to the Venture, but the way I understand HINs, the letter/number combo that is fourth and third from the end is the month and year when the hull construction was started. So, for example, yours was begun in December of 06 and Blue Eagle was begun in January of 07. Then the last two digits are the "final" model year of the boat. So yours is a 2007 model boat and Blue Eagle is a 2008 model boat. What this doesn't tell you is when they were completed or how long they took to build. And I don't know that they are always done linearly (i.e. ones started first are finished first); it may also have to do with who orders what and when (colors, models, etc.).

The two boats you mention happen to span years (as does mine, which was begun in late 2001 but is a 2002 model), but there are also many times the year of beginning construction is the same as the model year. I think it might be slightly unusual that a boat was begun in January of one year and ended up as the next year model (such as Blue Eagle), but I suppose it's more likely in a boat of which few are made, such as the Venture 26 (and perhaps too there was some company changeover around that time?).
 
Interesting discussion about 26 Venture HIN numbers. My Venture is hull number one. The HIN is CDO26001A808. My understanding is that the prior boats were Cape Cruisers. Of course, my understanding could be wrong, but the HIN seems to support what I was told when I bought the boat. Perhaps the Cape Cruiser hulls that were finished by C-Dory after the lawsuit are referred to as Ventures.
 
haakebecks - What did you find on your CC 26? We took our boat out for the first time and noticed water in the cabin inspection port. Our boat is a 2007 Cape Cruiser. Curious if you found it was the water tank as well or something else?
 
WOW! A lot of good and interesting information. Also, a lot of creative and talented people own C-Dories. This forum is a gold mine. My HIN is GXK26099L707. The first year I owned the boat I had a water problem with a substantial amount of water sloshing around under the cabin floor. It could be seen in the aft port storage area and under the Wallace stove. What interested me was that there didn't seem to be a path for the water to get back to the bilge pump location. I assumed the path had been blocked by construction debris. I bailed what I thought was most of the water by positioning the boat on the trailer so the water would collect in that port side closet. Then one time I was pulling a crab pot when the bilge pump came on and a large amount of very dirty water came out. I haven't noticed a big problem for the past 3 years but it sounds like the inspection ports would be a good thing. Very recently a surveyor checked the floors and found them dry except near the aft cabin bulkhead and near the fuel tanks. By the way, the original source of water was faulty plumbing.

Well, I'm rambling on but once again thank you,

Neil
 
Most boat builders will make a boat in July or August and call it the next years model Brunswick (searay ,bayliner etc) have been doing that for years the model usually changes in the middle of summer Like cars used to change model years in sept.
Cape cruiser and c-dory might have kept it the real model year when it was built ?

As far as water getting into our Cape cruiser/venture 23 boats I found when I put in the vee berth forward hatch that I had water condensation on the roof of the underside of the vee berth now I just open the big hatch and water condensation seems to have gone away . We keep our boat in the sw florida waters 12 months a yr pulling out once a year for maintenance

BTW cape cruiser 23 "s were called ventures before c-dory called them that and the 26 cape cruiser was called the marinaut (spelling?) In my album there is a original brochure from cape cruiser
 
Seeing this thread revived reminds me I should follow up on my experiences with the inspection ports. As I noted a couple of years ago, I installed three ports and found a little water only under the cabin sole - none under the cockpit sole. The area under the cabin sole is not sealed and water can get there from virtually any source inside the cabin.

Three years ago during an extended, and very wet, cruise up the Inside Passage, we had enough water under the cabinets that I became a little concerned. Daily sponging was required. Without an inspection port in the cabin sole, I could not get at any water already accumulated under the sole, and it would slosh out as the boat moved and changed attitude.

I was skeptical that that much water was the result of just condensation, but it was. Testing eliminated the chain locker and the water tank as sources. A really tiny amount may have dribbled in around the stove exhaust port (since resealed), but just plain old condensation was the culprit.

So, Long Story Short: All I do now in wet weather is remove the inspection port cover in the cabin when I'm not using the boat, and set a small fan over the opening. It's been bone dry under there ever since. (And when we head north this year, our new Wallas 1300 Heater should reduce the condensation, too! :D )
 
Does anyone know how the bilge pump is attached on a Venture 26 (actually, it is a 2007 Cape Cruiser Marinaut). We are getting some water under our aft cockpit and this seems like a possible source. We have inspection ports both in the cabin and the cockpit. Cabin is dry, but we seem to be getting water under the cockpit....most notable after a wash down...but, we noticed some dampness before we started the wash down and the only water source was in the bilge.

Any hints on accessing to check this out is much appreciated.
 
I'm glad this thread was revived. It's timely, too, as I'm about to take a look at a 26 Venture. If there were no inspection ports added, is there any way to visually detect these leak possibilities? What clues might there be? Like, Half Share, I also wonder how to access the bilge pumps.

Thanks.

Tim
 
Tim,

I am new at all of this so would not be a good source of advice. If you can I would recommend you see if one of the experienced cbrats would go along to check it out. They have been a very helpful and great resource for me.

If you remove the bilge pump top you can see how it is attached, if screwed down you probably have some water getting in.

Mitch
 
We have a 2007 Cape Cruiser 23 which is probably constructed in a way similar to the 26 you're looking at. We have inspection ports in the cabin floor forward and aft by the door and have seen small amounts of water. This is normal and the result of condensation (a normal person exhales 12-16 oz of water a day!).

We do not have an inspection port to see under the cockpit sole and without one there is no way to see whats underneath. However our boat, and likely the boat you're looking at, has flotation foam under the cockpit sole so it's unlikely there's much accumulation of water in that area.

Personally, I wouldn't let this be an issue if all other aspects of the boat are satisfactory. Once you own it you could always install an inspection port aft between the fuel tanks as some others have done.
 
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