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Water collects in front storage

@smellymel, I'm so sorry you have to deal with this. Our boat (2075 GL or now called the 20 GL) is docked at our lake house and we haven't been there in a couple of weeks.. Not sure what I will find when we get back!


What I find interesting about your situation is the amount of water you had in the bins, 1 inch is a lot! Our boat has 2 equal sized loungers. So each time we found a lot of water in them, it was about equal (occasional wetness but once about 1 quart or so, another time a half gallon or so).  I'm still trying to figure out where my water came in also. I'm not sure what size your boat is but when I look at the SLXP's online, they all look like the front loungers are not even. Some are actually small (like the 18' and 20') so the same amount of water I had might be higher in a smaller bin.


 I'm assuming you are lake or river docked. So knowing the boat has been covered, other than rain getting in from the inside, couldn't it also get in from the outside??!  Our seats go down the floor but I don't know how tight the seal is on the outside part of the boat, under the panel. In that situation, the water would still have to seep in under the side panel and through the storage bins which you said seemed pretty tight. But maybe something is acting like a valve, lets water in but not out?


In addition to the normal rain that comes down against the panels (when the cover isn't on), when the cover is on...extra water is shed off the cover and down the panels. Our storage bins have screws with large washers. But like Michiman said, our wire speaker holes were more open and caulked with silicone underneath the boat. The speaker hole makes good sense in my situation. You (or the dealer) may try like I did, splashing from underneath...and from outside the panel in your case. Maybe the water runs under the panel, between the floor and the storage bins and gurgles up through the screws or speaker hole.??


I can relate to your frustration. In addition to a lot of water coming over the bow on our first voyage, we also had some type of metal shield not properly attached. We had to remove it from hanging underneath (will have to be replaced when we return it to the dealer for storage). It was never screwed in  enough....2 out of 8 holes!. Then this water in the storage bins issue has added to that!


I'm glad we have enjoyed the boat for the most part! I did laugh picturing you under the cover, sweating it out. That's something I would do! I've had to crawl in to recover forgotten items. It gets hot quickly!!


Hang in there and keep me posted!
 
Michiman said:
Good luck!I Meanwhile, I'm hoping my theory is still holding but I'll know more next weekend as the boat will have been sitting for a couple of weeks with plenty of rain.
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Just an update: our boat sat unused for a month in the marina. Upon return, I actually had a large quantity of water sitting on one corner of our playpen cover. After removing same, I looked inside our lounge storage areas to see if any water accumulated as in the past but found them to be dry. As such, at least for me, the water seems to have been coming from the wiring holes in the bottom that were not fully sealed. 
 
I thought I'd revive this thread with some things I've learned about water-proofing. Some background: I bought my brother's 2007 2575RL 3 months ago. He kept it in a covered boathouse for 11 years with the playpen always on. He never treated the playpen (and it was very dirty - actually looked like it was brown, instead of its true color blue/black).

We are keeping it on a trailer in our backyard and since we got it, we've had a LOT of rain in Houston.

I found the boat was soaking wet after every rain... carpet, seats, storage bins... you name it. The edges/channels of the storage bins were brimming with water, including the upper rims just under the cushions. I couldn't figure out how the water was getting up there!!!! The center-toon storage compartment would have multiple inches of water.

Because of Houston's heat and humidity in the summer, this generated a lot of worry about mold/mildew if we couldn't solve this problem.

I began to watch it during the rain. The first thing that I noticed is that the ground is not perfectly level, so the boat & trailer list slightly to port (left). So, when the rain came off the playpen cover, it would hit the side of the starboard fence, run down and enter through the vent space under the fence, then on to the carpet, then it would slowly run across the boat from starboard to port. Other things were happening too, which I'll describe later below.

I thoroughly washed and dried the cover (wow! it really isn't brown!). Then I heavily treated it with 303 Fabric Guard. After letting it dry for 48 hours, I put it back on. At the same time, knowing we had heavy rain coming in the next day or so, I used blue painter's tape to close the 1/4 inch gap under the fence on the starboard side (for discovery purposes, this was the wrong thing to do, as I don't know what helped the most - the 303 Fabric Guard or the tape... but I digress).

When it rained (with the new 303 F/G applied) I could see much of the rain come off the cover with such speed (like a snowball rolling down hill) that it would 'launch' off the side of the cover and never touch the boat. I'm guessing the rest was stopped by the blue painter's tape sealing the bottom of the fence.

I also found that I was getting small 12" puddles on top at the front port & starboard corners of the boat. It wasn't leaking through the treated fabric, but before the 303 F/G, I'm guessing that this water was simply leaking through the untreated fabric down onto the corner seats and running down into the storage area. Now I store it with two 5-gallon buckets overturned on those two seats to keep the fabric from sagging. I think the other seats were getting a lot of water before I applied the 303 F/G simply because the water was seeping through the fabric everywhere.

It has stayed very dry through several moderate rains.

I'm sure I'll take the blue tape off for the duration of the summer. And, we're considering ways to build a boatport further back in our yard where it can't be seen by the deed restriction police. I don't want to put the boat in offsite rented covered storage because that reduces accessibility and it costs money (and we already pay for storage for our Airstream!)

Anyway, I've seen some threads about "water in center storage", or the boat getting wet all the time, and I thought I would share what I've found. I can see that even with this VERY old fabric, the 303 F/G is very effective, so I'm sure I'll apply it once or twice a year.

One last comment: I have an old box fan attached to a timer that I put inside the front gate, aiming toward the stern. It runs for about 6 hours a day during midday. Don't know if I'll keep this up, but I think it helps dry it out in our high-humidity environment.
 
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Nice investigation work!! We kept our boat on a covered lift and it’s amazing how dirty the playpen cover got. Amazing how much lighter they are when they are clean too. I’m still amazed Yamaha doesn’t have air filters for that reason.
 
On our last boat, with carpet, we had the issue of water coming in under the panels also. I stuffed "backer rod" which is small round foam used to fill large gaps before caulking. This eliminated 50% of the wet carpet issues. 303 treatment (as you noticed) helped another 30%. The rest was water coming in from rear deck, port door, and around the front cleat cutouts. Now that we have seagrass, we have zero issues .... :D
 
Same issue here! New 2019 SX21 purchased in May 2020. Water accumulates in both forward storage compartments. Other chats referenced holes that should've been drilled by Bennington. I'll drill them myself rather than hassle with dealership/trailering/time out of water, etc. but It'd be nice to know where to drill them. Seems like this is a recurring issue.
 
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