Water System Leak
Posted: August 1st, 2020, 11:24 pm
I have had an onboard water system leak in one of my water lines since late last season. I tried to locate a plumber who works on boats without success. Today I decided I would try to fix it.
I had come up with 2 possible fixes neither one of them professional. I was more or less going to jury rig a fix if that was possible.
Fix #1. I got a piece of hose and cut it to the length of the part of the line I was going to fix. It was the hot water line to the sink in the head area. I slit the hose and slid it around the leaking line. I then used some hose clamps and tightened them at tight as possible. Turned on the waterpump and no go. It was leaking although not as bad as without the "fix".
Fix #2. Bypass the line to the faucet completely. I cut the line in two places and removed the line from the faucet connection. I then inserted a piece of hose to the line running from the bilge and the line running to the shower hot water line. Double clamped the hose at both ends and turned on the pump.
Here we are one hour later and not a drip. Problem solved and leak fixed. It's not professional and I will tell any new potential owner about my jury rigged fix when the time comes to sell this boat.
It was a small tight area to work in, one of the reasons I decided to bypass not install a new line. It took a couple of hours or so to get the job done. I know that the engineers who design boats have to pack a lot of stuff into a 29' 10" hull but PLEASE try to make parts that need to be worked on a little more easy to access. If engineers had to work on boats I think they might make it easier for them to be worked on when things need to be fixed.
Problem hopefully fixed for now.
I had come up with 2 possible fixes neither one of them professional. I was more or less going to jury rig a fix if that was possible.
Fix #1. I got a piece of hose and cut it to the length of the part of the line I was going to fix. It was the hot water line to the sink in the head area. I slit the hose and slid it around the leaking line. I then used some hose clamps and tightened them at tight as possible. Turned on the waterpump and no go. It was leaking although not as bad as without the "fix".
Fix #2. Bypass the line to the faucet completely. I cut the line in two places and removed the line from the faucet connection. I then inserted a piece of hose to the line running from the bilge and the line running to the shower hot water line. Double clamped the hose at both ends and turned on the pump.
Here we are one hour later and not a drip. Problem solved and leak fixed. It's not professional and I will tell any new potential owner about my jury rigged fix when the time comes to sell this boat.
It was a small tight area to work in, one of the reasons I decided to bypass not install a new line. It took a couple of hours or so to get the job done. I know that the engineers who design boats have to pack a lot of stuff into a 29' 10" hull but PLEASE try to make parts that need to be worked on a little more easy to access. If engineers had to work on boats I think they might make it easier for them to be worked on when things need to be fixed.
Problem hopefully fixed for now.
