Novice Leak Question

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Novice Leak Question

Postby Panicfan1 » Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:47 pm

I rescued this O'Day 17' sailer a couple weeks ago. I did some fiberglass repair to a couple cracks in the hull. After about a 2 hour sail I returned the boat to the trailer and pull out the plug in the attached picture. (there was no plug in there initially but I assumed one was needed) Water came out like from a hose for about 15 minutes. Just glad it didn't sink! I could not identify any leaks coming from the hull. I'm wondering what the solution is? I've read that leaks are coming up in the centerboard area where it's difficult to repair. Just looking for solutions. Is a bilge pump necessary? Many thanks. Johnny.

screen_shot_2017_08__jdc2S.jpg
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Re: Novice Leak Question

Postby GreenLake » Fri Aug 11, 2017 6:44 pm

If you sailed vigorously, even a small leak near the top of the CB trunk (for example a not-well-sealed through hole for the up/down hauls) can cause substantial amounts of water to enter the bilge. (There's overpressure inside the trunk when you sail fast, so water would squirt, not seep, out of any openings or cracks.).

If next time, you could just let the boat float for a while (with ballast to mimic crew weight) then you could exclude any hidden sources of leaks as the culprit, - including, but not limited to possible failure of the drain plug itself or cracks near the waterline.

A final source of water might be the hull-deck joint. That one could be suspect if you ended up heeling the boat or had chop. However, I've been in a boat with an actual gap near the stern that did not ship significant water over a full week of mostly all-day sailing.

My guess is on the upper CB area, esp. since you claim your boat free of cracks.
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Re: Novice Leak Question

Postby TIM WEBB » Fri Aug 11, 2017 10:35 pm

Welcome to the forums, and congrats on the "boat rescue"! GL is spot on, as the culprit is almost certainly the CB uphaul, specifically the area where it passes through from the CB trunk to the cuddy. It's the Achilles heel of the DS2, and there are TONS of posts on here about what causes it and how to fix it. First go here to learn how to more effectively search the forums:

viewtopic.php?f=41&t=3439

It's a fairly straightforward fix, but in some cases does require CB removal (I was able to do TRW's w/o CB removal).

Lastly, you sir (I'm assuming Johnny is a male's name, but it's not unheard of as a female's name?) are one of the few owners of the much-coveted "other part" of the motor mount that some DS2's were built with (although TRW's mount was on the port side). I looked for one for years to no avail, and finally cobbled together a homemade mount (pix in my gallery).
Tim Webb
1979 DS2 10099 The Red Witch
(I used to be Her "staff", in the way dogs have owners and cats have staff, but alas no longer ... <pout>)
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Re: Novice Leak Question

Postby geofisherman » Tue Aug 15, 2017 7:59 pm

I had a large amount of water enter the bilge from a cracked venturi bailer two years ago. I pinpointed the source of this leak by running water into the bilge while the boat was on its trailer. You may not want to find a centerboard uphaul leak this way, though. It would take a lot of water adding up to a lot of weight to fill the bilge to the level of the uphaul hole.
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Re: Novice Leak Question

Postby TIM WEBB » Tue Aug 15, 2017 11:53 pm

geofisherman wrote:I had a large amount of water enter the bilge from a cracked venturi bailer two years ago. I pinpointed the source of this leak by running water into the bilge while the boat was on its trailer. You may not want to find a centerboard uphaul leak this way, though. It would take a lot of water adding up to a lot of weight to fill the bilge to the level of the uphaul hole.

Question: did the same amount of water enter the bailer leak over time regardless of whether the boat was standing still, moving, or *really* moving? The reason I ask is that the dead giveaway of a CB UH leak, as GL points out above, is that with the CB UH leak issue, the faster you sail the boat with the CB down, the more/faster water will get in the bilge. And, I'm not even sure the "bilge full of water on the trailer test" would even reveal a CB UH leak, since the passage from inside the trunk through to the cuddy floor is well above the cockpit sole and water line, and the nature of the problem is that water literally gets "pumped" into the void by the CB when sailing fast w/ the CB down ... ?
Tim Webb
1979 DS2 10099 The Red Witch
(I used to be Her "staff", in the way dogs have owners and cats have staff, but alas no longer ... <pout>)
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