bilge water..
 

Guys... I am finding a bit of water in my bilge everytime I go the boat.. It is kept in the water in a slip.. by a bit I mean today there was about 1.5 inches at the deepest point..
I had all the bellows replaced during winterizing.. the drain plug is tight.

My dad says I may have water coming in around the windshield but I cannot see that accumulating to this extent..
I always pump it out..

I do have some smaller stress cracks in ther hull but they do not look serious at all..

what could be happening..

is this at all normal..

1988 Mirage..22 ft

Number of places to look in the bilge, not just the bellows. Exhaust y-pipe o-ring seal, transom assembly gasket, lower water hoses on motor itself.......

Can you block of the drains coming from the front to isolate the w/s theory from the bilge?

Has it rained??

Yes, this is normal.
I've never seen a bilge bone dry unless it was just launched.
Put a couple drops of dishwash soap (liquid Dawn) in there to help cut the oil that is also inevitably gonna end up in traces in the bilge.;)

A little trick....

Just lift it out of the water and have them tilt the forks back and see where it comes out :) Old marina trick. If nothing comes out, it's above the WL

I don't have that luxury.. the marina has no lift.. its a launch and the trailer is kept almost 2 hrs away...

A couple hr drive may be worth keeping a small problem from turning into a huge disaster. Borrow another trailer (just a large bunk style) and pull it at the ramp. Put a large block under the tng jack and go up as high it will go. That should give you enough angle (be sure to use a chock for the rear wheels)

Don't forget to consider a leak in the engine cooling system. The last time water was getting into my bilge, it was coming from a leaking oil cooler. If your boat only takes on water when you are not using it, then it's probably not on the pressurized side of the water pump, if the leak is in the cooling system.

Good luck, these can be a bear to find if it's a small leak.

I think this is pretty normal. My boat sits on a lift out of the water and every weekend I go to use it there is a little water in the bilge.

Draw some chalk lines in the bilge when the water crosses the chalk lines you can see where it crossed. you can redraw a little further up stream till you track down the source:p