Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

I have just taken my boat on a shake down cruise today and it ran great with the new MPI. Only thing is that it was not in the water for more than a hour and it had about a 1/2 gallon to a gallon of water in the bilge when i pulled it out. I had the bottom sand blasted and sealed so i know that is perfect and i know there are no holes in the hull. Where would this water be coming from? Is there something notorious with these potter hulls that i am not aware of. If someone can please help me out with any suggestions, it would be appreciated.

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

The (4) louvered side air vents drain into the bilge.

If it was rough, water could have gone in there - you could have them facing the wrong way. The forward vents are louvered forward and the aft ones are facing back.

Don't know much about your boat so it's tough to tell.

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

i know i have a leaky floor drain on my 20 sf. actually both... i found out one and fixed that... now the other one is leaking so i got some new brass tube and am going to change it out. i had a contstant flow coming in.

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

If you suspect them, it's totally worth changing the scups the right way now. Do a search and you sill see all of the changes and repairs people have done to them. Last year, I took mine out, widened the holes in the wood blocks while preserving the glass, filled with thickened epoxy, then redrilled and put new tubes in. Total pain in the ass, but worth it.
Check your other possible points of water entry-all thru hulls especially. I had a small crack in the tube for my forward fish box-problem with that one is that it will let water enter between the hull and liner without you ever knowing it. If you did get it blasted, it's definitely time to check the integrity of any old brass running through your hull.
I am running an i/o-I know very few guys that have completely dry bilges. I'm sure they are out there-I just don't know too many of them.
There are times that my hull seems to hold some water down in the v until I get it on a pretty good slope with the trailer jack-any possibility that this was it? WOuldn't that be nice.
Welcome to the mysteries of old seacraft ownership. :D

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

oldfielder,
how did u widen the hole in the wood? did u just drill all the way thru the floor and the block and the bottom of the hull with a bigger drill bit? i need to do something like that so was lookin for an idea.. thanks

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

It got pretty involved, but first I got the tubes out and let the wood dry out. You're not going anywhere until you do that. There are ways to encourage it with heat. I had some decent rot, but not too bad. To preserve the integrity of the glass, I took some old router bits in my drill and got them up into the hole and then worked on the wood with a sideways motion. The rotten wood in the middle I was able to carefully work out with varying drill bits.
Once dry, I sealed with CPES, then filled the voids with thickened epoxy and drilled very carefully for the new tubes, which are now in a nice epoxy plug. If I had it to do over, I would insert some kind of guide into the drying epoxy. I know for a few others, as well as myself, the drilling was a bit tricky because of the angle. One went well one not so well :(
If the integrity is still there in your wood blocks, all of this is more than youneed to do.
Ironically, after all the work, now I am thinking of running them out the back :D

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

that happened in my seafox 17' water leaking through scuppurs, some caulking does the trick! :cool:

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

There could be a few different reasons you got water in the bilge.

1. Because SeaCrafts are variable dead rise hulls you could have had water in the bilge that ran up front and know really knew it. “If” you looked into the bilge before you got on the road and splashed the boat.
2. Water could be seeping in from the front drain are “If” your boat has one. Would be on the bow starboard side of the boat.
3. Water could be coming in from any of your through hull fittings usually the ones which are underwater.
4. Plus as been stated Could be coming in from the Scuppers. When I re did my boat those scuppers run through a small block of wood under the deck and above the bottom of the hull. Mine were rotten and I replaced them and then re did my scuppers through the bottom of the hull again. But now since I get bored every once in a while I decided to re do my scuppers through the transom with In Line scuppers. Bought the stuff but haven’t install yet.


FellowShip

_______________________________________________

My motto: Just for the Grins :D

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

Make sure that you have limber holes in you stringers aft. My 89 23cc had none. I'd start with a dry bilge and end up with a few gallons of water by the end of the day. Water gets trapped outside of the stringers and goes foward around them when you use the boat. When I drilled my stringers to epoxy pvc pipe in, at least 10gal of water came pouring out. Not good for the stern. I actually could see water seeping through the stringers.

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

And having just torn into the back end of my Tsunami....
the wood block the scuppers go through was encapsulated but had water in it. There was also a few spots where the stringers weren't totally sealed to the transom front, so water could seep in. My foam was dry, but there was water in the bottom of the stringer. Anything you can do to keep the water out and help it dry would be a plus....I really like the idea of putting the PVC in with epoxy.

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

Where abouts do you put these holes in the stringers aft, right below the manifolds?

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

It's best to get them as far aft as you can, as that's always going to drain any trapped water that moves to the back of the boat.

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

Blue 197320, my 72 Seafari has same disease and I'm in process of replacing scupper tubes. Try Dremel wheel #542, Carbide cutting/shaping wheel. It's about 1.0" dia, so is small enough to fit thru f/g hole. If you use the dremel flex cable extension, should be able to carve out most of the rotted wood. My starboard side was ok, no rot but had 1-2" of rotted wood on port side; got most of it out just by just prying w/screwdriver. Have soaked w/alcohol and will seal w/git rot after it dries out. Have figured out a scheme to fill hole w/thickened epoxy & have pilot hole for redrilling: get a 1/2" pvc threaded union and use belt sander to taper one end down to ~1" diameter so it'll fit into hole from bottom. Screw a 1/2" hard grey plastic pvc riser into tapered union and put into hole from bottom. Will use 2x4 & bottle jack to hold it in. Riser wants to be about 2" long, so end is about 1" below top of hole, to provide access for epoxy. Can use a 1/2" dowel rod into top of riser to center it. I plan to put epoxy mix in an empty caulk tube from BOW and pump it in with caulk gun. Will leave dowel rod in place till epoxy cures, then cut & redrill hole with conventional solid 1" drill bit. I figure the soft core of wood/pvc will help it pilot ok. Haven't actually done this yet, but have thought it over for couple of days and believe it'll work. Will probably try it in next couple of weeks. Good luck!

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

bushwacker,
thanks for the idea. it sounds like it might just work like u are saying. u will probably get to that stage before i do so please let me know how that works out for u. thanks in advance

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers
 

I had the same thing happen to me this weekend. I was out on the water about 3 hours and got some water in the bilge. Turned on the bilge pump and pumped it out.

It was rough and we took on some water on top and it's possible some of the water got in that way, however, when I removed the cushions on the right hand side looking at the back of the boat, I saw a little drip coming out of the stringer which has a hole about half inch in diameter in it.
This was before we got into the 4-6 foot rollers, then we turned back to safer waters.

I've checked the transom and it looks ok, I can't see any places where it might leak. Where else should I look? What's a scupper? I assume its the drain for the water to exit the cockpit and out the back, right?

I'm a novice on these older boats so if you have any help or advice, it will be appreciated.

HankB

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers
 

Check your live well with a mirror.
On my 20 SF there were over flows at the top of the live well which I never saw doing the re-do. They drained into the inner hull. Needless to say I rerouted them to go overboard. Also look at the transom for any screws that may not be sealed. IE: Transducers, Trim tabs, ladders, etc.
Hope this helps, Ken

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers
 

i had a similar problem with my livewell on my 20 sf also. i dont know how everyone elses is set up but mine has 1 pump inside and 1 pump outside and where the power wires went into the livewell were not sealed so water would drain out of that hole right into the bilge.

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

FELLOW-SHIP,
Have you installed your new transom drains?
Sounds like a great idea.

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

Ha Knotworking

Ya I finished the job last weekend.

This is the scupper.
http://www.jmsonline.net/ppp/images/55893.jpg
What I did since you don’t have very much room to work with approx 9” or so.
I bought two 1 ¼” through hull brass fittings plus two hose reducers from 1 ½” to 1 ¼” and these two inline scuppers which are 1 ½’.
First I filled in the through hull tubes and then added fillers to make the hull flat and also those little 3x3” recessed arrears of the deck on port and starboard filled those in as well. Then I bore a hole on port and starboard to drain the deck in that area. Then drilled the holes through the transom and mounted the brass fittings then hose.
I cut the one end of the scupper off that water comes in through and then I mounted the remainder of the scupper inside the boat so all you see is approx ½" of the scupper where those 4 screws are I removed the two top screws and trilled through the inner liner and replaced the two top screws with two longer screws that hold the scupper flat against the inner liner. Then some 5200 and I was done. Took some time to do but looks pretty good and I can get to the scupper to remove junk from the scupper like leaves and such like stuff that can clog up and keep the scupper open.

FellowShip

_______________________________________________

My motto: Just for the Grins

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

Epoxy fill of scupper holes using PVC core/pilot hole worked out well - mismatch between original hole & drilled hole at bottom was about 1/32", easily filled with 5200. Would have probably been better if I had used a flat wood drill bit with pilot feature instead of conventional bit which tended to walk.

Epoxy Fill: You will probably discover that the wood block is no longer sealed to the hull, so if you try filling it with plain epoxy as I did, it just runs out at the bottom. Next try with epoxy thickened to about apple sauce consistency worked well. I used MAS slow cure hardener & chilled it & resin in fridge first; otherwise it wants to kick off pretty fast once you pour it in caulk tube! Ended up using 3 caulk tubes, but wasted one due to sealing problem mentioned above. Will try to post some photos.

Brass Tube Installation: (Ordered 1" ID x 6" long brass tubes from Boat Owners Warehouse, about $6 ea., got them overnight) The hole came out about 1/16" oversize due to drill walk, so filled it with 5200 as I slid tube in from top. Installed drain plug in top of tube first for leverage. Need to flare bottom of tube right away to keep 5200 from running out bottom because it's pretty slow to cure. Used a threaded rod, with nuts, washers and a 1/2" drive socket to get the flare started.

Results: After letting the 5200 cure for about 5 days, took the boat out for about 6 hrs, 4 of which was at anchor, bilge pump OFF for entire time. Pulled boat out, pulled bilge plug - it was dry, didn't leak a drop! :) Tried posting photos; Need to edit photos to reduce size.
http://s188.photobucket.com/albums/z...scupper%20fix/

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

Fellowship....I'd love to see a photo of your setup...

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

Bushwhacker -

I like your process, and as my scupper tubes need to be changed out as well, will probably follow your lead -

Question - I went to the BOW website, but couldn't find those brass tubes - where do they have them hidden ? And, are they pre-flared at one end ?

thanks

Bill

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

Bill - The tubes are flared on one end. Don't know what the P/N was. I just called the store in Riveria Beach and ordered them; they had 'em by 0900 the next morning! Their number is 561-845-7777. Home office is in Ft. Lauderdale, 800-262-8799, email: orders@bowboat.com
Denny

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

Denny - Muchas Gracias

If I had a wish, it would be for you to get some of those pix you showed me at Anclote, scanned, and see them here -

Folks, here is a gent, who has taken a 20' Seafari, across to Bimini, multiple times..... How many gas cans did you have in that boat, Denny ? Whew !!!!!

Bill

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

Not Bimini (that's only ~50 miles, just across Gulf Stream); was to the Abaco's on east side of the Bahamas (Green Turtle & Man'O War Cay), more like 150-160 mi. (nautical!) I carried enough fuel to run all the way, about 80 gal.; 34 of it was even in the main tank! Had 6 great trips about 30 years ago. . too bad trips like that are no longer practical in a small boat, what with expensive cruising permits, $6/gal gas and miniscule fish limits!

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

Here's a link to some photos of the PVC plug I used to create a pilot hole for redrilling hole after epoxy fill. http://s188.photobucket.com/albums/z...scupper%20fix/
Details of process were contained in my earlier post on this subject.

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

the pics do not work for me :(

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

Didn't work for me either. Will try again tomorrow after getting some professional help!

Re: Possible Leaking Scuppers???????????
 

trying again . . http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...fix/image1.jpg http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...fix/image2.jpg http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...fix/image3.jpg http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...fix/image4.jpg http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...fix/image5.jpg http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...fix/image6.jpg http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...fix/image7.jpg
Last shot is from under hull looking up thru hole; was trying to show mismatch which was about 1/32", which was easily filled with 5200. Boat was in water for 3 days last week and didn't leak a drop!

It looks like I have water coming in around the brass tubes that go down into the scuppers on my 20-foot seacraft. It's 1974 and there is a small Gap around the end of those tubes on the bottom side of the hull. I'm sitting in the water I see a small trickle coming in. I would have to imagine there is some rot inside there on one or both around that brass tube fitting. Is it something that could be fixed or at least stopped for the short-term with 5200? Eventually I plan on separating The Owl and the liner and having the transom closed in as well as recoring the Decks as there is definite rot and saw spots on the Rays portion forward of the first large Locker. The whole around the down tubes for the scuppers seems completely solid, again although I realize there is likely rot in there. But before I do any involved repair work I'd like to get some more time out of the boat. Do you think 5200 will suffice. Again it is a small Gap but I do see water seeping in and it looks like there or cracks between the hole and around where these cover tube is class 10 just below the liner.