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Water in BMC bilge on Hudson

chilligibbon

By chilligibbon
in Boat Building & Maintenance

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chilligibbon Contributor

chilligibbon

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Hi,

 

Had some water in the bilge under the BMC of a Hudson I have recently bought. Taken all of the ballast up and dried it out, checked connections on calorifier and all looks good, been dry for about a week or so.

 

Had some rain in week and now have about inch of water again, only access point I can see is possibly around the diesel filler.

 

Has any one else suffered the same and can shed any light?

 

The main cabin and engine room bilges forward of the diesel tank are perfectly dry.

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alan_fincher Veteran II

alan_fincher

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A BMC in a Hudson?

 

Surely not!

 

Tim

 

 

BMC = BoatMan's Cabin?

 

A BMC is an engine.

 

The living space on a working narrow boat is a back cabin, so I can't see why it needs to have a different name on a Hudson.

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nicknorman Veteran II

nicknormanDonate to Canal World

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... so I can't see why it needs to have a different name on a Hudson.

Because of course, mr Hudson invented them, so he can call them what he likes, and back cabin was perhaps too close to the passage of the same name. Before Steve invented the Boatman's cabin, working boaters had to live in tents, and damn cold it was too, so you should be grateful.

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nicknorman Veteran II

nicknormanDonate to Canal World

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Incontinence?

 

But seriously, sorry I don't know how the bilges are plumbed in SHM boats with a BMC. Could it get water from the stern gland, or from the counter weed hatch hatch? (Which should drain into the weed hatch, but could be blocked). Hopefully someone with a Hudson with a BMC will be along to advise soon.

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chilligibbon Contributor

chilligibbon

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Incontinence?

But seriously, sorry I don't know how the bilges are plumbed in SHM boats with a BMC. Could it get water from the stern gland, or from the counter weed hatch hatch? (Which should drain into the weed hatch, but could be blocked). Hopefully someone with a Hudson with a BMC will be along to advise soon.

Thanks Nick.

 

Stern gland is into a separate bilge and that's fine. Weed hatch is straight through from counter deck and sealed with no access to main structure.. Looks like the wet bilge is sealed as fuel tank is welded in fully side to side at the back of the engine room!

 

Could do with a good down pour tomorrow so I can get my head in and have a good look around!

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mark99 Veteran II

mark99

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What's the layout with respect to underfloor bulkheads? is there a below floor bulkhead just after the stern tube? mine (not a Hudson) has a underfloor bulkhead just after the stern tube - so if the sterntube leaks it's contained in a little area.

 

On mine, if there is water under back cabin boatmans tent, it can only come from leak from skin tank (you would notice engine header tank dropping), through skin of narrowboat or sea cock (raw cooler for onboard genny).


Another possibility is that the stern gland leaked over a long time filled up the small bilge and then overflowed into the back boatmans tent bilge.

 

Can you check this? is it possible the little bilge could overflow into the big one?

Edited by mark99
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chilligibbon Contributor

chilligibbon

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What's the layout with respect to underfloor bulkheads? is there a below floor bulkhead just after the stern tube? mine (not a Hudson) has a underfloor bulkhead just after the stern tube - so if the sterntube leaks it's contained in a little area.

 

On mine, if there is water under back cabin, it can only come from leak from skin tank (you would notice engine header tank dropping), through skin of narrowboat or sea cock (raw cooler for onboard genny).

Stern tube is directly over its own bilge with bulkhead to seperate it from back cabin bilge. No skin tank or sea cock in affected area, ruled out calorifier leak so guessing it can only be through outside of fuel filler cap ( this area of gunwale does hold water after rain) or small porthole in back cabin.

 

Think I will remove and re seal fuel filler neck tomorrow and take it from there.

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mark99 Veteran II

mark99

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BBTB has been dry since had the boat! Stern gland not leaked a drop.

 

 

If you have just bought it, the overflow could have happened (little bilge overflowing into big bilge as batteries in bilge pump dead) broker just before sale could have pumped out the little bilge and tightened up/greased the stern gland. But not pumped out the BBTB (cos he did not check larger bilge)?

Edited by mark99
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by'eck Veteran

by'eck

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As suggested Hudson boats have a small steep walled triangular bilge formed by the apex of the swims. Rear deck drains are routed into this as well as calorifier PRV overflow. Its position catches any drips from the stern gland as well and its drained by an automatic bilge pump (+ manual override on mine).

 

From the OP's description it seems that the bottom of the back boatman's cabin (hedging my bets wink.png ) itself is taking in water. It depends on engine fitted I suppose but those built with forward engine room have a full width integral fuel tank built into the floor of the forward part of this cabin, preventing any water leaked forward of this from reaching the lower floor area behind. It should be easy therefore to find the culprit leak.

Edited by by'eck
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chilligibbon Contributor

chilligibbon

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As suggested Hudson boats have a small steep walled triangular bilge formed by the apex of the swims. Rear deck drains are routed into this as well as calorifier PRV overflow. Its position catches any drips from the stern gland as well and its drained by an automatic bilge pump (+ manual override on mine).

 

From the OP's description it seems that the bottom of the back boatman's cabin (hedging my bets ;) ) itself is taking in water. It depends on engine fitted I suppose but those built with forward engine room have a full width integral fuel tank built into the floor of the forward part of this cabin, preventing any water leaked forward of this from reaching the lower floor area behind. It should be easy therefore to find the culprit leak.

Spot on description of the back boatmans cabin tent underfloor bilge of my boat! Where the water is coming from is baffling me guess I'll just be spending many a happy hour down there with a torch and waiting for that tell tale drip!

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Tommo Contributor

Tommo

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Hi,

 

Had some water in the bilge under the BMC of a Hudson I have recently bought. Taken all of the ballast up and dried it out, checked connections on calorifier and all looks good, been dry for about a week or so.

 

Had some rain in week and now have about inch of water again, only access point I can see is possibly around the diesel filler.

 

Has any one else suffered the same and can shed any light?

 

The main cabin and engine room bilges forward of the diesel tank are perfectly dry.

Can’t see how that much water (inches!) could get past the diesel filler, but wouldn’t that end up in engine room area anyway. I would be more inclined to suspect a leak from the calorifier or plumbing.

 

 

Ian

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