Leak near engine mount

Rrmorseb18c

New Member
May 19, 2018
4
Boat Info
2004 sea ray 215 weekender
Engines
Mercruiser 5.0 mpi
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Recently purchased 2004 215 weekender and found a small trickle of water coming through what I think is the stronger underneath where the engine mounts. Before I launched the boat I removed all mounting hardware for swim platform and trim tabs, sealed with 5200 and reinstalled. The leak is very slow. The photos show the area that is leaking and how much water cane in after roughly 12 hrs. I am looking for suggestions on what I should do next. Thanks. The images are not in the correct orientation, need to be rotated but idk how. The leak is from in the corner of the small cavity under the engine mount.
 
If its coming from the stringer ,its most likely rotted and needs repair
Now try to find out where the water is coming in or has come in. Was/is the hull cracked and repaired.Was the bilge ever flooded severely.
If you have access to a trailer , pull the boat and weigh it and compare it against a factory weight. That will tell you how much water your carrying around in wet wood and wet foam.
 
You will get quite a few suggestions.

One I did to confirm where my water was coming in from was to clean the bilge area really well and then use a wet/dry vac to suck out the remaining water and then go hunting with a very good flash light to see if you can find where the water is coming in from. Might need one of those inspection mirrors from an auto parts store for hard to see areas but it can be done.

Good luck.
 
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Unfortunately I do not have access to a trailer to pull out of the water right now. I spoke with the yard that I purchased the boat from and launched for me, they are pretty busy right now I guess and they said after Memorial Day weekend they can take a look. That’s ok with me because the leak isn’t that bad where the bilge pumps are kicking on that often, every time I’ve gone down to the boat I have just kicked the pump on manually and there is barely enough water for the pump to work. I have vacuumed with a wet vac and cleaned and dried pretty good, I can visually see where the water is trickling in. It is weeping in through a small pin hole in the wall under the motor mount. The question for me is how is the water getting to that point. I am not sure what the construction or layout of the stringers are. The water is clear not brown stained. The boat isn’t listing to one side or the other. I really hope there isn’t a structural issue, I am not prepared financially or time wise to deal with a problem like that.
 
Since the water isn't brown or otherwise discolored, I doubt the stringer is rotted, however, this needs addressed ASAP to prevent it from rotting. I'm thinking you have something mounted to the transom directly behind the stringer that is allowing water to get inside the glass over the stringer and is finding it's own way out. Either that or you have had a lot of rain water in your bilge at some point that has seeped into the glass around the stringer thru a screw hole etc and is now finding it's own way out. You may need to get a marine surveyor to look at the boat and access the situation.
 
Thanks for the replies, gonna haul it out next week and check it out, I do believe the swim platform bolt is going directly into the stringer, it looks that way anyways. I thought I sealed everything up good but apparently not.
 
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Still wasn’t able to haul the boat out yet. This situation is strange to me, the water has stopped leaking from where it was before but is now leaking out from a spot near by. There was sort of a brown sludge material there. When I wiped away the sludge a small trickle of clear water can be seen. A very small trickle. This has me stumped. Not sure if it’s collected rain water or a leak from the outside. The sludge and water can be seen in the photos towards the bottom.
 
Looks like a little void in the glass layup in that inside corner. The clear water is a good sign, doesn't look like rotted wood 'juice' (brown tea like liquid). Could be trapped bilge water or a new leak. Either way, you need to get the boat hauled and investigate this further ASAP so as to prevent saturating the core and starting a rot problem.
 

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