How much water should be in boat after an hour?

thrcaptiva276

I am brand new to being the boat owner on the water!  I am the third owner of a beautiful Rinker 276 Captiva. She runs strong with a 496, everything works great, powers onto plane and everything.  I properly placed in the drain plug.  While I was learning the boat a bit, I was not throttling hard enough to jump on plane and the boat was stern down bow up for a little bit and we got water in the port holes from the engine compartment to the sitting area.  Nothing the bilge pump couldn't handle.   I ran the pump loaded the boat on the trailer and when i popped the plug it drained water on the ramp for a solid 2-3 minutes.  Am I being over nervous?  

Dream_Inn

Welcome to the forum!  That seems like quite a bit of water, enough that the bilge pump should've automatically kicked on. If water came in the cockpit, it may have went below as well during that.  The next time you have the boat in the water you should just take a look in the bilge area and monitor it for a little while.  You can also run the motor and make sure there are no leaks as well.  That is a bit too much water for an hour.

thrcaptiva276

Thank you @Dream_Inn.  I manually threw on the bilge, i know it auto's but was a little freaked out.  

aero3113

Welcome!
I agree with @Dream_Inn , check the float for your bilge pump. With that much water in there the pump should’ve came on automatically.
Are you trimming your drive and tabs correctly? This will keep the bow down and get you on plane.

thrcaptiva276

thank you @aero3113, I am a total newb, not yet fully comfortable with the boat.  Once I started keeping the boat 'on plane' the water issue was better, however still seemed not ideal.  And when i emptied the plug it seemed like alot of water.   

When i first get going should i be trimmed up or down?  As I get on plane how should I move the trim?  Should I use the trim tabs?

aero3113

Yes, drive and tabs all the way down. Once you get over the hump, bring your tabs up then trim your drive up slightly. You will notice the RPM’s increase without using the throttle. If you trim up too much the bow will start to porpoise and you can have prop cavitation. When that happens bring the drive down a little to find the sweet spot.

skennelly

Welcome.

You should start out with trim down while getting on plane.  If you have tabs you might just have to use them and not touch the drive much.  Once you get on plane you want to slowly trim up until you feel the boat level out.  It will take some for you to figure out the sweet spot.

It you stay trimmed down you are basically driving the nose of the boat into the water.  Trimming up will raise the bow slightly so it starts to cut into the waves.

thrcaptiva276

I just opened up the engine compartment.  Seems impossible that the water came from that area.  The ports seem to have a route to the lower part of the boat that may share some of the flow that does go to the motor area , but the low part. 

J3ff

After an hour? None. After weeks of no rain. NONE.

I had to deal with a boat leak.. where I learned that boat bilges should be DRY no matter what. If you have water down there, you have a problem. 

thrcaptiva276

What do these do? Seems like a one way valve but not super strong

thrcaptiva276

Thank you @skennelly for the trim ideas! 

Liberty44140

J3ff said:

After an hour? None. After weeks of no rain. NONE.

I had to deal with a boat leak.. where I learned that boat bilges should be DRY no matter what. If you have water down there, you have a problem. 

Can’t agree with this. Both my Rinker 310 and 342 came from the factory with bilge blower intake vents open to the engine room for fresh air in. Some rain always got in and so unless vacuumed there would always be a little water in the bilge. Also the engine room gutters on both boats easily overflowed in to the engine rooms with just a little debris to stop them up. Your bilge should not be going off every minute, half hour, hour, or even once a day.... if so there is likely a problem. Sure some boats should be dry, but both of my rinkers took rain water in to the bilge through those two areas and there was no real problem. 

thrcaptiva276

Thank you @Liberty44140, are those porta the bilge fresh air valves? 

Lake_Bum

After 5 days in the water, my boat will drain about 1 gallon out the plug when I put it back on the trailer.  We do LOTS of swimming, and of course that gets brought into the boat via dripping swimsuits and towels.  I've never been worried, because on the early season fishing trips, my bilge will be completely spotless dry. 

I'd be worried about the amount you are describing! 

J3ff

Liberty44140 said:

J3ff said:

After an hour? None. After weeks of no rain. NONE.

I had to deal with a boat leak.. where I learned that boat bilges should be DRY no matter what. If you have water down there, you have a problem. 

Can’t agree with this. Both my Rinker 310 and 342 came from the factory with bilge blower intake vents open to the engine room for fresh air in. Some rain always got in and so unless vacuumed there would always be a little water in the bilge. Also the engine room gutters on both boats easily overflowed in to the engine rooms with just a little debris to stop them up. Your bilge should not be going off every minute, half hour, hour, or even once a day.... if so there is likely a problem. Sure some boats should be dry, but both of my rinkers took rain water in to the bilge through those two areas and there was no real problem. 

Yes that's why I said no rain.  If it rains all bets are off. But if there's no rain there really shouldn't be any water in there.. 

Willhound

thrcaptiva276 said:

What do these do? Seems like a one way valve but not super strong

That is a drain for either a sink or bilge. Could also be a shower on a cruiser, but I assume no shower on your Captiva. There should be a hose connected on the inside of that drain to whatever it is draining. If that hose came off or is loose, it could be letting water in. Hard to tell from this pic where it is located on the hull.

YYZRC

That looks exactly like the generator exhaust port on my 350. But it’s obvi not that...

davidbrooks

A few things for clarification.  Blower openings should be around 4 inches.  When i saw that fitting my first thought was generator exhaust also.  The best bet is to get inside the engine compartment and follow  what ever is connected to it.  As to the trim tabs.  The indicator at the dash shows you which way you want the bow to go.  So if you are taking off and the bow is high push the buttons in the direction that the indicator shows to push it down.    That should coincide with the direction of the tabs but it is easier to remember.  The other thing  is that you can also take on water if you suddenly power down.  So when coming off plane dont just kill the throttle.  Ease into it. I almost always have a few inches of water in my bilge on my 342.  Mostly from rain though.  I vacuum it out when i get back to my lift and it magically reappears a week later even though i never lowered the boat into the water.  HOWEVER though.  The bilge pump should cut on and get rid of it.  If not, replace that thing immediatly. 

mattie

Willhound said:

thrcaptiva276 said:

What do these do? Seems like a one way valve but not super strong

That is a drain for either a sink or bilge. Could also be a shower on a cruiser, but I assume no shower on your Captiva. There should be a hose connected on the inside of that drain to whatever it is draining. If that hose came off or is loose, it could be letting water in. Hard to tell from this pic where it is located on the hull.

Great boat! Had one.....loved it always.

The drain in the pic are the scuppers - one one each side toward the stern. Those are the one-way drains from the cockpit at the back of the floor near the engine compartment. There is a looped hose connection. Not likely the source of water.

Our boat was notoriously wet in the same area. Assume you have the Sport Arch - that added a lot of water intrusion. Canvas can't keep up with rain water running down the sides of the arch.

Willhound

Ahh, Thanks @mattie Never would have thought of scuppers as any I've seen exit out the back at the transom, not on the side of the hull. And if working correctly and not held up with any debris, should not let water in.

thrcaptiva276

The drains are on both sides, two on each side.  The two dots close to the water line seem to have those one way valves.  These scuppers, are they something that stops working properly at some point?  Thank you @Willhound and @mattie

Willhound

All a scupper does is act as a one way drain that allows any water that has collected in the hull to drain out. There is typically either a little rubber flap or perhaps a rubber ball that sits in a cage. When water presses from the inside it opens and drains, usually when under way. When water hits it from the outside or while sitting, it closes off. Occasionally debris like leaves etc can block them partially open allowing water in. Easy to check. Shove a hose against it while on the trailer, wrap a rag around it to seal and turn the water on. Not too high a pressure. Water should not get in.

LaRea

Also check your bilge pump.  With the drain plug in, put the hose in the bottom of the engine compartment and turn it on to medium volume.  The bilge pump should come on automatically, and it should easily keep up with the water flow from the hose.  If not, fix the problem ASAP.  

mattie

@thrcaptiva276 nice looking boat!

Yes those are both scupper drains on each side (4 in total)
They are designed to empty large volumes of water from the cockpit. The drain hose connecting them has an upward loop - so not to allow water in the boat. That won't be where water is coming into the boat.

Almost for sure the residual water will be from water flowing off the arch. Water tends to collect in the seat gutters & floor gutters and bilge.

One season I had water slowly coming in from a poorly installed Bravo III transom seal replacement.

Here's an old pic of our 276BR. Great boat - great times......enjoy.

 

GMSLITHO

Maybe back the trailer in then take a good look behind the motor for and water coming in .Then if not start the motor and check all the hoses for leaks ,Thats a awful lot of water in a short time 

thrcaptiva276

I want to thank everyone for all the great ideas so far.  I am going to test most of the ideas above on Sunday!  Will let you all know the results.  I cannot say it enough, thank you all for taking the time to respond to my post!

Willhound

@mattie is probably correct in saying " The drain hose connecting them has an upward loop - so not to allow water in the boat. That won't be where water is coming into the boat." But since you're checking things anyway make sure those connections are tight. Hoses and clamps can loosen over time. 

thrcaptiva276

Had a great day on the water.  The auto bilge did its job!  The water is coming in from near the out drive shaft from the motor.  Think this may be it.  https://rinkerboats.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/3411/bravo-3-swivel-shaft-repair-instructions/p1

Liberty44140

Glad you had a good day. You need to figure out at the dock at rest how often the bilge pump comes on. If it is a few times a day, that’s fine for a season and you fix in the off season. That is enough to sink you if your pump breaks and you don’t see the boat for weeks so i would add a backup pump hardwired to a secondary battery. But If it is kicking on once per hour that is really not safe. I had a friend on the dock who had a swivel pin leak and his pump came on so infrequently we couldn’t even pin down frequency. Once a day at most, maybe every few days, so that was fine to leave as is.

aero3113

@thrcaptiva276 , it could be your bellows and not the pin. The amount of water you’re describing, I would say bellows.

LaRea

If it's the swivel pin, get it fixed.  Sinking the boat is only one of your problems.  The other is corrosion of the steering lever, which could cause loss of steering control (dangerous if it happens at speed).