Bilge odor

[svaron]

I have a pesty bilge odor in the master stateroom that just won't go away. The bilge has a small amount of water. The bilge compartment is shared with the shower / main head sump pump and is under the floor in the master stateroom.

I've tried West Marine 'citrus' bilge cleaner. I've also added a little bleach with very little effect.

Anu suggestion?

Thanks,


Sam

 

[mwert72655]

What boat are you referring to?? If it's a 70's era Hatteras Motoryacht, there was a long discussion several months ago - the bottom line is that there's no way to access easliy all the places where water accumulates on these boats, and since they are almost all powered by leaky Detroit Diesels, there's oil in places as well. I gave up getting rid of the smell completely, but I rigged a cheap attic fan in the place where my escape hatch should be that's held in place with two bolts and the escape hatch's own latch, so when I'm not going to be on the boat, it takes just a few minutes to install and I leave it running 24 hours a day in the summertime. I wouldn't waste your money on fancy bilge cleaners - they don't seem to work any better than Tide.. I've tried adding Borax recently at the suggestion of one of the owners, but I can't testify yet that it works any better than anything else because I haven't been back to the boat yet. Good luck!!

 

[svaron]

Thanks for your reply. We have a 1990 54 Extended Deckhouse Motor Yacht.

Sam

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Our 1985 ED had that smell until we pulled it for the winter. Must be the drying time helped as there is no odor at all now. Previously she had been wet stored for 18 seasons. I figure as long as we use indoor heated storage every winter from now on, we should be good.

 

[hipirihop]

In Our 58m/y, we had some water below the bilge floor in the master stateroom. We removed the bilges floor and found a compartment with lead bars. This compartment had a lot of water in it, with a very bad smell. We took all the water and re fiberglass the floor. We left a small hole with a small diameter hose that went to the bottom of this compartment, and install a fuel hand pump to the hose( the ones you use in your tenders engine). Once a year we pump out all the water that gets trap inside. (some times no water in it, and some times a little)
We also installed a fiberglass cover to the bilge compartment, leaving the pump completely closed, just leaving the holes for the hoses going in and out. This way you eliminate odors getting into the room.
Hope this helps.

 

[Traveler 45C]

I wonder if any of these “secret bilge compartments” exist on the older convertibles?

On my ’72 45C, all bilge areas are accessible except the bilge under the master and galley (the area forward of the engine room). I have 2 deck hatches centerline that open up to the holding tank. I don’t know how to access the areas outboard.

 

[Nonchalant1]

The bilge area in the master stateroom is also the collector for both rudder packing gland's runoff. If you get a constant drip there, the water will have mold, gunk, microscopic marine creatures, etc. in it. Then the wet sides between the rudder posts and the real bilge will smell.
Check your rudder posts to see if they're dry or almost dry. Adjust the glands.
Check the sides leading to the bilge area under dresser drawers and under the floor there. Clean out any gunk.
Wash down the whole area with 20 Mule Team Borax and let it dry.
Now the only wet parts should be the bilge itself, which should get Borax every month or two.
Works for me!

Doug Shuman
1978 53MY

PS - I'm very interested in the "lead bilge" deal. Never heard of it. My "aft bilge's floor" appears to be the keel of the boat. Nothing to remove? Has anybody else seen this? Maybe specific to 58MY?

 

[hipirihop]

I think that the keel is where the compartment is located. We discovered this, when we were installing a new bilge pump, we were doing the holes on the bilge floor and the drill past thru very easily, and some water start to enter, we were in shock, thinking we had done a hole in the hull. But after a period of time no more water came in. It was then when we decided to break (remove) the floor of the bilge and inspect under it. Here we found extremely smelly water and the lead bars.

 

[Genesis]

Yep.

On my 45C there is a small inspection plate on centerline between the engines. Below it is a hollow space - the keel is below THAT.

If water gets in there - and it will, because its the low point, so if you ever get any on the floor guess where it goes - it will stink to high hell because there is no air circulation AT ALL in there. Anaerobic bacteria are the ones that STINK, and without air circulation.....

The first time I pulled that cover I nearly passed out. Now I vacuum it out with the wet/dry vac every couple of months (there's usually a bit in there), dump in a bit of bleach and that's that. Its made a MAJOR difference.

Also check to make VERY sure there are no leaking head system clamps or hoses. You can tell because if there is a leak the clamp(s) near there will be rusted to hell - even though they're stainless. If you find that, figure out where the leak is and FIX IT. If you find a broken or badly corroded head system clamp you can BET there's a very small leak there that is allow gasses to escape, which of course stink things up too.

Most Hatts have very good bilge communication between the various compartments. Good for dewatering. BAD for communicating any smells in one area to the others! Under the master berth in my 45C is a compartment that connects back by the main shaft glands - that's a prime candidate for the el-stinko cause, and there's one under the galley that connects to the other side which likewise can get really nasty if it has standing water in it.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Speaking of heads......If your waste system hoses are 20 years old, chances are they are emitting odors and need to be replaced. It's a crappy job (pun intended), but it will help with the smells.

 

[Genesis]

Crappy job isn't the word for it.

Ths is one of the things I could KILL Hatteras over.

One of the few, but still, one of them. Especially since its the head hoses.

On my 45C Hatt left no hatches where the CLAMPS are under the deck. So... how does one get to those clamps? You have to cut your own hatches and make them, that's how! Its necessary to cut one in the head just inside the door and a second under the master stateroom carpet.

There is one for the holding tank fitting forward and port, but you need another about in the center of the floor aft in that SR and its NOT there.

There is one there now on my boat... but I will not tell you that was fun, because it most certainly was NOT!

I am seriously considering removing the original Vacuflush system (the pump is OLD - original issue), buying one of the new "self-contained" tank/pump units, and mounting it under the forward V-berth (I've measured - it will fit.) Now the hose run from the head is about a foot from the head to the pump/vacuum unit, and another 3' or so to the tank. MUCH shorter and from the pump to the tank ALL downhill. Read: NO TRAPPED SEWAGE, NO ODOR PROBLEMS.

Now you use the TWO now-open chases that used to draw the crap back from the head to the engine room and back to the tank (the routing of which, I might add, violates Sealand's installation rules for the Vacuflush in every possible way - literally) to install a "T" between the pumpout connection and your overboard dump, with a Sealand macerator/holding pump in there to provide the motive power.

You now ALWAYS flush into the tank. No USCG issues with this, as there is no "Y" valve - all flushes go to the tank directly. You can ALSO, if its legal (you're outside the "no sewage limit" offshore) pump the tank overboard at any time by opening the seacock and energizing the pump - requiring two separate actions (if you want to be pedantic, take the handle off the Seacock when closed if you think the USCG is likely to hassle you otherwise, or install a second ball valve you can remove the handle from inline if you'd prefer one that can be accessed without contortions - e.g. while running.) If you run hardline (sch 40) from the "T" to the engine room, there is no permeation possible, and that line is never under pressure - only vacuum.

This appears to be a VASTLY improved system over what's in my 45C now. The only "gotcha" is that the pump noise will be audible in the forward SR when running, but that's not necessarily a bad thing - if there's a vacuum leak you'll now know immediately as you will hear the pump cycle, and its not THAT loud - certainly not much more than the AC fan.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

The 45C sounds bad, but on the 53MY with the GalleyMaid macerator, you have a run from the master head all the way to the bow holding tank. It must be over 40' of 1" hose under pressure. And, if you want to change to a more "modern" system, you have to put in 1 1/2" hose. That means cutting out new holes in every underfloor bulkhead that the old hose is going through. This wouldn't be too bad, except (as stated before) there just is not access to some of those areas.

This is a job that is on my list, but I've been putting it off because it really stinks I think I'm going to go with the Raritan Atlantis, as you can still get that in a 32v model.

 

[Genesis]

I was going to consider the Atlantes until I realized that it won't fit. The location on the 45C where the head is happens to have a small flat area in the place where the head mounts - the rest is the hullside.

The base of the Atlantes is simply too big, as are basically all the other "conventional' type heads, because the macerator portion requires space.

The other thing to consider with the Atlantes is that it will consume your tank MUCH faster than the VacuFlush. Not a big deal if you have a LectraSan, but it can be a really big deal if you're using the tank all the time.

Of course if you're coming from a Galley Maid there shouldn't be much if any change on that account....

 

[Passages]

Raritan Atlantes

We have this model on board. Good unit overall BUT I highly recommend getting the remote wall flush switch. Off the shelf, the unit comes with a built in flush switch down on the bowl. Bending over the bowl to reach the switch is rather....unpleasant

 

[mwert72655]

Does anyone know if keel tanks have spaces around them (inboard of the stringers running along each side) or underneath them which might allow water to get trapped in that area and start to smell. I don't see them on my diagrams, but I can visibly see that where the fresh water hose enters the aft end of my keel freshwater tank on my 53 MY that the hole in the bilge is bigger than the hose leading into the tank and when I start to fill up the bilge with cleaning solution, it obviously runs into that hole around the hose, so where does it go?? It doesn't appear to end up anywhere on the other side of the keel tanks, ie the generator room bilge, not that I can detect at least. Thoughts???

 

[Nonchalant1]

Does anyone know if keel tanks have spaces around them (inboard of the stringers running along each side) or underneath them which might allow water to get trapped in that area and start to smell. I don't see them on my diagrams, but I can visibly see that where the fresh water hose enters the aft end of my keel freshwater tank on my 53 MY that the hole in the bilge is bigger than the hose leading into the tank and when I start to fill up the bilge with cleaning solution, it obviously runs into that hole around the hose, so where does it go?? It doesn't appear to end up anywhere on the other side of the keel tanks, ie the generator room bilge, not that I can detect at least. Thoughts???

Yes, there is enough space to get water around the sides of the tank between the tank and the hull where the tank is not glassed in. It goes to the runoff channels under the floors if there's enough water to run anywhere. You can see these channels via the hatch in the mid-stateroom floor and aft hall floor. There are also 1" limber holes between the stringers and the bilge there. If water gets in higher than the aft bilge along the tanks, it can run through the channels to the engine room bilges. Those limber holes at the aft end of your engine room bilges, way at the bottom of the bilge connect to these channels if the limber holes have the plugs removed. My engine room bilges have plugs in the limber holes at the front of the forward bilge and the back of the aft ER bilge. That way, if there's any oil in the ER bilge water, it doesn't get back into that tank area. If I got a high water alarm, I'd pull those plugs to connect all the bilges and pumps.

Also FYI - on my 1978 53MY the area around that fresh water tank hose barb is sealed with some kind of pliable sealer so the bilge water can't get in there. I don't know if that's original or not. When I got a leak high up in the aft bilge pump's outlet hose, water got into that tank/hull area and I had to let it out via the ER limber hole. It all dried out during winter storage.

Doug Shuman