How much water

C

Chris Watson

New Member
Jul 6, 2020
4
Boat Info
2012 Sea Ray 205 Sport
Engines
4.3 Mercruiser
new to boating.
how much water should drain from the garboard plug after a day of water sports. I have a 2012 205 sport.
 
If your bilge pump is working, I would say not a whole lot. Maybe a bucket full?
 
Like golfman says, ideally very little, maybe none. You may have leaking bellows on the outdrive or other leaks. Open the engine hatch while floating and look/listen to see if water is coming in and what areas look wet, both with the engine running and with it off. Also listen with the drive trimmed up and with it down. Often a bellows leak is worse with the drive trimmed up. They can be hard to spot.
 
My 260 has the swim platform bolted on. The sealant used around the fasteners had become brittle just about the time I bought it used. For the first year we used to trailer it, however, it became such a bear to load at times we opted for a berth. While launching we found the stern & swim platform area was very low in the water & allowing water past a couple of bolts. Might be a spot for you to look at.
 
6.3765 ounces. Just kidding, but really, only as much water as falls below the bilge pump pickup.
 
We throw a towel on the swim platform and on the seats, plus a bathmat on the deck. Virtually no water from swimmers.

Years ago I used to pull the plug after we went out to drain the water. Never got any. Now the plug hasn't been out in years. Nothing to drain.
 
Chris Watson said:
new to boating.
how much water should drain from the garboard plug after a day of water sports. I have a 2012 205 sport.
Click to expand...
I'm curious about this too. I have a 270sundeck. We had it on the water for a few days this past weekend, including overnight. When I pulled the drain plug when we took it out of the water, I had at least 2 gallons of water come out. Seemed excessive to me. I plan to spend some time looking for leaks.
 
2 gallons is excessive. After being in the water all season I have 6 - 8 ounces come out. That's from rain water that gets past the canvas cockpit cover.
 
I get several gallons in my bilge by the end of the day. We thought that it might be the bellows, but ended up tracing the leak to the deck to hull joint on the side of the boat. Based on CSR input, quite a number of us have a similar problem.

We found my leak by dunking the back of the boat at the ramp, others have had friends put a hose on the rubrail while they looked in the boat, and sometimes you can see light coming through the joint.

The fix is to take the rubrail off, replace the adhesive caulk and rebed the screws with some caulk to seal it back up. Supposedly not hard, just time intensive. It's been on my list of things to do, but I haven't had time to get to it so far:(
 
About 2 quarts. I'm sure this may vary based on the activities involved. This is with 3 swimmers getting on and off and only an 18 foot boat.
 
The best answer was given in post #4.
 
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