Thread: boat taking on water

It's always some new problem every time I take the boat out. The bait and live wells quit working. Can't get much water into them. Then if I DO get water in them, they won't drain. At the end of the day, stopped the boat and had to run the bilge pump for about 25 minutes. So I thought I had a bait and live well problem. I had to hit the pump every few hours to empty all the water. That pump works well, but the other pump makes a sound like a hornet's nest. Really loud!

The boat sat on the water overnight (we were camping) and the next morning I had to pump it out again. So...it is NOT the bait and live wells since we hadn't even driven it. Used it for one hour the next day and an hour after beaching it, I found 4" of water inside the boat from the driver's seat to the rear of the boat. It had not rained. There is a drain hole on the carpet in the back of the boat. I can see down the hole and it looks like it is inside the boat hull. Pumped it out again.

About midnight, I took a spotlight to check out the bilge again. I saw a bubbling up...like a fountain under water...on top of the two pumps. I reached in and turned the red top of the pump and the bubbling stopped. I did the same to the other one and drained it out again.

Today, I had to drain it again this morning, but it wasn't 4" deep at least!

So my questions...
1. Pumps...both say Aerator. Is one of them the bilge pump? Or is the
bilge pump in a different place?
2. What is causing the hornet sound and how do I fix it?
3. We have one of those drain plugs that has a metal part that you bend
over to close (instead of the one you screw in). Could it be the plug we
are using? It is easier to put in, but is the other kind better?
4. If the pumps were letting in water (bubbling), could that have caused
the 4" of water in the carpeted area of the boat?
5. When we bought the boat (used), the plug was a screw-in type and it
was screwed in from the outside of the boat to the inside. We put it inside
the bilge area and screw it in from inside to outside. Could this cause problems?
6. The water in the bilge went over the top of the batteries. Is it dangerous to put my hand in the
water beside the submerged batteries? Does the water damage the batteries? Do I need to take
the batteries out of the pans and dry the batteries and the pans?

It's always something! Hope you have some answers! Thanks,

Peke