Spirit 175: Water in Bilge Overnight

[TreyFinton]

Hi all,
I just picked up a 1992 Spirit 175 and have been loving the boat so far. I keep the boat in the water in a slip. I have been noticing water in the bilge overnight. After investigating it more it seems that there is a small leak from the live well scupper (fills the live well as the boat moves. Has anyone else come across this problem? If so, any tips would be much appreciated!

 

[seasick]

Generally a scupper does not feed the livewell. The typical plumbing is a thru hull scoop with a sea cock valve feeding a livewell pump. The livewell may drain out through a thru hull fitting. Also typical if you have a raw water wash down is that the pump for that has two output fittings, one for the wash down and the other for the live well.
So perhaps you are confusing a scupper with a scoop. Two different beasts. Scoops are always below the water line whereas scuppers are ( or should be ) above the water line.

If you have a below the water lint fitting leak, that can sink your boat

You didn't say if your automatic bilge pump is working. If it is , that can cause you to downplay the seriousness of a leak since you don't know if the bilge pump worked very often or maybe not at all.

 

[TreyFinton]

Generally a scupper does not feed the livewell. The typical plumbing is a thru hull scoop with a sea cock valve feeding a livewell pump. The livewell may drain out through a thru hull fitting. Also typical if you have a raw water wash down is that the pump for that has two output fittings, one for the wash down and the other for the live well.
So perhaps you are confusing a scupper with a scoop. Two different beasts. Scoops are always below the water line whereas scuppers are ( or should be ) above the water line.

If you have a below the water lint fitting leak, that can sink your boat

You didn't say if your automatic bilge pump is working. If it is , that can cause you to downplay the seriousness of a leak since you don't know if the bilge pump worked very often or maybe not at all.

Thanks for the clarification. You're absolutely right—I meant scoop, not scupper. I used the wrong terminology in my original post.

I'm currently in the process of rewiring the bilge pump because I discovered it was wired incorrectly. Right now, the automatic function loses power whenever I turn the battery switch off, so I'm correcting that before I put the boat back in the water.

Once the wiring is sorted out, my plan is to let the boat sit in the water and monitor the bilge to determine whether I have a leak at the scoop, livewell plumbing, or another below-the-waterline fitting. I appreciate you pointing out the importance of checking those components—that's exactly where I'll be focusing my inspection.

Thanks again for taking the time to explain the plumbing layout and for catching my terminology mistake.