Forward limber holes?

[backman]

Mac:

As part of the reengineing Doug bored out the limber holes in my engine beds to the point I can stick my thumb in them. The boat came home last night and when launched today had a 3" puddle of Albermarle Sound muddy water in the port engine pan and perhaps 1" of fresh rain water in the starboard pan. The bile itself had maybe an inch of Carolina mud water in there.

I jammed my thumb and a screwdriver down that (forward) hole and got nothing going. Doug told me he reamed it out and worked a piece of rope through it. Its hard/impossible to imagine that the boat got washed down in the Layton's shed, trailered 500 miles, blocked, all with the drain plug out and when launched suddenly produces Carolina water out of no where. I think/not sure, when I left the Layton's last saturday the bilge and pan's were clear.

3 questions - First - is there a deep spot somewhere unseen in the bilge under the tank that holds 5 or 10 gallons of water?

Second - what is the path from the limber holes at the forward end of the engine pans down to the bilge - Straight or curved?

Third and most important - you must have a method for keeping the limber holes clear? What is it?

i can deal with Carolina mud down there; but once it turns to tuna blood it gets gross!

[Mac]

There is a limber hole in the aft inboard corner under each engine. That hole drains down and then drains aft (you can not see this one) so that the water ends up in the bilge between the inboard engine stringers and gets pumped out. You may well have a little engine room insulation over that hole as it is in the corner by the inboard stringer. Other than that, everything should drain to center.

You may pocket a small amount of water on the outboard side of the engine stringers. This stringer is so short due to vee in the hull that I don't like putting a hole under it. As soon as you come on plane, the water drains down and out.

Mac

[backman]

The aft one is OK

As the boat drained when we were running it.

However; at the dock the water in the bilges and the engine pan runs forward to the front of the pans. There is a limber hole in the forward inboard stringer also, right at the forward bulkhead; that's the one that seems stuffed up. I think it comes out in the bottom

I know the aft one is working because I had someone stand on the stern gunwale and I could see mud water under the engine show up in the bilge. However it is pooled forward at the forward hole and will not drain there.

I'm going to go at it with a wire from below and see if I can ream it out. My guess is that when the engine room got sprayed down prior to the trip north something washed in there. Any reason not to stick an air nozzle in there from below and blast away with that?

I'll report back on Monday - at least now the holes are big enough that I can find them.

[backman]

Big problems!

Uh - oh - we had torrential rain last night and this is what I found this morning. Picture 1 is the port/flooded engine bed, mix of rain water and carolina mud, its 4-5" deep. Picture 2 is the starboard engine bed showing the big nice limber hole Doug reamed out. Clear water, maybe 1/2" in that engine bed.
Picture 3 is the central bilge showing the mud water oozed in there and stopped.

I've tried reaming out the limber hole from above and am a bit concerned about going at it from below in the bilge. I'll be calling in the morning for advice.