Here ya go!
343 Cobalt Outboard Open Bow Conversion

Mine is holding water in the bilge both under the engines and the outboard sides of the stringers.

Are there limber holes (drain holes) from the engine stringers to the center of the bilge? Luckily I'm thin enough to get down in the bilge and I crawled down the stbd side and felt with my hands along the outer starboard stringer under the tilt/trim pumps and can't feel any kind of hole. Did you see any holes when you had the engines out?

You are correct, there are no holes in the stringers, which is weird because the stringers are actually hallow. Once the motors were removed I used a hole saw and add drain holes.

I was able to find the two holes under the engines. There was 2 decades of debris (shop towel, socket, screws, zip ties, nuts) that had them obstructed.

The outboard sides are a different story. As you say there aren't drains for that area, The port side is not tabbed in at the transom so it waterfalls into the stringer and there is a hole for it to come out of. The starboard side is completely tabbed in and gelcoated so there is nowhere for the water to go.

The water gets in through the bilge vents when washing or if the boat is caught in the rain without a cover.

I can use my shopvac to remove the water until this winter when it's cooler and I feel like spending time down there to permanently fix the issue.

For those who trailer the 343 can you post a pic of your bow stop and winch setup? After my sea trial the previous owner struggled with getting the boat set on the trailer and yesterday I fought with it for over an hour at the ramp.

The location of the bow eye up high is making this a challenge. Let's see what you guys have come up with. Thanks in advance.

Can't post a pic, but the forward cradle should catch the keel well below the bow eye & trailer winch. Proper setup will have cradle and winch stand as two separate attachments.

Here is mine. My winch could be lower by 4 or 5 inches.

Thanks for the pic. I ordered the bow stop and a winch stand like yours. My old one was set up with a roller on the winch stand.

Maritime Eng,

If you can easily access your bilge would you let me know if the deck the trim pumps sit on is tabbed to the transom on yours? The one on the port side is not and water just falls down between the chine and stringer. My starboard side is filling with water and driving me crazy. I'm convinced this is a layup mistake but want to be sure. I need to drill something to solve this issue.

This is what I found this morning after a few days of heavy rain here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Kw7XnwawVxTw1LUW8

Stitch King - Just posting your pic so later on when the link is dead, anyone searching for a similar issue can see what you were referring to



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