Can't Get the Water Out

[augnmike]

Hi Guys, I have a 2000 Bass Tracker Pro Team 170 and live in California which has most lakes doing Quagga inspections. If they find one drop of water you go home and are prohibited from returning for a week. My problem is my boat is in covered storage all year long but prior to storage I park it on a steep hill to get any water out of the bilge area. After that I store it but I will find water in it again so before I take it to the lake I again park it on a steep hill and will get ounces of water in the bilge again, I will clean it up with a dry rag let it sit overnight and again more water. You would think after 6 months of storage there could be no water. Any ideas on where this could be coming from?

 

[MTboatguy]

Sounds like you have water soaked wood in your boat, which is hard to get completely dried out.

That said, call the agency in charge of your inspections and ask them what tolerances they have on the amount of water, most boats are never completely bone dry unless they are in climate controlled enviroments.

 

[jbcurt00]

Sounds like you have water soaked wood in your boat, which is hard to get completely dried out.....

Or flotation foam

Maybe both...

 

[Bob_VT]

Okay what happens if you want to launch on a rainy day? Are the lakes closed? I think I would be hooking up a shop vac to pre-dry everything If there is water soaked wood, flotation foam and or carpets it might be time to start storing speedi-dri in the boat

 

[augnmike]

I was worried that it is water soaked flotation foam so I am probably screwed. Once you pass inspection on the way out from the lake they attached a metal wire through the the front eye ring and then through the trailer if you come back without the cable cut you don't have to have an inspection so you can launch wet or not. Problem is that lakes do not honor other lakes inspections so if you fish multiple lakes it's one inspection after another. To answer the guest ion about rain, there are no exceptions so if it's wet and no cable you go home. By the way the limit is no moisture not one drop, in fact if the bunk carpeting is moist you go home.

 

[ahicks]

I have a '96 17.5 Polar Craft that's pretty much the same boat you have. It had the same issue (a little water logged) when I got it. Like yours, mine is also kept inside. This one has alum. floors and decks, so I couldn't justify pulling the floor. I did make sure it was draining from front to rear, rinsing a lot of sand out in the process. A year later, mine has stopped weeping. Floor is dry under the back of the boat.

Maybe put a terry cloth rag in the bilge on the way to the boat launch, and pull it just prior to arriving?

 

[augnmike]

AHicks yes that is going to be my plan, thanks guys. I don't think it's worth spending the kind of money I would need to spend to fix a 19 year old aluminum boat.

 

[tacx]

Or, you could just move to another state where everyone is not so wacko

 

[gm280]

Amazing to hear how picky California is about such things. I drove to California for work a few times and at the border lines, they stop you and check your vehicle for anything that could be considered an invasive problem. Funny they do that at the border lines and lakes but not on the American/Mexican boarders with who knows what people are sneaking in with. Doesn't make much common sense to me...

 

[TomSawyerOwner]

Drove truck for 16 years and you have to go into the bug check station when you enter California but not when you leave. So I guess you can't take them bugs but you can take all you want when you leave.

 

[roffey]

I wonder if it has to do with climate. Most critters and plants would survive in California. Here in Canada the winters would likely kill off most as would be the case with north of the California border, maybe?

 

[Captain Caveman]

They do inspections here in Minnesota too, but not to the level described in California. If you want to keep the lakes clean you need to go to California levels. Here they just scan for visible weeds and invasives but that won't account for whatever makes it into the boat's bilge.

It sounds like you need to let your boat sit out in the direct sun for quite a while. Parking on the incline is good for getting out the majority of the water, but the real dry-out comes from the sun.

I used to own a 16ft mid-80s Fisher. It had it's little leaks so water always collected in the bow. I could lift the front of the boat so that the tongue jack was on top of a garbage can. Then I would crank it all the way up and that was the incline needed to get all of the water out. Some boats are really hard to get the water out. The next time you park on the hill, stand to the side and make sure that the bow is clearly higher than the stern. Otherwise water still in the boat may slosh around as you drive back to the lake the next time.