Water under bed.

[nickwight]

I was down at the boat (2016 NC9) this morning doing some bits & pieces of maintenance and a found water (salt) in the compartment just aft of the bow thruster tunnel, under the forward berth bed. Using a hand pump I removed around 20-25 litres of water! I plan to investigate this further tomorrow, but before a I pull the boat to pieces, I wonder of anyone has any relevant information regarding:

1/. How salt water would get into that small compartment? No obvious sign of leakage through the thruster tunnel.

2/. This  is the first time that I've really looked at the hull construction since we bought the boat back in May and I am a little confused as it differs from all other boats that we've had. Their appears to be a gel coat finished liner that sits on top of the raw fiberglass inner of the hull and this in some places results in a large void between the two. Both bilge pumps appear to sit on this upper tray and I therefore wonder how water is to be pumped out of these voids? In fact I am a bit concerned as it would be possible to ship a significant amount of water before either pump would be triggered!

We've done about 60 hours running this year and some was in moderate conditions with water breaking over the bow and against the side windows, but i had assumed -- wrongly it seems -- that the pumps would take care of any significant water ingress and I have never noticed an accumulation in the engine bay during routine mechanical checks.

Anybody have any thoughts or useful information?

[captaingatsea]

I had this exact issue on a 2021 NC895. When the thruster was installed, Jeanneau didn't use any sealant and didn't mate the tube to the hull. My leak started slow and then turned into a river during the five months it took Jeanneau to approve the warranty claim. Recommend starting a haulout and assessment in short order. 

[tilo]

Weirdly, I was going to post the exact same question regarding my 2002 SO37.

After discovering water collecting in the compartment under my V-berth forward of the water tanks, I cleaned it all up, took her out for an overnighter in pretty flat water, (no waves crashing over the bow) and found about a pint/0.5 liters of fresh salt water. I thoroughly hosed down the anchor chain well, and that seems to be tight. I can't find any evidence that it's coming down the walls from the deck, and it's not coming from the windlass. Does anyone have any idea where it might be coming from?

[npmr]

On our SO33i I found the whole forward section under about 20cm of water! A great deal of water!

It did not drain back to the bilge pump as there is no limber hole built in. After bailing it out, we then set to finding out where it had come from.

The culprit was the bolt holes holding the bowsprit/anchor roller, which had come loose, with minimal sealant. (we have a swinging mooring, which it may not have liked?)

Re-seated it but still it leaked and came loose again.

Re-seated it again and added a support bar underneath the end of the stainless steel bow roller. Still it came loose and leaked.

Finally, last winter, I had the whole thing adapted to add a side plate to the U shaped stainless steel with extra bolts to hold it down and added extra pads under the deck to spread the load and create a larger surface area for sealant.

I checked the compartment very recently, and it is bone dry in there! At last.

The water seemed to be mostly rain water. It was only slightly salty. So the leak was above deck, and allowing rain to enter but also when shipping seawater, allowed that to leak in as well.

I was unimpressed with the overall design of the unit that came from the factory and believe what I have created is a far more sturdy affair that is less fragile and better able to withstand the strains you'd expect to put on it when, for example, anchoring.

[nickwight]

Thanks to all of you for your responses and I have now had time to investigate this a little further and I am now even more puzzled.

I have discovered that the compartment that is just aft of the thruster tunnel, is actually a continuation of a bilge space that runs right back to the engine compartment and so water could be getting in just about anywhere along the length of the boat. I am confident that is is not getting in anywhere forward of the thruster tunnel as there is another chamber forward of the tunnel that would fill first, if that was the case.

Despite hand pumping out the flooded chamber, there is still an amount of water in the bilge running aft from it and so I have rigged up an electric pump with a long length of small bore plastic tube that I can feed down it and hopefully pump it dry.  After that it will be more searching for the source of the ingress, armed with paper towel and talcum powder!

[tilo]

Sept 13, 2022 16:29:48 GMT npmr said:

On our SO33i I found the whole forward section under about 20cm of water! A great deal of water!

It did not drain back to the bilge pump as there is no limber hole built in. After bailing it out, we then set to finding out where it had come from.

The culprit was the bolt holes holding the bowsprit/anchor roller, which had come loose, with minimal sealant. (we have a swinging mooring, which it may not have liked?)

Re-seated it but still it leaked and came loose again.

Re-seated it again and added a support bar underneath the end of the stainless steel bow roller. Still it came loose and leaked.

Finally, last winter, I had the whole thing adapted to add a side plate to the U shaped stainless steel with extra bolts to hold it down and added extra pads under the deck to spread the load and create a larger surface area for sealant.

I checked the compartment very recently, and it is bone dry in there! At last.

The water seemed to be mostly rain water. It was only slightly salty. So the leak was above deck, and allowing rain to enter but also when shipping seawater, allowed that to leak in as well.

I was unimpressed with the overall design of the unit that came from the factory and believe what I have created is a far more sturdy affair that is less fragile and better able to withstand the strains you'd expect to put on it when, for example, anchoring.

Thanks mate. I have no idea how I can access that area, but I'll give it a shot.