Taking on Water?

[vikingbball]

I had my Seadoo Utopia 2005, new to me and I'm new to boating, out yesterday. We were out for a about an hour and then noticed it slowing down, working hard and then a buzzer came on. Headed for shore and when we pulled it out and pulled the plugs, we had taken on lots of water and the bilge pump was going. Got all the water drained no problem. Noticed that the hose attachment for flushing the motor was not closed while we were running. Would that have caused the high volume of water?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Murph_13]

I saw your post in the 2-Stroke boat forum and answered there...but I will answer here as well...yes, having the cap/plug off of the flushing connector will result in water in the hull...you won't see it coming out there at idle, but at higher engine RPMs it will come out of that connection...not sure why the buzzer sounded? Maybe the motor got too hot under the additional load? Maybe you have an additional water leak somewhere and the engine ran hot?

 

[Dr Honda]

As above... YES !!!!! you are pumping in A LOT of water from that cap.


TO help combat things like that... make sure your bilge pump is good, and pumping properly. AND... there should be a gray hose coming off your engine base. It's tied up high, and then simply goes down into the bilge, with a screen type cover on it. That is a syphon hose that is connected to the jet pump. Make sure that screen is clean. It will remove more water than most people realize while running.

 

[vikingbball]

Thank you both, the bilge pump was working just fine and I did see the siphon hose and all water drained just fine. An over sight on my part, hopefully no issues next trip [emoji2]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Palm Bay Chuck]

Been there, done that. I was confused and couldn't figure out why the boat was performing so badly! Easy mistake.

My 13 year old son admonished me for not adhering to my checklist!

What went through your mind? Were you thinking, "Oh crap, there's a crack on the water intake on the engine and it's spewing in the engine compartment!" or something similar?

 

[vikingbball]

I need to do a better job following a checklist as you mentioned.

I had no idea what was going on...knew the boat was not moving as it should. Luckily close to shore, but was shocked when I saw how much water came out when I pulled the plugs and the bilge pump worked steady...did not know what to think until I saw that the compartment where the hose connection is was wet and the plug was left open. Hoping to get out again soon and confirm that's all it was...fingers crossed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jasguild]

This happened to me as well on my maiden voyage. I was in a state of panic and almost pee'ed my pants. I am glad it happened to me though because I learned a couple things. Even though my bilge worked when I tested it on shore, when the boat started to full up with water, it dislodged a lot of leaves that wereelse where in the hull. I think the prior owner stored it under a tree. Guess what, those leaves clogged the bilge. So I was taking on water and the bilge was not working.

I pulled out a small container and frantically started bailing the boat. Which is very difficult to do btw. I didn't realize at that time how easy it is to remove the bilge from the base to clean it. That would have been my best solution

There after I cleaned the bilge and clean out the bottom of the hull as best as possible to get rid of the leaves. I also make sure I close the flush valve after flushing to prevent that from happening again.