This weekend I put my boat in and ran just a little ways to the beach. When I was beaching her (I know I shouldn't) I beached as usual then gave her a little throttle to put her on land for the day and felt a thud. I hit something, it wasn't bad but enough to stop the boat. Got out and tried to look and my outdrive was in the sand, just a little-maybe an inch of the keel. Raised it and inspected, didn't see any damage. So went on enjoying the day.
About 2 hours later my auto bilge kicked on...uh oh! I have never seen this happen except while on the trailer and after a hard rain, the boat rarely takes on any water. By the time I opened the engine compartment the bilge was off and it was almost empty. I looked around and couldn't see any water coming in. Waited and in about an hour it kicked on again.
I decided I had better get her on the trailer and see what was going on. No hull damage that I could see..and no bilge the entire trip back. I let her sit for a little while and started looking for leaks...it looks like there may be a trickle of water from where the outdrive mounts on the hull, as seen here;
but to be honest there was no way to really tell as she was still pretty wet and it could've been running down from anywhere. When I finally pulled the plug I would guess about 4 gallons came out, more than I have ever seen, but even on the ramp with all the water in the aft, not enough to turn on the bilge.
So how do I figure out where the leak is? My guess is to fill my bilge with water. But I don't want to get things wet that shouldn't get wet (starter, electrical, etc.)
Should I just bite the bullet and take her to a shop?
TIA,
