Anchored after an hour or so of motoring. Went below and heard a squish with every step, with water squirting from under the teak and holly cabin sole. After much detective work, I found a broken hose clamp where the hose from the heat exchanger attaches to the exhaust riser. This was running out from under the engine cover onto the floor. Easy fix, but not easy to find.!
I pulled up all of the floor boards. On my boat, they are 1/2" plywood and are sealed with varnish (or epoxy?) on the bottom and edges, the only place they were at all wet is the screw holes. I've seen others say theirs are 1/4" and unsealed, so was surprised at what I found. Removed them, mopped up the water, dried them off and put them back down. Will take a bit longer for the carpets to dry (soaked).
Hopefully that's the last time I'll find water on the cabin sole; could have been much worse.
Gary and Cathy Price
1997 C36 Mk II Tall Rig/Wing Keel Imagine...
Hull # 1617
Worton Creek, Md.
Northern Chesapeake Bay
Gary, sorry to hear about your issue. One day we were motoring under the eastern span of the Bay Bridge and Cory noticed that the temp gauge was pegged. We shut down the engine and sailed under jib alone into the anchorage in Clipper Cove. Turned out the hoses underneath our galley sole from the engine to the hot water heater had frayed away after 23 years! Imagine that! Important enough to stick on our C34 Critical Upgrades page. Our hoses are much more "hidden" than yours are.
I also have recommended that skippers REMOVE their HXs at least once a year. The reason is that I've found it is not the tubes that get blocked, but rather the inlet port where the raw water meets the heat of the HX and starts to block that port in a BIG way. Of course, only valid for us salty sailors. :cool::rolleyes:
Stu Jackson, C34IA Secretary, C34 #224, 1986, SR/FK, M25 engine, Rocna 10 (22#)
Yes, I changed out my water heater hoses this spring; they were cracked a bit where they attached to the heater, but VERY cracked where they went under the galley floor and were, of course, out of sight.:mad:
Being in more or less fresh water, my heat exchanger seems to fare pretty well. I've had the ends off several times and it's been clean as a whistle. I changed the zinc this spring, but really could have put it back (it went into spares, just in case). Still a good thing to check periodically, as you said.
Gary and Cathy Price
1997 C36 Mk II Tall Rig/Wing Keel Imagine...
Hull # 1617
Worton Creek, Md.
Northern Chesapeake Bay
Gary,
I think that most boats came from the factory with 3/8" T&H soles. It's great that yours was sealed on all 4? sides, as moisture soaking into the laminate will quickly discolor and delaminate it. The bummer is that 3/8" T&H is just about impossible to find. 1/4" and 1/2" are easy, but not 3/8". Glad to hear you were able to quickly make the fix.
Tom Sokoloski
C36/375IA Past Commodore
Noank, CT
Well....... Looks like the broken hose clamp wasn't the problem, as it continues to leak. So after 3 hours of stressful motoring back to my slip, this morning I removed the exhaust riser. Looks like the boat will be down for awhile, hate that in Sept.
I checked an my floor boards are definitely 1/2". They stand proud of the recesses by about an 1/8th" so, I guess that makes sense if most boats have 3/8".
Edit:
I should add that removing the exhaust riser was MUCH easier than I expected. Worst part was trying to unwrap the header wrap, I had to cut it into several pieces. I had to cut the 1 3/8" hose as it wouldn't budge. Wire cutters needed as it's wire reinforced hose. The 3 nuts on the exhaust flange were not at all tight. In fact, I'd say they weren't tight enough, might be something worth checking from time to time. Once the hoses were off and the 3 nuts removed, the flange came right off. Oh yeah, guess I should have known antifreeze would come out of there :-)
Now to get a new one made.
Gary and Cathy Price
1997 C36 Mk II Tall Rig/Wing Keel Imagine...
Hull # 1617
Worton Creek, Md.
Northern Chesapeake Bay