I recently bought the 21 ft -7 in tunnel hull style center console boat . It has a bilge pump on the starboard side only but the pump does not appear to drain the port side. There are hull drains on both the starboard and port stern . There is a midline stringer down the center of the boat. I'm trying to figure out if it was designed to have communication between the 2 sides or if the stringer is solid down the whole length. If not I need a bilge pump on both sides. there's no evidence there was ever a port bilge pump.

I'm just wondering if anyone here knows the hull well enough to know if the stringer was designed with a penetration to allow the starboard bilge pump to drain the port side. it's possible a penetration exists but it's just plugged up with something.

The boat manufacturer is gone. Sold out to Bass Pro Shops and they changed the hull design in 2003.

I'm hoping there's some Ags here that know the boat beyond what you can see from the outside.

My in-laws 2003-04 Kenner has just the starboard bilge port and both drain ports.

I have torn that boat apart more times than I would like (routine maintenance) but the bilge is surprisingly something I haven't had to deal with yet.

Not sure if this helps or not...

I would think the stringer has a space or two in it between port and starboard towards the keel. It would almost have to. IMHO Every space that is not permanently sealed in a small craft should have a decent sized access portal or hatch added. If it is sealed, it should be completely filled with poured in CG approved light weight two part closed cell structural foam.

Remote cameras don't cost that much these days.

Surely you can see the area around the bilge pump. To me that's the only place a drain is going to be effective....ie one in the bow is not going to help.

How tall is the stringer? That would be something else that would be a factor that "might" cause an imbalance.
If there is no drain I would think you could drill a hole and epoxy in a piece of PVC.....Mouth could do that in thirty minutes.

I would add another bilge pump and float switch. Two bilge pumps are better than one in any case.

I agree with Trident. Where bilge pumps are concerned, the more the merrier.

If you start looking at the flow rates in GPM instead of GPH you'll probably want to go with two. In my 19 ft boat, I installed two 2000 GPH bilge pumps on auto floats. That's probably only 50 GPM out of the pair once you figure real world losses. If I take a wave over the bow, I want it gone in minutes and not hours.

You can see the area around the bilge pump and there is no apparent break or penetration or hole in the stringer from the stern forward. You can only see and feel maybe 18" fore of the bilge pump though. The stringer is at least 6" high . That's a lot of water on the port side before the water starts coming over the stringer to the starboard side and a lot of water that you can't get out of the hull while in the water. Enough to make the boat list imo.

Previous points about the extra bilge pumps are reasonable. Next question is do I bring together the discharge from the two bilge pumps or put another penetration in the hull. I hate making new hull penetrations.

Do another hull penetration through the transom above the water line. Install a quality through-hull fitting. Otherwise you lose too much pumping capacity by sharing the outlet with your current bilge pump. Seal it well with epoxy resin. West Systems works great. Nothing to be afraid of. Easy job.

I know nothing about a Kenner.....Are the hull drains you mention the self bailing drains on the false bottom?

If it were mine and it was sitting on a trailer in my drive way I would get a garden hose and start filling the non bilge side and see what happens. If it doesn't disperse to each side it's a major design flaw IMO. Likewise you can test the bilge pump and see if it works.

I am not a fan of float switches. I prefer the water sensing technology....with one exception.

Many many years ago I was offshore about 40 miles with my 8 & 12 year old sons. It bugged me when a little water sloshed around in the bilge that the float switch would activate the pump and a red light would flash on my console. This day it flashed a couple of times and stayed on....I swiveled around and there was water on the rear portion of the deck. A quick inspection and I saw that the thru hull piping between the hull and the live well had split. We pulled the transom plug, got on plane, drained all the water in the hull and made it into Port A and got it on the trailer and fixed it. It was a don't tell your Mother moment after a long boat ride.

I also think an indicator light on the console is a big plus.

If the water doesn't move from side to side and you put a pump on the port side I would still work on that stringer.

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I know nothing about a Kenner.....Are the hull drains you mention the self bailing drains on the false bottom?

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There are self bailing drains and there are below waterline hull drains that you pull after you get the boat back on the trailer. I'm talking about the below waterline drains. That's what originally caused me to investigate this issue after my first trip in the boat. When I pulled both below waterline drain plugs the port side drained about 3 x longer than the starboard side. I also noted that the boat was listing to port just a bit on the water.

I already did what you suggested with the garden hose as well. It's pretty apparent that I'm not communicating below deck between port and starboard until I get to the top of the stringer. . It could be that there is an existing conduit between them but that's it's just plugged up since it's a pretty old boat. Oneof the things I;m thinking about, cut through the floor and if there's no conduit between port and starboard in the stringer then I'll put one in. As you suggest though, that's a major design oversight if it's really built that way. I doubt that;s the case so if there is a condiuit and I knew where it was I could cut through the floor, unplug it, and reglass the floor.

The 2nd bilge pump does seem like the easier answer although I only have I switch on the console and so wer'e also talking rewiring work to boot.

Where are the drains located...ie transom...false bottom etc?

It really sounds to me that you have a bigger leak than I first thought and I wouldn't want to depend on a bilge pump to take care of me.

Pictures would help...There has to be access to get to the bilge pump etc.. Normally you are going to have batteries, oil tanks, fuel tanks, thru the hull transducers, bilge pumps, wiring, fuel lines and so forth in there. Lots of stuff that goes bad.

I agree with Sunchaser on the Water Witch being superior to a float switch. I need to switch the float switches out with these in my Parker Big Bay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/272435649448?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true

If you have a leaky boat, then you need to figure that out first. Your bilge should not be gathering more than a few cups of water during a normal trip.

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Where are the drains located...ie transom...false bottom etc?

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False bottom between deck and bottom of hull. One on port and one on starboard side of the midline stringer.


I found leaks in the live well pump connections and I have double clamped them. I also redid the thru hull connections for the live well intakes. Those were also leaking some and looked like they may have never been redone in 15 yrs. . I think Iv'e got the leaks fixed . The bilge pump not draining both sides of the hull is my biggest issue now.

I would then just wire in a new bilge pump with water witch and wire both pumps to the same switch on your console and be done with it.

Great!

Where are you putting the plugs in the self bailing drains?

The easiest thing you can do is put a drain in the stringer between the port and starboard side. I would for sure do that.

I learned a new word today. Limber holes are through stringer drains to allow water to reach a bilge.

Didn't know about those water witches. Are they really that much more reliable than a float switch? I'm wary about the independent float switches that can get bumped or jammed open, so I have bilge pumps with integral floats (protected by the plastic "grating").

Limber holes. Have not heard that one either. Seems like they'd be necessary in almost any case where the stringers are continuous. I honestly believe the midline stringer has holes designed into them I just think they are probably plugged up with trash. The early Kenner boats had too good a reputation and were too popular to have a design omission like that. After they sold to Bass Pro Shops.... different animal. Bass Pro Shops bought the name and cheapened up the boat.

Maybe I am not understanding but are you sure both below waterline drains are hull drains? Could one be for the livewell/bait tank?

I'm sure. Ran water in both sides independently.

To drain the live wells you just have to pull the riser out of the live wells.There are also 2 independent water intakes , one for each live well. There are 2 below waterline hull penetrations on each side of the midline stringer. The livewell drains are actually above the water line.

Explain the riser in the live well. What purpose does it serve? If "you pull it out" it drains into your bilge area? Likewise if it doesn't seal it leaks into the bilge area?

I have had similar sounding live wells but they had a bronze fitting on the bottom of the hull. They had two pipes that penetrated the hull and then into the live well......every thing was glassed in. When you looked inside the live well you had two pipes....the front one came up about 4" and then did a 90 towards the bow. The rear one stood straight up...was capped and had slits at the top about 15" high. When underway the front one forced fresh water into the live well....the rear one sucked it out and maintained the level at the slits. Very good live well.

If you capped the front pipe the live well would stay dry if the drain plug was pulled. If you sever the front pipe between the hull and the live well you are up the creek. If the rear one breaks you can get home.

Been there but 40-60-and 80 miles out of the GYB.

Man the 90s were fun in a 23-ft single engine grady white!

The live wells drain and circulate overboard, not into the bilge. The livewell pumps fill and circulate the livewells. The riser holds a level ( something like 9" of water) in the live wells and spills over to the overboard line. If you pull the riser you hold no level even with the livewell pumps running it just circulates, water into the livewell and drains it right back overboard.

This has nothing to do with my current issue. I have fixed all of the leaks in the livewell circulating system that would cause water to accumulate in the hull.

Through-hull fittings below the waterline should have a seacock installed to be on the safe side.

One beautiful day about that time my boys and I headed out in our 20' Seacraft and buddy boated with a friend in a 23' Robalo. We both had LORAN C's which was an unbelievable improvement to our navigation system.

Prior to that we had a map and a compass as well as a small transistor radio that you could directionally use to locate Corpus Christi.

Normally we fished the rocks that are in the 40 mile range. On this day we hit a bunch of rigs looking for ling and then starting trolling. I got a radio call from my friend asking if my LORAN was working. I pulled out my map and started looking trying to figure out where we were. After a few minutes of failure I heard, "Quit looking, we are off the map!"

The offshore maps we had only went out to about 60 miles.

Another don't tell your Mother moment....

HA! We had a bag-phone that sometimes worked at the Buccener Rigs, mostly didn't.