Cant find the leak!!!

Hello.I have a 17 foot aluminum sea nymph that leaks water some place i can find.I thought maybe it was coming thru the aerator hose.I filled the boat up over the floor on the trailer only to find some rivets dripping ever so slowly.But water was coming out the drain for the live well so that i thought that might be the problem being it hooks directly to the live well and i had no water in it so no water shoud be coming out of it..So i put a drain plug in the live well drain hole in the back of the boat .Today i was out on lake Michigan and sure enough i look in the back of the bilge and there was a lot of water only after about 15 minutes.I pulled the boat out and left it on the ramp at a steep angle to see if it was leaking out the back some where.But i couldn't see it leaking any where.When i pulled the drain plug i bet 30 gallons of water were in the boat.So dam if i can figure it out.Thanks for any advise.Gordy.................

Re: Cant find the leak!!!

Give up and seal every seam, rivet, corner etc. with Gluvit.

Re: Cant find the leak!!!

you would think by filling up past the floors water would come out in a hurry someplace if it were to be leaking as bad as it does and as fast as its taking on water????But like i said there were about 5 rivites barley dripping.

Re: Cant find the leak!!!

Stick a hose in it while its on the trailer. Just be careful because water is obviously heavy and you don't want to fill it up to where it's too heavy and causes damage.

I had a severe leak in my last boat and I stuck a hose in it and immediately water started streaming (not dripping but streaming!) out the bottom. Turns out I had a pin hole in the hull directly under the knee brace. Slapped some JB Weld on that and it solved about 80% of my leakage. I later slathered some JB on all of my suspicious looking rivets and that solved the rest of the leaks.

Re: Cant find the leak!!!

As i stated i did fill her up on the trailer.Just some minor drips???? if a transome is weak could it flex under power and cause a leak>>>

Re: Cant find the leak!!!

Yes. When my transom was shot, all the fasteners going through it leaked badly.

Re: Cant find the leak!!!

While that doesn't seem like a bad leak those rivets would have a lot more pressure on them
in the water.Seal them up and try it.
If it still leaks back it into the water just a little at a time and watch for water.

Re: Cant find the leak!!!

You need to fill it to where the water level is when it's floating to put the same amount of pressure on the insidie as it has when floating. Maybe the leaks only starts when it has that much pressure on it. Does this make sense?

Re: Cant find the leak!!!

Fisherball said:

You need to fill it to where the water level is when it's floating to put the same amount of pressure on the insidie as it has when floating. Maybe the leaks only starts when it has that much pressure on it. Does this make sense?

Click to expand...

It may as well only leak when the pressure is from the outside of the hull...backing it in slowly may be the telltale as was mentioned above...good luck bro , I hope you solve this puzzle soon.

Re: Cant find the leak!!!

I did some test on the transome and the wood is bad in many places.So its time just to replace the floors and transome.And give it a good inspection.
Thanks for all you input......Gordy