2 inches of water in cabin floor
 

Well, 2 weeks ago, I get in my boat & take off up the lake. After I ran for about 2
minutes I kept smelling a sewer smell. Turns out I had stagnent water under my cabin step.
I cleaned it out back at the dock & had no problems the rest of the weekend. Fast foward
2 weeks. I get in the boat and have 2 inches of water on my cabin floor. WTF? The boat
has always been completly dry. I'm stumped. 05 35 ex. No cooler (has a fridge),porta
potty has never been used. Boats on a lift. Full cover.Sinks unhooked. Where the hell is the
water coming from?

Is the water clean or dirty?

I left my anchor in the locker during rough water runs. The anchor was bent to say the least and it punched a lot of holes in there. I was getting fresh water in the cabin. Also, my bilge pump there had failed. Spent some time glassing in the holes. No problems since. But there was some residual that I would just shop vac out. Check to see if you are leaking where the bow rails bolt in too.

I had the same problem last winter, only I didn't catch it until spring, my cabin was a mold covered mess.
The only thing I could think of is, it was sitting too level on my lift and the water would not drain all the way back to the bilge.
I filled the engine compartment with water this summer, to see if any would leak out, all the water did was go forward to the cabin and get my carpet wet again.
So I'm curious too.

There is no anchor locker on an Ex. There is a full
cover over the bow rails & bow light. Thats what
has me stumped. I also thought that the water
in the bilge couldnt run foward. I thought the drains
for the cockpit comes ou above the upper stringers
and the cabin is seal off at the bilge area under the step.
Any thoughts?

Hi Rick,
The drains in the rear do drain above the outboard stringers, but if the boat is sitting low to the bow (like mine does when on the trailer) then the water will go forward. If the boat is in it's normal stern low attitude then the water that enters from the rear deck drains should go aft as you descibed.
Dave
PS the windshield is on and looks great.
Thanks

What does Fountain say about this issue? all my friends with Fountains, including myself have this issue......it is getting old

water issues
 

i have a 27fever and allways has water in the two outter compartments.i do not know where the water is comming from.i have a compartment under the stairs going into the cabin.there is a chrome plug on the floor there and it looks like a drain.water stays in there also.i know that all the drains connect together and drain into the blige.any ideas?where is the water comming from?like said before in this thread,it seems to be a problem w/fountains.

Rick,

Look at the bright side,2" is a lot less water then your old Fountain had in it at your dock:DI'll see you on the lake next weekend.

Glad the windshield worked out.:)
Wouldnt you have to have a ton of water in the bilge for it to get
to those upper drain holes?

:D :drink:

Wouldnt you have to have a ton of water in the bilge for it to get
to those upper drain holes?[/QUOTE]

Rain water in the rear deck area, draining into the floor drains, with the bow low the water would end up in the cabin or at least under the step until it somehow got into the cabin floor, probably rising above the false flat floor.
Just a guess.

How do you get the water out from the bilge under the cabin if it wont drain out. I cant seem to get the water to drain out despite the attitude of the boat. I also dont know how far the open bilge goes forward under the cabin and there doesn't seem to be any way to access the forward bilge directly.

shop vac.

How do you get it to where the water is accumulated in the bilge?

I think we talked about this in another thead. Have owned 5 Fountains. The only time I have had water under the step in the cabin is if the bilge gets water in it. I know that the fuel tanks are under the floor and it is supposed to be sealed so nothing can run from the bilge to the cabin....but. Again the only time we have had that problem is when the bilge got water in it. The wetter the bilge the bigger the problem in the front. Their must be a way it gets in the front from the back. Also the way the boat sits is decieving. It looks like the bow is higher than the stern, when in its really not. When its on a lift or trailer the bow could be actually lower causing water to go to the lowest point. In our 06 38, the bilge was always wet. When I parked the trailer, I would raise the bow alot higher with blocks and pull the plugs on the transom to drain, and it seemed to help. I have also heard about the rails being resealed, anchor locker, ect. The amount of water that was in my cabin under the step couldnt have come from that. I was only caught in the rain once in 2 years, and the boat is stored in a insulated building. Not sure how, but it seems their is a conection between the bilge and the water under the step. Our 07 38, dry bilge, guess what....yep, no water under the step.

While it may not be an ideal way to remove the water; this does work if you have a bilge pump at the bottom of your step:

Take a shop vac, and cover the bilge pump output on the outside of the hull with the hose from the shop vac. Flip on the vac, and it will suck the water right through the bilge pump.

The ATs have an automatic bilge pump at the bottom of the step which will remove water from this area. You can also opt for a pair of drain plugs on the back of the step as well.

Fountains have a bilge pump under the step also. Problem is that its higher than the hole in the
floor leading to the under step bilge. The other problem is that the carpet has 2 inches of water
on it & will start to stink if it sits. Not to mention the extra hour of clean up.
One other thing...I cant believe how much building residue I found while looking into this.
screws,clipped wire connectors,saw dust,paper,electrical tape. The $hit is everywhere.
If you ever bought a car ( thats cost a tenth what a boat does) you would scream bloody murder!
Nice quality control Reggie! Whats it take to clean your mess after assembly? 10 minutes?

i keep mine in storage that is very dry, rain, one weekend on the water took me three weeks of cleaning to get it all out, tons and tons of building residue, almost wondered if someone had done some major repairs when i saw it. the fu@#$%* sink is were i got a bunch of water, dont know were the line runs or were it sits but i tried taking the cooler out one day i was so pissed, but that is one major pain in the a@#and i was trying 2 do it angry. So i disconected the step down bilge line that runs out the side and put the sink drain to it, not a drop of water in the side compartments or the step bilge since! I plan on running a new line out the side of the boat for the step bilge some day, i run on a small calm lake and figure if i am needing to keep my boat from sinking by using that little piece of sh*& pump i have a lot more problems on my hands! If i could only keep the water out of my engine bilge i would be happy i have checked and sealed every thing and cant ever get that 2 stop(including the rub rail 2).

Is the cabin floor under the carpet plywood or fiberglass? I have water under the cabin in the bilge but the pump under the stairs is dry. I know the water is further forward but I can't see it or get to it. I am thinking of riping the carpet off the sole of the cabin and cutting an access hole to reach the forward bilge, but I only want to do this if it wont compromise the structure of the boat/hull. Anyone know?

I checked my boat recently and there is no new water in there. Like I said before, my main issue was from punching holes in the anchor locker. The water in there was very clean and at the same my bilge pump had failed. I had to kind of keep up with things for a couple of weeks as residual water would collect, but it's all good now.

There are drain holes, limber holes in the bulkheads, all the way down the center stringer.

If you get water in your bilge, when you slow down, it will slosh forward and get under the step and even further forward.

in my boat, I had an oil leak and ended up with an oily mess as far forward as the bed. I got under there and ran a hose in the two storage compartments under the bed. On one side, the water drained all the way back, on the other side, it was a trickle at best. I cut an access hole under the step and cleaned all the gunk out of the limber holes, now it drains fine. That area isn't finished all that well from the factory as it is never seen, I ended up getting some fiberglass resin and sealing up the limber holes that I could access a little better to keep the bulkheads dry. The only remaining problem is that the limber holes aren't all the way down on the floor, so when water does run up there (at least it's not oily now!) about half an inch of water will stay in there without draining back.

I'd imagine all the bulkheads are the same way, and some are likely unaccessible under the floor, so you will likely always have some water sitting in there unless you manage to keep the bilge dry all the time. My boat has a slight leak in the transom, i'm suspecting it's at the trim line manifold, so I always end up with a little water in there (that'll be fixed by spring, though).

Now I just open up the areas I can get to every time i finish using it and dry it up. I don't want the water sitting in there and eventually damaging the hull, although there doesn't seem to be any damage from the last 15 years.

my boat is a 27, non step, so there's no bilge pump under the step. That area might be more accessible in newer models, I can only speak from what i've found on my boat.

Thank you very much, that helps a lot. I think the boats are very similar through the years from 27 to 47. Mine is a stepped hull 47 but I think what you did would work.

Current boat 2005 42 Ex. Have owned Formula '86 F3LS, '87 Formula 242LS, 2004 Baja 33 Outlaw, and EVERY ONE had the SAME water issue we're talking about here. As it was said above, only way water gets in the forward bilge is if the rear bilge water gets too high, the boat is trailered or on sling with the bow too low, or if there is a leak somewhere up front. My Fountain was 1 year old when I bought it and it had the anchor locker leaks, bow rail leaks (previous owner had used them as cleats to tie up with), and the thru-hull fitting for the port side sink had a big leak and was loose. I changed that exhaust hose draining the sink to a SOFTER MATERIAL, since the exhaust hose was so stiff it wiggled the tru-hull with every bounce the boat made. That was poor engineering.

Dry your boat with Shop Vac first, then use large fans one-way style and open all the cabin doors and hatches and it'll be bone dry in 24-48 hrs. I should know, I've had to dry out all my boats several times and I do it promptly and did not ever deverlop a smell. And P.S. DO NOT use the Damp Rid "high capacity" tubs to keep your cabin dry, use the hanging versions instead because the tubs rupture when they are full and now you have to clean up the slick salt solution as well. It took bonehead here three times to learn that one.

Is the floor of the cabin (under the carpeting) in a 47 fiberglass or plywood?

I pulled the carpet on the sole of my cabin and there is no access door at all and the floor is fiberglass.

I am a fountain dreamer, but my envision has a similar problem. Being my boat is an open bow it is like a funnel for collecting water. Envision did install a floor drain, but it drains to under the step where there is a bilge pump. I do the shop vac routine, but is there a pump that can get most of the water out on its own? Sorry for highjacking.

I don't think that's a hijack. I installed an automatic sensor, the electronic kind, no moving parts, and a low scoop to a pump in my Baja and the water never got more that an inch high after that. Took some engineering, but the thru-hull and wiring is already there and I 'm going to do the same thing to the Fountain as one of several small winter projects. By the way dreamer - Get the Founrtain. Had mine at 85 yesterday over 3 ft. whitecaps and I could have balanced a quarter on the front deck it was so smooth.

Beak-Great avatar...The 42 is what I want, nothing fancy for power. I am trying to move the Envision, and move up, but it is slow going. Next time I almost break 50mph, I will think of you balancing your quarter at 85.

Beak I had a 1/2 dollar balanced on my deck couple of weekends back in 3-4' out on the bay at 80 plus. Get the Fountain. I have the same problem with the wet area underneath the step. I am thinking it is coming from the anchor locker door where the grab hole is. There is a drain in the bottom and I think it goes along the stringers to the back bilge or else there seems to be a couple of poor caulk areas around the deck rail where it attaches to the deck. I never get much water, but always a little on the floor under the step on the rubber matting.

leak?
 

I have the same prob I really noticed when i took a hose and scrubed the cockpit it seamed all the water drained to the bilge under the step in the cuddy.. why is that?
btw I have a 98 29 fountain

I just sold my 05 35x and had the same problem except it was like 8 " in the cabin foot well. Dealer thought it was the bow light, then the hatch ect... Never got fixed! I wont buy another fountain.

Luckly my 32 is always dry as a bone, not a drop since I resealed my rubrail.

My 27 used to get water some water under the cabin floor. I found it to enter from the bilge as many here said. Bilge gets water, then runs foward into the cabin. But do to the bow sitting lower than the bilge, the water can't drain back out unless the front is jacked way high. Plus with the drain holes not being at the very bottom of the bulkheads, water was always trapped. What I did was to put a couple rubber tapered stoppers in the drain holes in the engine compartment bulkhead. Since then, no water could ever run forward and never had another drop in the cabin floor.

I agree with all about the construction junk left behind. UNFUGGIN BELIEVABLE!

I had the same problem on my 2000 Lightning 35 Classic. I finally figured out that it was comming from the Ice chest. As long as I pull the plug on the built in ice chest and get all of the ice out of it before going on the trailer the front bilge stays dry. But if I leave ice or water in the ice chest and put the boat on the trailer the water goes forward and stays there until I get it out with a shop vac.

My 32's Ice chest drained onto the top of the gas tank. Not sure what Fountain was thinking since that area does not have drains! I could see a huge water soaked foam problem if the cooler was used in that condition. I ran a drain line from the ice chest to the bilge so there was no way for water to get into under the flooring. Just used it for dry storage though, but just in case.....

Now the AC sits where the cooler was. :)