2kwik4u
Jetboaters Fleet Admiral
- Messages
- 7,952
- Reaction score
- 10,807
- Points
- 587
- Location
- Buffalo, NY
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2017
- Boat Model
- AR
- Boat Length
- 19
I'm now 50% through the 3rd season with this boat, and as happy as I am with it overall.....I'm getting a little peeved that I can't keep the water on the OUTSIDE of the boat. I have leaks, from somewhere, and I haven't managed to track them all down yet.
I've found a few "major" leaks, and remedied those, but have some other water intrusion issues that I can't seem to nail down just yet. Hoping someone else here has gone through the exercise of making this hull actually water tight and can give me some guidance.
Things I've done so far.
Replace O-Rings on drain plugs with new Buna-N pieces from McMaster-Carr. Lubricated these rings with light oil to help them seat easily. This was a major upgrade from whatever hard rubber the factory uses. I had a constant "trickle" past the plugs when in the water. It was cheap and easy, and worked well.
Plugged all the cupholders. This is a hit or miss solution for me. The ones on the rear swim platform fill up quickly with the kids back there, and we don't like that at all. It's an annoyance we're dealing with now, but I'm working on a solution of some sort. Hoping to make the rear holders drain to the cleanout storage tray, we'll see if I get that to happen or not. Would prefer to NOT drain these to the bilge, but not sure what other options I have here. The rest of the cupholders being capped isn't a big deal. The most we get in those so far is some condensation from cold drinks, and it's not a big deal. We carry a chamois on board to soak up/out any rainwater that gets in there. This has helped keep the dry areas dry in rainstorms. Big plus, and was relatively inexpensive and easy.
I've "resealed" the rear cleanout tray insert. I didn't remove the panel, but ran a good bead of silicone all the way around the edge of the panel, and then removed, siliconed, and replaced the inspection hatches. This was a BIG help in keeping water out of the boat. Between coming off plane and having water run back up the drain for that area, and water leaking past the cleanout port seals, that area fills up regularly, and keeping the water in that space and letting the drain do it's job has helped a ton. The 1yr old likes to sit on the upper deck of the rear area and literally dump buckets of water on his lap while at anchor. Before the sealing, the bilge would run ever few minutes when he was doing this. I still have water coming in somewhere from the swim platform area because the carpet is wet in the starboard rear storage area after an outing, but it's much better than before. If I have a friend take a 5gallon bucket of water and "splash" the upper deck with it, I can HEAR water dripping into the rear starboard underseat area. It's not visible from the engine compartment, and it sounds like it's behind the rear bulkhead in that storage area. I'm not sure what is left back there to leak like that though. Cupholder to deck need to be sealed? I didn't pull the cleanout tray insert completely out to seal underneath it, and I didn't seal any of the screws holding it in, or the big rubber tube that the cleanout plug goes through. Should I redo those areas as well?
Now, the anchor locker. I've climbed around on the boat enough now to realize it drains into the ski locker, and there are no channels around it to drain to the deck. What a terrible oversight from Yamaha. All the seats drain to the deck, why doesn't the anchor locker? Instead, when it rains, the anchor locker collects water and dumps it into the ski locker. If the stuff in the ski locker was dry before, it's not now. This somewhat makes the seals on the ski locker worthless, since it's going to get water from the anchor locker anyway. Has anyone tried to "seal this up", and put a thru-hull in the ski locker on a 190? I really want to keep the stuff in the ski locker dry for the majority of the time.I tend to run with the ski locker plug in place, and twice now in rainstorms I've had the ski locker be more than 18in deep with water when it stopped raining. Of course I can easily open that plug, but not all my dock lines, ski vests, ropes, and boards have gotten needlessly wet.
All this is stemmed from such a different experience in my last boat. My '98 Rinker 182 would sit in the water for DAYS and not have the bilge run, or even a trickle of water from the drain plugs when I pulled it back out. This 19yr newer boat leaks like siv in only a few hours on the water, getting GALLONS from the bilge at times. Literally both plugs flowing full streams for 4-5 minutes. Clearly I'm still enjoying the boat on a regular basis, but it bugs the crap out of me that the water doesn't stay on the OUTSIDE of the boat. I'm not talking about a little bit here or there from people dripping wet in/out of the boat all day. I get that it's going to get a little wet.....but the storage compartments staying damp all the time (especially the rear underseat areas), and the gushing water upon plug removal is just annoying as crap.
SO, as a recap for all the questions.
Where else is water coming into my starboard rear underseat storage from?
Can I drain the swim platform cupholders into the cleanout tray?
Anyone sealed the factory drain on the anchor locker and put a thru-hull on a 190?
What else should I be looking at to keep the water on the proper side of the hull?
and finally
Am I being unreasonable to think that, at the end of a day on the water, I shouldn't be getting GALLONS draining from the bilge on a boat?
I've found a few "major" leaks, and remedied those, but have some other water intrusion issues that I can't seem to nail down just yet. Hoping someone else here has gone through the exercise of making this hull actually water tight and can give me some guidance.
Things I've done so far.
Replace O-Rings on drain plugs with new Buna-N pieces from McMaster-Carr. Lubricated these rings with light oil to help them seat easily. This was a major upgrade from whatever hard rubber the factory uses. I had a constant "trickle" past the plugs when in the water. It was cheap and easy, and worked well.
Plugged all the cupholders. This is a hit or miss solution for me. The ones on the rear swim platform fill up quickly with the kids back there, and we don't like that at all. It's an annoyance we're dealing with now, but I'm working on a solution of some sort. Hoping to make the rear holders drain to the cleanout storage tray, we'll see if I get that to happen or not. Would prefer to NOT drain these to the bilge, but not sure what other options I have here. The rest of the cupholders being capped isn't a big deal. The most we get in those so far is some condensation from cold drinks, and it's not a big deal. We carry a chamois on board to soak up/out any rainwater that gets in there. This has helped keep the dry areas dry in rainstorms. Big plus, and was relatively inexpensive and easy.
I've "resealed" the rear cleanout tray insert. I didn't remove the panel, but ran a good bead of silicone all the way around the edge of the panel, and then removed, siliconed, and replaced the inspection hatches. This was a BIG help in keeping water out of the boat. Between coming off plane and having water run back up the drain for that area, and water leaking past the cleanout port seals, that area fills up regularly, and keeping the water in that space and letting the drain do it's job has helped a ton. The 1yr old likes to sit on the upper deck of the rear area and literally dump buckets of water on his lap while at anchor. Before the sealing, the bilge would run ever few minutes when he was doing this. I still have water coming in somewhere from the swim platform area because the carpet is wet in the starboard rear storage area after an outing, but it's much better than before. If I have a friend take a 5gallon bucket of water and "splash" the upper deck with it, I can HEAR water dripping into the rear starboard underseat area. It's not visible from the engine compartment, and it sounds like it's behind the rear bulkhead in that storage area. I'm not sure what is left back there to leak like that though. Cupholder to deck need to be sealed? I didn't pull the cleanout tray insert completely out to seal underneath it, and I didn't seal any of the screws holding it in, or the big rubber tube that the cleanout plug goes through. Should I redo those areas as well?
Now, the anchor locker. I've climbed around on the boat enough now to realize it drains into the ski locker, and there are no channels around it to drain to the deck. What a terrible oversight from Yamaha. All the seats drain to the deck, why doesn't the anchor locker? Instead, when it rains, the anchor locker collects water and dumps it into the ski locker. If the stuff in the ski locker was dry before, it's not now. This somewhat makes the seals on the ski locker worthless, since it's going to get water from the anchor locker anyway. Has anyone tried to "seal this up", and put a thru-hull in the ski locker on a 190? I really want to keep the stuff in the ski locker dry for the majority of the time.I tend to run with the ski locker plug in place, and twice now in rainstorms I've had the ski locker be more than 18in deep with water when it stopped raining. Of course I can easily open that plug, but not all my dock lines, ski vests, ropes, and boards have gotten needlessly wet.
All this is stemmed from such a different experience in my last boat. My '98 Rinker 182 would sit in the water for DAYS and not have the bilge run, or even a trickle of water from the drain plugs when I pulled it back out. This 19yr newer boat leaks like siv in only a few hours on the water, getting GALLONS from the bilge at times. Literally both plugs flowing full streams for 4-5 minutes. Clearly I'm still enjoying the boat on a regular basis, but it bugs the crap out of me that the water doesn't stay on the OUTSIDE of the boat. I'm not talking about a little bit here or there from people dripping wet in/out of the boat all day. I get that it's going to get a little wet.....but the storage compartments staying damp all the time (especially the rear underseat areas), and the gushing water upon plug removal is just annoying as crap.
SO, as a recap for all the questions.
Where else is water coming into my starboard rear underseat storage from?
Can I drain the swim platform cupholders into the cleanout tray?
Anyone sealed the factory drain on the anchor locker and put a thru-hull on a 190?
What else should I be looking at to keep the water on the proper side of the hull?
and finally
Am I being unreasonable to think that, at the end of a day on the water, I shouldn't be getting GALLONS draining from the bilge on a boat?
