how much water in the bilge

[shehzad]

Before you taste your bilge water confirm that your head isnt leaking...
YUCK!!

how would you know if it is from the head, unless you know its taste.

[Beam's Reach]

The colour should give you a hint

[Sloop John B]

Actually, its the convulsion and spasm your body undertakes. Brief your mate before the taste test so she can call an ambulance.

Better yet, tell the mate about your curiosity whether the bilge is salt or fresh and ask her to taste it. Stand back a bit in case she really starts to kick and bounce around.

When she comes to, dont let on what happened; just let her know the test was inconclusive.

[Beam's Reach]

Always good for a unique point of view Sloop!

[Zoran]

I had two leaks that are not listed above.
Bow navigation light was loose and it was leaking, water nicely followed the wiring. I just removed the light, cleaned and reinstalled, no more leaks there.
Second leak was following the cables from throttle control to the cockpit floor, simple replacement of rubber boot fixed the problem.
I had also leaking chain plates. Sealed them two years ago and after the last rain found a lot of water in bilges. I will have to revisit all exterior on the next sunny day.
One of the our club members had removed rubber bumper that covers connection of the boat top and bottom. He said that he found even some bolts missing there and a lot of holes where water was penetrating the boat. I can see in my marina that many X owners have silicone the top of their rubber bumpers, I guess with a reason. I am yet to do that.

Zoran

[Gerald Gordon]

I get 1 gal.+ in the boat . Someday I'll get down to brass tacks and fix it

[moonie]

I got water in my M after a days sail. I normally find it on the starboard side running from below the double bunks to the head stiffener.
I have installed a water alarm the tracks the origin of the water in sequence to where it runs. It is just about placing the first sensor in the correct place to detect 1st to alarm. If the second sensor triggered first I moved the 1st sensor to another potential seepage area and so on. I found my leak after three tries. I found ingress through a bolt on the motor well.

[Catigale]

My X boot under the pedastal, where the control cables run down, was not sealed well. Once I got 1/4 inch or so of water in the cockpit, it rained down into the aft berth.

Lots of 5200 stopped that. Chainplates are the only place left now that need maintenance every year or so.

[baldbaby2000]

I had a chainplate leak on my 2005 26M that got the carpet wet but not enough to get in the bildge. I also had a leak where the dealer didn't do a good job putting the shore power connector in. I goobered both with silicone and so far it's solved the problem. Other than that the only water in the bilge was due to my galley water tank connector not being on securely. My tank sits in the bilge under the galley; see my mod.

BB

[Tom Spohn]

My experience with both boats is that the X likes to leak at the chainplates and can deposit an unbelievable amount of water in the bilge after a rain when the mast is up. The M has relatively speaking fewer leaks, but the sink thru-hull is the place to look if the water is salty. When we first got our '04M it was dry until we sailed with enough lean to put the starboard thru-hull in the water and we had lots of water under the galley and S1 and S2. We began to bail it by using a portable bailer and sponges and pouring the water in the sink assuming it would just go overboard. After an hour of this and not making any gains on the water level we discovered the poorly drilled thru-hull was dumping the sink water right back in the bilge. Dealer installed a new thru-hull and problem fixed. Bilge remained dry as a bone.