Wood?

[bud37]

Ben , all sounds about par for the course....if that is original it has lasted a good long time.....I just replaced the battery support tray in our boat and it was just like yours, starting to rot and only 1/2" painted, and that is in a low hour 01 . ...

[Cooler]

Wow guys! I am surprised. The small piece of wood I have just to step on while standing in the bilge is 3/4" marine plywood. Just a 20" X 48" piece I can slide along stringers. Most of the info I am passing along comes from 1 of 3 guys who used to work at Carver from 87 to 93. Especially surprising on a 2001! Bud - do you have wood supporting your water heater? er

[Cooler]

Ben - you may want to get some of those oil absorbing sheets and cover that oil leak area. Those sheets are cheap, just a flat 24"X24" pad. Absorbs oil, not water. I was always under the impression it was a Coast Guard requirement to have those under drive shafts or oil pans in case of small leaks. That might be for commercial only. On my way to boat tomorrow to check on wood under my water tanks and fuel tanks. er

[BenTen]

I finished installing the new trays yesterday (pic to come) and got the tanks back in place. I'll now re-plumb everything and replace the supply lines since I'm in there. The PO had disconnected the third FW tank and connected it directly to the head- I'll be changing this back to original to regain my 90gal of FW total since I'm installing a pressure water toilet (Raritan Marine Elegance).


Cooler,

The oil that was on everything was from a busted hose while she still belonged to the previous owner. Absorbing pads are already under each of my engines just in case.

What I really want to look into now is if the rear bilge is connected directly to the mid bilge area, and if so I would like to plug that hole. This would avoid oil from the engine area (rear in my Mariner) from moving forward in the future. Anyone have an opinion on whether this is a good idea or not?

[tomschauer]

Ben, I would rethink the separation of bilge areas. They are interconnected for a few reasons. If one pump fails, the next one will pick it up the water before it overflows your bulkheads. If you develop a leak too much for one pump, the others will join in before it overflows your bulkheads, when you lay up for winter all of the bilge water can drain from the rear of the boat.

[Cooler]

I agree with Tom. Plus, the keel is laid with a slight grade to the aft. Water does not usually wash forward easily, unless you really come off plane fast. The forward bilge is most likely separated. If my shower sump over flows, that water sits there till I remove it with my shop vac. It does not flow aft at all. I have had 3" of water in there due to float switch going bad. Check for water in the engine compartment frequently and suck out with shop vac if necessary. Put one of those pads under the water tank and you should be good to go. Did you pull your fuel tanks out also? er

[Cooler]

I am a bit confused about the water tank situation. Is there a separate fill hose to that 3rd tank? PO disconnected so tanks do not share volume? My Raritan is drawing water from the FW tank, but I have just one 80 gallon FW tank. The other 11 gallons is in the HW tank, for a total of 91 gals. er

[BenTen]

My boat (3697) has three 30 gallon tanks, 2 in the center bilge, and one port side with the shower sump. They are all three filled via the one access topside. As the one tank nears being full it overflows to the other two until they are all completely filled giving me 90 gallons total plus the 11 gallon HW heater.

The PO isolated that one tank for two reasons: So the head would only have access to 30 gallons, and so that it was drawing from fresh water instead of the sea cock as originally designed. Apparently there was quite a bit of odor created due to the sea water.

Hope that explains the system for anyone looking at this in the future!


Ben in SC

[bud37]

Let us know how the toilet install goes, I am doing the same one when snow melts....

[Cooler]

Oh, I get it now. The isolation was confined to draw demand tube. At least you have the raw water seacock already installed. Years ago Raritan suggested fresh water tank source so seaweed/contaminants would not get sucked up into the macerator of electric models. Don't know if they stand by that idea still, but it works for me. I don't use a lot of water out of holding tank. Rarely is it more than 1/3 filled. Connect to dock water, and anchor out short times only. er