Bilge passages connected forward and aft
 

Water in the forward bilge had me a little worried in my new to me 27 until upon closer inspection I discovered that the main engine bilge has a passage to the center bilge under the helm and then into the forward cabin bilge. I like the idea of redundancy with the pump in the forward bilge however the water from the engine area is a tad foul and having it under the deck in the cabin seems non kosher.

If I filled in the passages would that be of any safety concern? I would like to use the box under the helm area for storage, fresh water tank or fish box and keep the cabin air separated from the engine bilge.

If I filled in the passages would that be of any safety concern? Convenience issues?

David

Never owned a 27' but I would assume having separate bilge areas would cause more problems by eliminating now good ventilation.
I would leave the fore to aft flow as is & just add some sweet smelling cleaner ever so often. This stuff works great.
BTW: Just don't leave
bait or dirty diapers in there !!

I’d have to agree with chuck here.

How fast is the shaft packing dripping? Since the boat was delivered and out of the water for longer than a few days the packing could have dried up and shrunk a little causing it to drip more than usual.