44i bilge & keel bolts

[pipemma]

Afternoon all. One for fellow 44i owners: 

The bilge at the bottom of the companionway steps always has a small quantity of water in it. We can't work out where it comes from, our best guess is that there's a runoff from the liferaft locker under the engine bay into that bilge (engine bay is bone dry) and the water seeps down and in when it rains heavily. We can sponge it out completely, but there's still a trickle of water in. All the other bilges are bone dry

Secondly, said bilge's drain points are higher than the bottom of the bilge, so it is impossible for all the water to drain out anyway - v poor design. To add to the fun, some of the keel bolts are situated in that bilge, which means they are sitting in a little bit of water a lot of the time. As a result, they are slightly rusty - not bad, considering they haven't been cleaned & treated for nearly 5 years, but still not what you really want to see....

So, questions:

1. Anyone else with a 44i experience this?

2. Any clues where the water might be coming from? Do you think we're barking up the right tree?

3. What's the best (and cheapest) way to clean and treat the keel bolts?

Pics below - thanks again all!

[Tafika II]

Fresh or salt water? Have you checked the exhaust tube screw in connector going into the wet muffler?
We wire brushed all of our bolts a year ago and applied a galvanized type paint. All of our bilges are dry unless there is a problem somewhere.

[rudds67]

Check your wet muffler underneath the waterpump side of the engine... follow the rear exhaust hose it leads into it... If the plastic has heated up you may get pinholes in the tank. My waterpump went out and I didn’t catch it i time befor it melted the fitting area due to no water going through the exhaust.but I always got a little water coming to that area where you mentioned and after looking at the water muffler there were small holes in it...