www.iFourWinns.com

I may have found the other water leak. Since we got the boat back this spring it's been one thing after another with the water. Every so often there would be some moisture getting into the cabin carpet. Since I pulled up the cover to the waste tank I wasn't sure if it was leaking "up" from there. I didn't re-apply the caulk to the waste tank because I wasn't sure it's troubles were solved. The the moisture on the back side of the carpet only seemed like fresh water, not bilge water.

Yesterday when we headed out my wife happened to go below just after we got up on plane. She noticed water flowing across the cabin floor. We swapped places and I watched the area as she took the boat back up on place. I noticed fresh water coming out from under the forward berth. The path it took flowing back into the cabin corresponded with just where the carpet was getting wet. Great, so now I know where the moisture is coming from.... yet another leak. The good news is it's only flowing onto fiberglass surfaces, not any wood. The carpets are waterproof and cleaned and dried quite easily. So there's unlikely to be anything 'damaged' by this. Just inconvenient.

It's interesting, the leak doesn't seem to occur when we're sitting still. It only leaked when we were up on plane. This will make it a bit difficult to fix. That and I don't know if it's related to how much water is in the tank. I can't tell how much water is leaking since the fresh water tank sensor never works reliably (and hasn't since new).

So on my list of other things I'd rather not be doing this week will be to pull the cabinet under the forward berth. Near as I can tell it's held in place by four screws up inside the drawer cavity. I'm just hoping to be able to pull it out without trouble from the forward stateroom wall. Hopefully it'll just be a loose or broken fitting and not something related to the water tank itself.

Once again, stay tuned...

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Wow, when it rains, it really pours.

You might try removing the drawer under the v-berth and asking your wife to run it up on plane. You'll have a fairly good view of the fresh water tank from there and just *might* see where the leak is.

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2004 Sea Ray 420DB
Formerly: 2005 348 Vista

Yes, that's what I have planned for this afternoon. There is another tank measuring sensor on it. Just like the one in the waste tank. And just like the one in the waste tank it doesn't work. It's also one I had the dealer look at last season. There appears to be the same shoddy job done installing it. I'm not longer "willing to bet" anything this season, but if I were the sensor seal would have my best odds. We'll see.

Removing the drawer is tight when there's a stateroom wall. You have pull the drawer all the way out, dip it down to get the wheels off the back of the track and then tip it all the way up to remove it. This, of course, can't be done easily with any contents in said drawer. No biggie. When it's off you can see the top of the tank in full view. The fresh water pump and cut-off valve require having a small head turned sideways to get inside the drawer opening to see them. My big noggin just barely fits. Near as I can tell there's just four screws at the top that hold the face of that cabinet in place. I'll be removing them tomorrow, no doubt. But my wife observes that if the tank has to be removed it might be a problem with the stateroom wall. I think there might just barely be enough room. of course then there's the main cabin door leading out to the cockpit. That's barely big enough for the fridge and the tank doesn't look smaller... I hope not.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

I don't know how close your cabin layout matches my 2003 version of the 348 but we have seen some water on occasion in the cabin area coming from the tray that collects the condensation from the air conditioner. The water doesn't drain completely from the tray and when the boat is on plane it will splash out onto the carpets.

Could that be your water problem too?

Where's you AC unit? On the 2005+ 348/358's the air conditioner is located on the port side next to the steps. That and it's drip tray drains in to the shower sump located in the mid-bilge area. It would have been physically impossible for the AC water to have gotten that far forward without saturating a whoooooole lot of other material first. But you do raise a good point about making sure the AC drip draining properly. As yet that hasn't been an issue...

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

On the 2003 version, we have the air unit on the starboard side under the bench. The runoff line ran across to the shower bilge pump. Unfortunately for us we had to unhook the hose from the shower box because we didn't get a proper waterflow. We had to move the runoff hose to the mid-cabin bilge pump area. The water pan does not empty totally so when the boat is bumping along on plane we see a little water splashing out. I usually vacuum the water out before we get underway. Not a big deal for us but it was another example for the designers to relocate to get the proper flow out of the pan.

Good luck on the rest of your trip. The weather looks okay until Thursday.


Marylander.

I've found the leak. It's the sender wire from the water tank level sensor. It's leaking water around the wire itself. The seal on the tank is, once again, gooped up with a wad of caulk, which isn't bonding to the tank anyway. But that's not the source of this leak. Apparently the internals of the sensor must be somehow compromised (or just badly designed). When the tank is full, or the boat comes up on plane, the water level shift and gets forced out through the sensor. The design of the waste tank was bad enough, now the fresh water sender? Neither of these have ever worked reliably. I'm going to replace them with something else entirely. Meanwhile I guess I'll just plug the hole with a threaded plug.

So, at this point, it's not looking like the tank will have to come out, thankfully.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista