There’s a hole in the boat, dear Liza, dear Liza, a hole!

There’s a hole in boat (bucket), dear Liza, dear Liza.  There’s a hole in the boat, dear Liza, a hole.  Then fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry.  Then fix it, dear Henry, the hole…

You know the song, but seriously what do you do if there is a hole in the boat and it’s letting in water?  This is one of the scariest and most serious things that can happen onboard.  There are a number of possible causes and myriad solutions, depending on the situation.  It may be that one of the best things we can do is to think through the possibilities and solutions in advance.  That way, if ever faced with the situation, at least we’ll be able to quickly sort through the options, and have plans in place to try to stem the tide, so to speak.

When it comes to unwelcome water entering the boat, time is of the essence.  As part of our “What If” exercises, we will start with the dreaded water in the boat problem (keep in mind that this post is primarily preparation for us on our boat).  Your boat may have other potential sources of letting water in, and you may have other solutions.  If you have suggestions, please comment.

One final thought before we get started – for us, it makes the most sense to begin with prevention and then focus on specific situations and possible responses afterwards.  We want to do our best to take steps in advance to prevent water from coming into the boat.

Prevention/Best Practices:

• Maintain thru-hulls and hoses.
• Inspect and service the dripless seal or stuffing box for the prop shaft.
• Avoid situations where the chance of a collision is high (i.e., sailing at night in the Strait of Juan de Fuca where floating logs are a hazard).
• Have watertight bulkheads (see below).
• Ensure that the standard water level is below the top of a sealed rudderpost housing (see below).
• Maintain a watch and know where you are relative to shallow water.
• Keep the bilge clean and dry so that the bilge pumps can function if needed.
• Test the bilge pump and the float switch regularly.
• Test the manual bilge pumps, having one manual pump below deck and one above.
• Have an indicator light for when the bilge pump is on.  The sooner you know there is a problem, the better.
• Have a loud alarm for when the water reaches an unacceptable height in the bilge.
• Have a diagram of your boat showing and know the exact location of each thru-hull, and don’t forget about the knotmeter and depthsounder thru-hull fittings.
• Have a watertight bulkhead in the bow.  For our boat there is already a space under the anchor locker and in front of the bulkhead that separates the anchor locker from the v-berth.  We hope this space is watertight as it could serve as watertight compartment in the event of a collision at the bow.  An example would be if we hit a submerged log or container.  Secondarily, the space under our v-berth is divided into four compartments.  We’ll investigate making the two forward compartments watertight, but still accessible from above.
• Have a watertight bulkhead in the stern.  One of the key vulnerabilities of many boats is a failed rudderpost.  This has the potential to let in a lot of water very quickly.  A bulkhead forward of the rudderpost should be designed to limit water ingress to only the stern area.  On our boat, we are going to ensure that the bulkhead is as watertight as possible.  There is an access hatch from the quarter berth that will likely need improvements.  There are also steering cables that must pass through the bulkhead, but the holes can likely be reduced.  There is wiring passing through the bulkhead and this needs to be addressed with either a gasket or sealant or both.
• If possible, the rudderpost housing should be designed or retrofitted such that if there is a hole due to a failed rudderpost then the standard water level is below the top of the housing.
• Keep a plywood sheet that is large enough to cover your largest hatch onboard, along with sealant and screws that are long enough to secure the plywood in an emergency.

Scenario 1:

Water is entering the boat through a failed thru-hull fitting or hose.  Of course, you don’t know that is the cause immediately.  All you know is that water inside the cabin is rising fast, much faster than the electric bilge pump remove the water.  The challenge with water entering the boat is that the more water there is, the harder it is to find the hole.  So, on the one hand you need to find the hole.  On the other hand, you want to increase the rate of removing water from the boat.  The reality is that it is almost impossible to pump water out faster than water is coming in through even a thru-hull.  Therefore, finding the hole becomes priority one as it becomes paramount to stop the in-flow.

Possible Reactions:

• Is the hole a result of a known collision?  If yes, then refer to Scenario 3.
• Check each thru-hull for signs of inflow.
• If it is obvious the leak is from a failed hose, the thru-hull can be closed.
• If the leak is from a failed thru-hull fitting then inserting an emergency wooden plug, already secured to the thru-hull might, stop the flow.
• What if the wooden plug doesn’t stop the inflow?  Refer to scenario 3.
• What if the hole isn’t related to a thru-hull?  Refer to scenario 3.

Scenario 2:

While inspecting the thru-hulls for leaks, the dripless seal or stuffing box is identified as the culprit.

Possible Reactions:

• If motoring, take the engine out of gear.
• Our boat is equipped with a Volvo dripless seal that maintains the seal between a metal collar and the prop shaft.  The failure point could be between the collar and shaft or with the boot that attaches between the collar and the stern tube.
• First check would be to see if the seal can be repositioned or “fixed” quickly.
• We could try wrapping the affected area with duct tape.  I’m not sure if that would work due to the water, but perhaps the strength of the tape would be sufficient to get things tight enough to stem the flow.
• We could wrap the area with a towel to slow down the flow while a better solution is found.
• If the boot has torn away from the stern gland we could try stuffing towels, rags, or wadded up duct tape into the opening between the shaft and the stern tube.

Scenario 3:

You’ve had a collision, and now water is entering the boat.  You don’t believe it is due to a failed thru-hull, hose, or through the stern tube.

Possible Reactions:

• If the hole is near the waterline consider methods to heel the boat so that hole clears the water.  Obviously wind in the sails is an easy method, but what if there is no wind?  An anchor or person off the end of the boom extended opposite the hole?  That is not a fast solution, but if the hole is near the waterline or just above the waterline then perhaps you have more time.
• If the boat is healed over significantly when the water ingress is discovered, don’t rule out a leak high up on the hull, at the hull to deck joint, or through a fitting on the edge of the deck.  Tack or reduce heeling if this seems like the culprit.
• If the collision was forward, don’t rule out a failed speedometer or depthsounder thru-hull fitting.  We once hit a log in the Strait of Juan de Fuca (during the daytime!) hard enough to bend the pins on the knotmeter paddle wheel.  I can easily imagine that scenario happening slightly differently and damaging the thru-hull fitting.
• If the leak is due to a breach of the hull, it is time to start improvising.  On Earendil we carried a 3’ triangular weblon mat.  Each corner was doubled over and grommeted.  Long lines were then attached to each corner.  The idea was the mat could be placed on the outside of the boat over the breach in the hull and secured in place with the lines.  We’ve not tested this though to determine if, in fact, the mat would seal against the hull.  It may be that the mat would be more effective on the inside of the hull where some other object could be used to press the mat against the hull.  In the absence of a collision mat we might try cushions?  Towels?  Foul weather gear?  A wetsuit?

Scenario 4:

A grounding or a collision with the keel.  This seems like one of the most dangerous situations as the forces exerted on the hull can be tremendous and the potential for a large opening or severe damage to hull is real.

Possible Reactions:

• If the damage is to the keel area then it seems there are two options:

1)   Hope the leak is slower than the bilge pump.

2)   Try to use a collision mat or similar as with the collision scenario described above.

• If the damage is due to a grounding and the damage is severe, it may be best to steer towards shallow water to prevent the boat from sinking.  This assumes the shallow water is a safe place to be and not huge breakers crashing on huge rocks.

Scenario 5: 

The leak is on deck or through a failed port or hatch.

Possible Reactions:

• Start with the weblon collision mat to minimize water ingress while a better solution is implemented.
• Use plywood that is large enough to fit over the largest port or hatch.
• Secure the plywood with long screws and sealant.

Other thoughts:

What if you identify the leak, but are unable to stop it? 

We are considering adding a y-valve between the engine raw water intake thru-hull and the intake strainer.  This will allow us to switch the valve and turn our engine into a bilge pump.  Perhaps this combined with the electrical bilge pump, combined with the manual bilge pumps would be enough to beat back the rising water.

What if the leak is severe and there is no stopping it? 

She is going down.  Time to prepare to abandon ship.  Below are our abandon ship procedures in some order of priority:

• We are already wearing inflatable PFD’s at all times when underway, so needing to don those is unlikely, but if one of us is sleeping or we are not underway, then grab PFD’s.  Our PFD’s include lights, whistles, and knives.
• Grab the EPIRB and turn it on.
• Grab the ditch bag kept at the nav station.  Ditch bag includes, at a minimum:
• Passports
• Water
• Food
• Space blanket
• Sunscreen
• Flares
• Mirror
• Knife
• First aid kit
• Grab the SatPhone (we don’t have this yet, but it is on the list).
• Grab an iPhone because it has a GPS and electronic charts, in addition to phone capabilities if near shore.
• Grab the handheld GPS.
• Grab the handheld VHF.
• Deploy liferaft, ensuring the tether is attached to the boat (we are currently planning on buying a liferaft, but are well aware of two couples that we have enormous respect for who deliberately do not carry liferafts on board…do you have any thoughts that we should consider?)

The above assumes there are two people onboard grabbing things or deploying the liferaft and that most, if not all, of the items are kept near the nav station.

It’s important to remember Rule #1 of abandoning ship.  Step UP into the liferaft.  Many boats are abandoned each year and subsequently found still floating later.  Depending on the situation it can be safer to remain with a foundering, but still afloat big boat, then to jump into a tiny inflatable liferaft.

What other considerations are there that we should think through?

Shearwater was holed...intentionally! Before purchasing the boat, the previous owner wanted to verify that moisture readings of the hull were not indicating that the core was wet. However, it's important to realize that a hole like this one would sink the boat fast. How would you deal with something catastrophic like this?

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