Water dripping in at planing speed

baytripper89

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I have a 1989 Overnighter 20. Yesterday I had this issue crop up. Happened once earlier in the season, but I've gone out several times when it hasn't happened. I haven't had a chance to really investigate on my own in depth yet, but I thought I'd describe it here to see if I can get any thoughts from the group.

As I get up to planing speed I feel water dripping on my right foot. I then notice that the carpet on the little shelf that's down at knee level (starboard side) - it's the one that has the cup holder up front and runs right alongside where captain stands - is saturated except for the far end furthest aft. I later inspect it more closely to see that underneath the shelf is wet too. The water does not seem to be dripping from above the shelf. I'm almost sure of that. Best I can guess is that somehow at higher speeds I'm getting water in that is eventually getting to the underside of this shelf. (First time this happened I dismissed it as rainwater that was dripping onto my foot. Yesterday I realized it was something more concerning. ) I did a quick pop of the access hatch under the shelf and the only thing that caught my eye was one drop of water on the outside of one of the hoses that runs to the through-hull fitting (down from live well). As an aside I had some issues a few years back and had all the through hulls replaced with stainless steel versions. (And for what it's worth I don't use the live wells. They are not operational, but the drain hoses from them are all good.) Nothing else caught my eye. I need to give things a much more careful inspection, but in the meantime I would really appreciate it if any of you have some thoughts on what might be causing this issue. It definitely has me concerned.

(I may update this post if I get any more information to share.)

Thanks in advance for any ideas you may have on this.
 
Why do you think it's not dripping from above? It would be very logical that water would wrap itself around the shelf and wet the bottom. I'm just curious why you seem so positive that's not coming from above?

Off the top of my head.... broken pitot tube or the seal between deck and hull has failed. Both are pretty easy to check/verify.
 
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Same thing happened on my 330. You might look at it. It was a tubing connection that runs fresh water to the windshield wipers. Control knob under the main helm console - dripped water on my feet when fresh water pressure switch activated.
 
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I have a 1989 Overnighter 20. Yesterday I had this issue crop up. Happened once earlier in the season, but I've gone out several times when it hasn't happened. I haven't had a chance to really investigate on my own in depth yet, but I thought I'd describe it here to see if I can get any thoughts from the group.

As I get up to planing speed I feel water dripping on my right foot. I then notice that the carpet on the little shelf that's down at knee level (starboard side) - it's the one that has the cup holder up front and runs right alongside where captain stands - is saturated except for the far end furthest aft. I later inspect it more closely to see that underneath the shelf is wet too. The water does not seem to be dripping from above the shelf. I'm almost sure of that. Best I can guess is that somehow at higher speeds I'm getting water in that is eventually getting to the underside of this shelf. (First time this happened I dismissed it as rainwater that was dripping onto my foot. Yesterday I realized it was something more concerning. ) I did a quick pop of the access hatch under the shelf and the only thing that caught my eye was one drop of water on the outside of one of the hoses that runs to the through-hull fitting (down from live well). As an aside I had some issues a few years back and had all the through hulls replaced with stainless steel versions. (And for what it's worth I don't use the live wells. They are not operational, but the drain hoses from them are all good.) Nothing else caught my eye. I need to give things a much more careful inspection, but in the meantime I would really appreciate it if any of you have some thoughts on what might be causing this issue. It definitely has me concerned.

(I may update this post if I get any more information to share.)

Thanks in advance for any ideas you may have on this.

Why do you think it's not dripping from above? It would be very logical that water would wrap itself around the shelf and wet the bottom. I'm just curious why you seem so positive that's not coming from above?

Off the top of my head.... broken pitot tube or the seal between deck and hose has failed. Both are pretty easy to check/verify.
Thanks very much for the response. I will double check but as I inspected it yesterday I saw no evidence of water dripping from above. Definitely plan on double checking that. I appreciate the input.
 
Same thing happened on my 330. You might look at it. It was a tubing connection that runs fresh water to the windshield wipers. Control knob under the main helm console - dripped water on my feet when fresh water pressure switch activated.
Thanks for the response. I don't think this is the issue for in my case. I don't have any fresh water supply to the windshield wipers.
I really appreciate the input
 
I POSTED THIS BACK IN OCTOBER AND GOT SOME SOLID TIPS BUT NONE PANNED OUT - I'M POSTING AGAIN TO SEE IF ANYONE HAS ANY THOUGHTS THAT I IDIDN'T HEAR ALREADY - Thanks again to those who responded in the fall. Here's the original post (with an edit or two)

( I posted this as a new post in March but it was suggested that I post as an update on this thread. I appreciate any input anyone has. I'll be putting the boat in the water soon (early June 2026) and will plan on doing some more test runs and investigating. None of my investigations during the off season have come up with anything.)

I have a 1989 Overnighter 20. Yesterday I had this issue crop up. Happened once earlier in the season, but I've gone out several times when it hasn't happened. I haven't had a chance to really investigate on my own in depth yet, but I thought I'd describe it here to see if I can get any thoughts from the group. (I have investigated some more - happened again on some test rides and investigated more when I pulled boat for the season. Haven't come up with anything yet.)

As I get up to planing speed I feel water dripping on my right foot. I then notice that the carpet on the little shelf that's down at knee level (starboard side) - it's the one that has the cup holder up front and runs right alongside where captain stands - is saturated except for the far end furthest aft. I later inspect it more closely to see that underneath the shelf is wet too. The water does not seem to be dripping from above the shelf. I'm almost sure of that. Best I can guess is that somehow at higher speeds I'm getting water in that is eventually getting to the underside of this shelf. (First time this happened I dismissed it as rainwater that was dripping onto my foot. Yesterday I realized it was something more concerning. ) I did a quick pop of the access hatch under the shelf and the only thing that caught my eye was one drop of water on the outside of one of the hoses that runs to the through-hull fitting (down from live well). As an aside I had some issues a few years back and had all the through hulls replaced with stainless steel versions. (And for what it's worth I don't use the live wells. They are not operational, but the drain hoses from them are all good.) Nothing else caught my eye. I need to give things a much more careful inspection, but in the meantime I would really appreciate it if any of you have some thoughts on what might be causing this issue. It definitely has me concerned.



Thanks in advance for any ideas you may have on this
 
Can you better clarify the things you have checked? It's better for us if you are specific as to what you actually did and how you verified it was not the culprit.

Note, I edited my original reply as there was a grammatical error... "hose" was wrong... I changed it to "hull".
 
@baytripper89 - can you post a picture of the impacted area? Many of us have different models, and are not familiar with the specific layout of your boat. It may allow others to chime in with reasonable suggestions for you.