List Members - I didn't know if this had been covered before (I'm a new list reader), but...... On my M15 (#260) we recently had a BUNCH of water dumped in the passenger area (______) and some of it wound up on the cabin floor. While trying to clean up, drain, etc, I notice that the "self/auto bailing" feature does not seem to be working well. (Water which should drain out around the centerboard retracting line does not, and only a trickle is leaving the centerboard area under the boat. And in trying to troubleshoot, I find several gallons of water in what seems to be the area described in recent list submissions as "the bilge area". Any suggestions on where I can read about possible clean out strategies? Or what could be clogging up the auto bailer? Or how this whole system is designed to work?
Don, The only way to clean out the bilge is with a sponge and bucket and a lot of contorting of your body to get the sponge into and out of the thing. Once it is empty, work on the cockpit drain. Run some water into the cockpit and check the bilge to make sure you don't have a leak between the centerboard pennant housing and the bilge (I did when my boat was brand new and had to slap a fiberglass patch over a flaw in the layup from the inside to solve that issue). If there is no leak then you just need to work the accumulated dirt and flotsam out of the the centerboard housing. That's probably best done in the water by pouring copious amounts of water onto the cockpit floor and raising and lowering the centerboard to work the stuff out. The pennant opening, once cleared, is sized to rapidly drain water from the cockpit floor. Good luck. Stan M-15, #177, Carol II
participants (2)
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Don G -
Stanley Winarski