Trapped Water
 

I have a 238 Shabah, and it is trapping water under the floor. The bilge where the engine compartment is staying dry, but there is a large partition between the engine area and the area in front of it (where the fuel tank is) that is trapping the water. Logic tells me there should be a hole in that partition for the water to drain through, but there is not. Any suggestions?

Re: Trapped Water
 

Yes...there is a hole. Find it and clear it out with a straightened coathangar.
Jim

Re: Trapped Water
 

I have looked..... and felt.... and poked and prodded with a wire..... I cant find a hole anywhere. Also, it seems to be an inch or so deeper in the front part than in the back. So, that's even more confusing.

Re: Trapped Water
 

DBC MINDED,
Crank your trailer jack up as high as you can, slanting the boat to the rear. I always leave my boat this way for drainage. See if this desn't move the water to the rear, up against the partition. The hole should be at the lowest place. In my boats it isin the bottom center. Can you probe from both sides of the partition? I am new to Mariah's, but all other boats we have had are this way. I will be going to work on my boat this afternoon, and will locate the pass through hole on mine and reply again, with a photo.
jim

Re: Trapped Water
 

@jmorgan, I have tried this as well. I've come to the conclusion that there is no hole in the partition. I can get to both sides of it relatively easy, and nothing.... not even a rough spot in it where a hole should be. Could the drain be somewhere else? maybe a bilge pump under there that should pump it out? I find it hard to believe that the previous owners had it for 13 years and never noticed a couple hundred gallons of water under the floor. :confused:

Re: Trapped Water
 

I found the drainhole on my z212. It is the biggest one I have ever seen. At least 3/4", maybe 1". Dead center, at the bottom. Couldn't get you a photo as it was too congested wit stuff to get the camera in there. I also noticed tha both my ski locker and "cooler" have sinklike drains. This is unusual. I'm assuming they simply drain into the bottom of the hull and flow out though drainholes to accumulate in the bilge. Got a lot to learn about this new boat. I found the original manuals (in a cubby I found behind the backrest of the bow seats), maybe they will show something...I will read them tonight
Jim

Re: Trapped Water
 

Maybe its time to create a drain hole thru the partition?

Re: Trapped Water
 

Here is a crude layout of what I'm dealing with. The bilge area in front of the partition is about 2-3 inches deeper than the engine area.... I'm lost on this one.

Re: Trapped Water
 

Do you have the fiberglass floor, or are you fully carpeted? I was just thinking in my boat, there's a separate center fiberglass piece that unscrews for access to the tank. If yours is set up the same way, I'd definitely consider doing that and taking a very good look around before drilling a drain hole around the tank. If you drill low, it may not seem like it'll empty the tank, but remember the principles of physics while boating. Throttle makes the bow rise, which will push water to the back, and if the drain hole you made is a few inches higher than the bottom of the tank area, it will still help it drain. A small amount of water in there won't hurt anything as it's all fiberglassed in, but the excess should drain right into your bilge if your plan works!

Re: Trapped Water
 

This is true. I didn't think about the bow rising, but still when the boat is trailered it is holding water. It just seems to me that Mariah would not have missed such in integral step in building a boat. Everything is fiberglassed in under there, and if I drill through the stringer, I will have bare wood exposed to water which I don't want unless I have to.

Re: Trapped Water
 

DCB MINDED,
I am not sure I agree with your drawing. My Z212 is not that way. The bottom of my engine compartment is simply the stringers w/ motor mounts and the inside of the hull. The vertical partition between the engine compartment and the gas tank is shaped to fit the inside of the hull an has a large drain hole. I always store my boat with the trailer jack all of the way up and the drive lowered until it just clears the ground. This gives a good angle for drainage.
Jim

Re: Trapped Water
 

Well, Update. I'm an idiot, and there is definitely a hole on the front side of the partion. However, the engine compartment area is definitely shallower than the fuel tank area. so, I don't know where the hole goes.... It's still not draining :mad: I tried using the hose to blow water through it, but it sounds like water sloshing around as if it opens back up on the other side instead of going through a tube. (like maybe under the engine bilge area.)

Re: Trapped Water
 

I bevieve that the water should be ending up in the bilge area, under the engine. Is water coming out of the hull plug at the rear of the boat?

Re: Trapped Water
 

Thats what makes logical sense to me... but it doesn't end up in there. The engine area is dry. The hole in the back of the boat drains the engine area. I'm starting to wonder if there is another hole somewhere in the engine area that is stopped up.

Re: Trapped Water
 

I'm not sure if your boat is like mine, but I can have quite a bit of water in my bilge, and never see it under the engine at all, but it pours out when I pull the transom drain plug. Maybe it's just mine, but under my engine seems to be some sort of faux fiberglass "floor" that's glossy, smooth, color matched, and mounted above the real bilge area, with cutouts for the bilge pump, and depth transducer. I noticed it when I was replacing my bilge pump last year. The pump actually mounts into the dirty, rougher, raw fiberglass below the faux engine "floor" about an inch. The pic below shows it best.

Re: Trapped Water
 

ShabaZ250,
Nice, clean engine compartment. That's what mine will look like by summer. I noticed the lack of engine....you must be re-powering??

I don't think mine has a false floor like yours and probably DCB_Minded's. I am on the way to finish cleaning out the interior of mine in preparation to hauling it to Lake Powell in the morning. I will try to get a foto of my bilge area and post it.

DCB_Minded,
If you have this false floor, the drain hole will be under it, where the vertical partition meets the hull, at the lowest point...I know it has to be there somewhere, otherwise things would be underwater and rot.
Jim

Re: Trapped Water
 

Agreed! Nice clean engine compartment.... Thats almost exacty what mine looks like, except the bilge pump is not in a hole. it is actually mounted to the engine compartment floor. Maybe I just need to drill a hole for the pump to sit in.... Still confused as to why Mariah would have missed that one....

Re: Trapped Water
 

That was from '09 when I had the coupler go bad and had to pull the engine for repair. I won't be sharing any other photos of my poor boat from that time, as that was a rather dark and depressing part of her history. All I can say is thank god for insurance... BUT! It did allow me to explore around and clean up lots of things while the shop had it out!

I'd be interested to see a photo of your bilge for comparison. Something just didn't seem right when I compared the depth of the transom plug and the bottom of that faux floor in mine. There's a pretty good area that's unable to be seen, and water won't appear under the engine until there's probably 10 gallons in there.

One other thing, I mentioned in another post, my boat has somewhat of a "sub" drain plug. I don't know if it's factory, or if it was installed by a previous owner. But, it's attached with a wire inside. I believe it's plastic, or something (I can never see the full thing, other than it's colored plastic with a rubber washer on it), but I think this is what is considered an "emergency drain plug". Basically, if you leave out your main drain plug, dunk the boat into the water, take on large amounts of water into the bilge, and put the boat into forward motion, the flow of the water backwards forces this plastic plug into the transom drain to not allow any more water in. Maybe it's plugged up in some area which won't let the water out?

Just trying to think of all the possibilities!!

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I'll post a pic tomorrow night. My son's car broke down the other day and I never made it to the boat or Lake Powell! Planning on going out ot the boat tomorrow afternoon to finish cleaning out the inside. I store it in airplane hangar while I am working on it, so it is 20 miles away.
Jim

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Here is what the bilge area of our 1994 Z212 looks like. No false floor. You can see the large partition drainhole, stringers, bilge pump and float and transducer…all directly on the inside surface of the hull.

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I just cant get photos right in this forum! Sorry. Here s a link to them.

Webshots Rides offers thousands of the best car wallpapers.

The last 3 photos.
Jim

Re: Trapped Water
 

Sharp boat! wake tower looks great on it! I can't help with the water problem, but in looking at your pictures, if you need a source for new foam for your windshield, one of our members shared a seller on Ebay that sell a great replacement for 20 bucks.

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You guys are awesome! I am finally off work tomorrow, and I will check it out to see if I can get some better pics of it.... This is driving me crazy, and I need to get that water out of there so that it doesnt sit all winter!

Re: Trapped Water
 

Zins,
Bought the foam a couple of weeks ago from e-bay.
Jim

Re: Trapped Water
 

jmorgan, great pics, thanks! and I agree, sharp boat!

DCB_Minded, I'd like to see a pic of your bilge, if you can. Since your boat is a newer model than jmorgans, it should have the integrated stringer system (which they started using 7/20/97 for the '98 model year and continued through the end). I did some research through all the brochures and found that the integrated stringer system has some interesting claims:

#7. The entire boat is designed to quickly drain all water to the bilge. :confused:
#8. A perfectly clean and neatly organized engine compartment which is also fully glass lined, providing greater safety from bilge debris, aiding in the identification of fluid loss, and easier cleaning.
#10 The fuel tank is safely mounted inside it's own sealed fiberglass cavity, tooled exactly to fit the tank's dimensions, eliminating movement, or the loss of support and integrity experienced in conventional boat construction methods.

There's a pic in the 2001 brochure which shows an upside down version of the integrated stringer top half system. It's an awful resolution, I know (i'll try and find the high res version) Keep in mind, this would get flipped upside down, inserted into a blank fiberglass lined hull, then sealed and bonded to form a finished bottom half. Maybe it's just my eyes playing tricks on me, but doesn't it look like the fiberglass lined engine area doesn't extend as deep as the fuel cell cavity? I wonder if this is where they get the claim about bilge debris safety, because the integrated stringer system doesn't fully go into the full bottom of the bilge area of the hull?

Re: Trapped Water
 

Nice research! I wish we could all just meet up at this boat and figure it out.

Re: Trapped Water
 

Alright, after getting under there with my camera taking some pictures, I learned 2 things. I need to clean out my bilge, and I think someone drilled a drain hole on the wrong side of the integrated stringer system that ShabahZ is talking about. (yes it looks to me like my boat has it) You are also correct in your assumption that the engine bilge is not as deep as the fuel tank bilge.... My water seems to be draining under the engine bilge area, instead of coming into it. Keep in mind that my engine area is where my bilge pump and drain hole are.

Re: Trapped Water
 

Well folks, SUCCESS!!!! It looks like the hole was never cut in the engine bilge area for the pump to go down in. (see ShabahX250's pic) It took a lot of courage to drill a hole in my floor for fear of being wrong, and drilling right through the bottom of the boat, but I drilled about a 1/4" hole, and water started pouring up through it. So, once I get all the water drained out, I'll cut me about a 5" circle, and re-mount my bilge pump in there. Thanks for all the help guys!

P.S. I wonder why Mariah never cut the hole in the first place....:confused:

Re: Trapped Water
 

Glad you were able to find the problem!! It's bizarre that it wasn't cut out at the factory. But, perhaps it was an oversight, or maybe your boat was one of the ones built for a dealer meeting/boat show, and just never got the bilge plug installed completely. Or maybe it was a prototype or something? Who knows.... One things for sure, it's good you found the solution. The thing to keep in mind, these boats were all made primarily by hand, so there's bound to be a few mistakes here and there, we're all human! Mariah wasn't like those other manufacturers that shot out 50 boats a day made by robots. :)

Re: Trapped Water
 

Thats true, No one is perfect. You would think the bilge pump install guy would have noticed he wasnt installing the pump in the hole though. Who knows! I'm just glad I found the solution and got the water out. I'm sure it wasn't good for the boat over all these years.... not to mention the extra couple of hundred pounds I've been carrying around all last summer. Once again, THANK YOU GUYS for the opinions/pics/advice. I'm looking forward to starting a few projects on the ole girl and spending some time on the lake!