last fall my '87 222 stinger sank at my dock. there had been a storm with quite a bit of rain. my mechanic who resecude it for me said he thought water must have come in through the bilge pump opening because it was too close to the water line.
unfortunately my battery was dead and the pump did not come on. has anyone experienced this before? I am restoring it and I think I will relocate the bilge opening higher up on the hull. any advice?

A check valve would fix your issue if it was the cause

must have been a bad fall for stingers...my 202 sank at the dock as well. it was right at the house too...pretty embarrasing. anyway , i have a big block in the boat and it sits low in the stern. i think the bow got hung up after a real high tide, forcing the stern to sit lower. the seam where the deck meets the hull is not water tight, and i feel that is where the water got in. no way for the pump to keep up. i'll never know for sure, but boat does not take on water. i sealed up the seams this spring, and am using whips to keep the boat off the dock.

my boat sank at home as well. my house is up on a small bluff and you cant see the dock from there. I also have a big block and the stern sits very low in the water. did you remove the rub rail completely to seal it up and what product did you use?

I have come to find out that the stingers had a build flaw with the hull/deck joint and the rub rail in the rear of the boat....when i took the original rub rail off my 222 stinger and was contorted to get the rear grab rail off the boat for powdercoating...i saw light coming through the hull/deck joint in the rear!!! And it wasnt just a small light leak...i mean it looked like a good separation between the two parts! With the extra weight of a BBC in the boat i could easily see how water could get into the boat and overtake an undersized bilge pump......or kill a battery over a period of time....
After i sealed up all the old screw holes form the rub rail, i screwed the hull/deck together with machine screws and nylock nuts and then went around the outside perimeter with 5200 and sealed it up tight. Now i dont worry about water getting in

Hey Wally, I think i missed something here. Are your 222 actually in water now??

Would be nice to see some pictures how she looks now!!

//Mange

i took the rubrail off in the stern around the sponsons because its tough to gain access from inside the boat. i sealed it with 5200. for the rest of the boat i did it from the inside.
just to be sure i put an access panel in the floor of the boat, under the seats, and added a second bilge pump. i hooked up a solar trickle charger as well!

im getting kinda paranoid...i'm thinking of installing a high water alarm wired into the house!!

Nope not yet......its a project that on the back burner for now.....she may even be put up for sale as it kills me to just let it sit there and waste away....i'd rather let her go if i think i cant get it dont in the next two years then let it just sit there.....BUt even though i have other projects that take priority for now (like the house etc) i am still trolling ebay and the net for parts Have a nice stock pile right now just need to find some time to work on it

That old sinking feeling....courtesy of hurricane Ivan

I was too freaked out to take a picture, but the boat was completely under the water bow and all so now I suspect the hull deck joint is a problem all the way around. what really pisses me off is that a year ago I spent major bucks redoing the hull, took the interior out refiberglassed inside the hull even took the gas tank out to do it. replaced the engine compartment stringers to support my new 496 mag and epoxied the hull exterior below the water line. unfortunately the guy who did it for me wasnt aware of or didnt notice the problem with the deck joint. I guess i should have looked at this forum sooner