josh76

I have a 2000 Fountain 27 and have noticed that there has lately been alot of water in the bilge up front. When you lift up the hinged access step in the cabin, there always seems to be water indside. I have a bilge up there, but it doesn't seem to be getting rid of all of the water. Is this normal or something I should be worried about? I have two questions regarding this problem.
First, how far up does the water go? Does it run all the ways up under the vberth or farther? Second, where does this water come from? The carpet has been getting damp from bouncing around and I would like to get to the bottom of this. Thanks in advanced. Josh

RUNNIN A FEVER

Josh - I also have a 00 27 and have the same problem. I unfortunately can't give you any solution because I havn't found any. I usually get alot of the water out when I trlr, it pours out the side hole.

I think ours gets in there through the flr drain in the cockpit but thats purely a guess.

I don't like the water in there at all and hope someone can help us remedy this situation.

BTW what kind of power, prop, top speed are you getting?

Later.

josh76

I'm glad to hear that I am not the only one. I have a 502 and top speed is about 68mph with just me. I am running the stock mirage props that came with the boat new. For every person onboard, I figure I lose about 5mph. If I have a full boat (5people), it takes about an hour to get on plane. Seriously having some isssues with planning when load heavy.

This bilge problem has been really bothering me lately and I would like to get to the bottom of it. Thanks for the reply and let's see what other Fountain people have to say.

rjcardinal

I have a '99 27 Fever. For the first year I owned it there was no water in this front bilge under the step. However the last two times I took the boat out we got caught in the rain. I now have water under this step too. The carpet in the cabin has never gotten wet. There wasnt a lot, about 2" deep, but I did suck it out with a shop vac. Looked in the step a couple of hours later and there was more, about a cup. This went on for days. Everytime I looked under the step there would be a cup or so of water. Finally got it dry and stored the boat. But the next time I took the boat out it rained again. This was no ordinary storm and we, including the boat got extreamly soaked. Got home and found water under the step but not near as much as the first time. Go figure. So I guess the water is either leaking into the cabin from the outside from the rain or the rainwater that collects in the rear bilge from the cockpit drains has made its way up front. Its probably the latter.

Planing my boat with 5 people can be difficult too. What prop are you running. My boat came with a 23" Hydromotive and I switched to a 24" Bravo. The Bravo planes much better and has a higher cruise speed for the same rpm. It also burns less fuel and requires less trim to lift the bow. It does run about 2mph slower top end than the Hydro. Its still slow to plane with 5 people and a full tank but much better than the Hydro prop. I have noticed the placement of people in the boat helps a great deal. Put the lighter girls in the back and keep the big guys in the front. Also make the girls sit on the back seat and not on the sun pad with their feet on the seat. That makes a big difference. Take any heavy tool boxes or other items that you dont need every trip and store them in the V berth storage compartments not under the rear seat. Finally if you have more tham 5 people and need to plane you can always make some people get in the cabin.

Ron

rouxsterre

It's hard to get that water out. It seems that the discharge hose from the pump is angled upwards for a couple feet so the water gets pumped upwards until it goes over the hump and out the hull, and the other few feet of water in the hose runs back down back into the step. I don't know where it comes from either. It only bothers me from an aesthetic perspective.

josh76

Wow. Thanks for the great info. That was really helpful. I keep my boat dry racked year round and do occassionally trailer it around. I am going to bring my wet/dry vac up tomorrow and try to suck out the remainding water. Once it's dry, I will see if I can figure out where it is coming from. I had to cut the wire to the bilge up front, because it would run all the time and would never shut off. Now when I need to use it, I just connect it up and it runs, although it doesn't seem to get rid of much water.

The planing issue has never really affected me until this past weekened. I have had the boat for 3 years now and this is the first time I have had 5 people. With 2-3 people onboard, I dont really run into problems. Thanks for the great info and safe boating.
Josh- H2O Performance